Mumbai: India’s benchmark equity index Sensex opened marginally higher on Friday, staying above the crucial 40,000 mark for the third straight day. Investors await auto sales numbers and macro data due next week. The market will also eye global cues ahead of the release of US jobs data amid fresh concern over US-China trade deal.
At 9.25 am, the benchmark Sensex was up 0.3% at 40245.59 points, while the Nifty 50 rose 0.2% to 11905.25 points.
There was caution in the market after data released Thursday showed that India’s infrastructure output shrank the most since 2005, highlighting the slowdown in the economy. Core infrastructure contracted 5.2% in September compared with a 4.3% growth in the year-ago period.
On Thursday, Indian equities hit at a record high following better-than-expected earnings by most companies. Fifteen of the 26 Nifty companies that have reported earnings so far this season have surpassed analyst estimates, two have matched, while eight have missed projections, according to Bloomberg data.
We believe in-line September quarter earnings so far and positive outlook by key auto and banking players have lifted the investor sentiment. On the global front, US Fed rate cut of 25bps and better than expected US GDP numbers for the third quarter seem to have provided some relief to the investors’ concern regarding the economic slowdown. However, going forward consolidation cannot be ruled out given the near-peak level of the markets”, said Ajit Mishra, vice president Research at Religare Broking.
Most other Asian indices were in the red tracking the overnight trend in US stock markets. All eyes will be on the US jobs report, which will provide clues about the health of the country’s economy.
Brokerage firm IIFL Securities expects the new future and options series to start on an optimistic note as the last two expiries have been the best in over a year.
Today among gainers, IndusInd Bank rose 1.7% followed by ITC and Tech Mahindra which were up 1.3% each.
Yes Bank and Tata Motors fell nearly 1.5% each on profit booking. Indian Oil Corp fell 3.2% after the company reported an 83% decline in its net profit to ₹564 crore primarily because of inventory loss and lower refining margin.
Among secotoral indices, telecom index was the worst performer, falling over 1% followed by BSE Oil & Gas and Energy indices which were down 0.8% and 0.7% respectively. FMCG and Healthcare were the top performers, rising 0.6% each.
