Key barometers advanced further and hit fresh intraday high in mid-morning trade, riding on positive PMI data for December. At 11:25 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 184.53 points or 0.45% at 41,490.55. The Nifty 50 index was up 55.45 points or 0.46% at 12,237.95.
The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.57% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 1.03%. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.
The market breadth was titled in the favour of buyers. On the BSE, 1408 shares rose and 634 shares fell. A total of 120 shares were unchanged. In Nifty 50 index, 37 stocks advanced while 13 stocks declined.
Economy:
The headline seasonally adjusted IHS Markit India Manufacturing PMI rose to 52.7 in December, from 51.2 in November. The number pointed to the joint-strongest improvement in the health of the sector for ten months. However, owing to a weak performance in October and November, the average quarterly reading for Q3 FY19/20 was the lowest since the three months to September 2017.
Factories benefited from a rebound in demand, and responded by scaling up production to the greatest extent since May. There were also renewed increases in input purchasing and employment during December. However, the degree of optimism signalled at the end of 2019 was the weakest in just under three years, reflecting concerns over market conditions, which could restrict job creation and investment in the early part of 2020. At the same time, price indicators showed accelerated rates of inflation for both input costs and output charges. The latter reflected a combination of improved pricing power, given the favourable demand environment, and efforts to protect margins from cost rises, Pollyanna de Lima, principal economist at IHS Markit, said.
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VA Tech Wabag jumped 8% after the company secured Rs 1,187 crore worth order from Bihar Urban Infrastructure Development Corporation under the prestigious National Mission for Clean Ganga Scheme.
Prakash Industries spurted 10.22% to Rs 56.10 after the company announced that it has secured long-term coal linkages for its sixth sponge iron kiln. These linkages will result in substantial cost savings in sponge iron production at its integrated steel plant at Champa, Chhattisgarh, the company added.
Shares of APL Apollo Tubes were trading 0.67% higher at Rs 1906.50. The company reported strong sales performance for the quarter ended on 31 December 2019 with sales volume of 4,80,225 MTPA, higher by 52.6% YoY from 3,14,707 MTPA in Q3 FY19. The growth was led by strong demand across product categories, it added.
Foreign Markets:
Asian markets were trading higher buoyed by Beijing easing monetary policy to support slowing growth.
China's central bank on Wednesday said that it would cut the amount of cash that banks must hold as reserves, releasing around 800 billion yuan in funds effective 6 January 2020.
A private survey released on Thursday showed China's manufacturing activity expanded in the month of December. The Markit/Caixin Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) for manufacturing came in at 51.5, compared to 51.8 in November.
In US, markets were closed on account of the New Year holiday on Wednesday.
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