Markets reversed sharp intra-day losses to end tad higher on Friday after better-than-expected earnings from the country's largest lender, State Bank of India, eased worries over credit growth and non-performing assets in the banking sector.
The 30-share Sensex provisionally ended up 125 points at 16,196 and the 50-share Nifty ended up 36 points at 4,907.
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(Updated at 14:20 hrs)
Markets have turned positive, shrugging off weak European cues, as better-than-expected results from banking major State Bank of India boosted investor sentiment.
At 2:20pm the Sensex was up 37 points at 16,107 and the Nifty was up 9 points at 4,879.
Earlier in the day, the Sensex had touched an intra-day low of 15,810 and the Nifty at 4,789 as investors sold stocks across the board weighed by a weakening rupee and negative global cues.
Further, the rupee has continued to depreciate and touched an all time low of 54.82 against the dollar early today.
Meanwhile, Barclays Capital expects spot rupee to hit 56 in one month and then subsequently rise only to 54 within three months; the USD/INR is currently at 54.71.
Asian shares tumbled on Friday and were set for their worst weekly showing since September, amid political turmoil in Greece and signs of growing instability in Spanish banks, with investors adding the latest weak US data to the list of risk factors. The Nikkei ended down 3% while Hang Seng, Shanghai Composite and Straits Times were also down over 1% each.
Among the sectoral indices on the BSE, Bankex was up 1.2% followed by FMCG, Oil and Gas indices.
Among Sensex shares, State Bank of India has rallied 3.4% to Rs 1,912, bouncing back over 5% from intra-day’s low of Rs 1,820 after reporting better-than-expected net profit at Rs 4,050 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 2012, due to lower provisioning and higher other income. Analysts on average had expected net profit at Rs 3,477 crore from India’s largest lender.
Other Sensex gainers include, index heavyweight Reliance Industries up 0.9% on reports that the company is buying back shares while ITC and ICICI Bank were also up nearly 1% each.
Most of the major auto companies are trading in the negative zone. Tata Motors was the top Sensex loser down 4% to Rs 260 after the company said its global sales remained flat in April at 87,377 units over the same period last year.
Maruti Suzuki is trading down 3% at Rs 1,168. According to media reports, India’s largest car maker have downscaled its proposed investment plans in Mehasana, Gujarat.
Tata Steel is down 2.7% at Rs 395 ahead of its numbers. Other Sensex losers include, BHEL, Sterlite, Infosys, Hero MotoCorp, Jindal Steel and Bharti Airtel.
Among other shares, Styrolution ABS (India) has rallied 5.7% to Rs 749 on reports that German firm Styrolution, which hold 87.33% stake in the company, is likely to announce an offer to delist shares of its Indian unit from Indian bourses.
BOC India too, surged 4.3% to Rs 418 after its German parent, Linde AG, said that the possibility of a share buyback is still open with the company and will take a decision on it before June 2013.
BSE market breadth is fairly negative. Out of 2,646 stocks traded, 1,511 shares have declined while 1,001 shares have advanced.