Sensex scales fresh high of 21,700; IT stocks fall on rising rupee

 

Mumbai: The BSE Sensex gained for a fourth straight session to hit fresh high on Friday, crossing 21,700, with the Nifty scaling new peak, too.

In morning trade, the 30-share bellwether BSE Sensex gained as much as 0.91%, or 196.56 points, to 21,710.43 points, while the National Stock Exchange’s (NSE’s) broader 50-share Nifty rose 0.91%, or 58.1 points, to 6,459.25 points.

The Sensex has risen 761.5 points, or 3.64%, in the past four trading sessions from a recent low of 20,946.65 on 3 March, while the Nifty jumped 233.25 points, or 3.75%. So far this year, foreign institutional investors have bought $595.9 million from local equity markets.

The S&P BSE capital goods index rose 5% to be the biggest gainer. The BSE Bankex index rose 1.54%, while the realty index climbed 1.05%. The BSE IT index fell 0.34%, the most among sectoral indices.

The gainers included Larsen and Toubro Ltd (L&T) that rose 4.94% to Rs.295.90 and Bharti Airtel Ltd that jumped 3.53% to Rs.295.90.

Among the losers, Wipro Ltd shares lost 0.73% to Rs.580.30 and Tata Conusultancy Ltd (TCS) fell 0.59% to Rs.2,227.85.

Sentiment in the markets has been positive in the recent past due to improvement in deficit numbers. India’s current account deficit narrowed to $4.2 billion in the October-December quarter compared with $5.2 billion in the previous quarter, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in a statement in Mumbai on Wednesday. The shortfall was equivalent to 0.9% of gross domestic product.

Overnight, Wall Street inched further into record territory as equity bulls remained largely unfazed by developments in Ukraine and attention turned to the forthcoming US non-farm payrolls report. The S&P 500 gained 0.2%, Nasdaq Composite ended flat and Dow Jones Industrial was up 0.4%.

Asian markets were trading mixed on Friday as global investors sentiment turned towards riskier assets. Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average was up 0.6%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 0.38% and China’s Shanghai Composite down 0.09%.

At 10:03am, the Sensex was trading up 0.91%, or 194.89 points, at 21,708.76, while the Nifty was trading higher by 0.87%, or 55.6 points, to 6,456.75 points.

VIKASH CHANDRA MISHRA

PGDM 1ST YEAR

SOURCE: MINT