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Benchmark share indices ended higher on Friday, amid a rebound in European shares, as gains in financials helped offset sharp losses in IT majors. Further, expectations that the BJP would form the government in Maharashtra, the country's largest industrial State, also boosted investor sentiment.
The 30-share Sensex ended up 109 points at 26,109 and the 50-share Nifty closed 32 points up at 7,780.
Foreign investors were net sellers in Indian equities to the tune of Rs 1,128 crore on Thursday.
The Indian rupee firmed up against the US dollar and was trading higher at Rs 61.48 compared to the previous close of Rs 61.83 tracking gains in Asian currencies. Asian currencies edged higher encouraging US data on unemployment benefits and industrial output.
Asian markets which had edged higher early today on the back of robust US economic data trimmed gains with shares in Japan witnessing a sell-off. The benchmark Nikkei ended down 1.4% on the day and 5.0% for the week, its biggest weekly fall in six months. Chinese shares ended 0.7% lower while shares in Hong Kong ended 0.5% higher and Straits Times gained 0.4%.
European shares surged on Friday after drop in US unemployment claims and comments on by the US Federal Reserve official allayed fears that the economic growth is slowing down. The CAC-40, DAX and FTSE were up 1-2% each.
BSE Bankex was the top gainer among the sectoral indices up 2.5% followed by Consumer Durables, Auto, Power and FMCG among others. Meanwhile, IT index continues to be the top loser down 3.8%.
Financial stocks witnessed renewed buying interest at lower levels. HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, HDFC, SBI and Axis Bank ended up 2-3% each.
Reliance Industries ended 0.7% higher after the recent correction post its second quarter earnings.
Bharti Airtel gained 2% after it added 10.22 lakh users in September 2014 to take its subscriber base to 21.15 crore in the reported period. It has a market share of 27.98% at the end of September.
Tata Steel which had dropped nearly 4% in the previous session on proposed sale of its long products business in Europe rebounded today to end 1.9% higher.
Hero MotoCorp gained 2.7% after India’s biggest two-wheeler manufacturer, exceeded street expectations in the quarter ended September 30. The two-wheeler major posted 59 per cent growth in net profit during the quarter at Rs 763 crore against Rs 481 crore posted in the same quarter last year.
Other Sensex gainers include, L&T, HDFC, M&M, Reliance and ITC among others.
TCS slumped nearly 9%, its highest single-day fall since March 30, 2009, after it disappointed the street with lower-than-expected earnings while the management's forecast of a subdued Oct-Dec quarter because of the holiday season also dampened sentiment. The IT major reported nearly 6% drop in net profit at Rs 5,244 crore for the second quarter ended September 2014 compared with Rs 5,568 crore in the first quarter ended June 2014. Infosys and Wipro were also down 0.1-1% each.
HCL Tech also plunged 9% after it reported a lower than expected 2.1% sequential growth in net profit to Rs 1,873 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2014.
The net profit of the country's fourth largest software services firm also suffered due to salary hikes given in the last quarter.
Among other shares, Praj Industries gained 3.4% after its consolidated net profit surged 301% to Rs 24.87 crore in the July-September 2014 quarter compared to Rs 6.26 crore in the same quarter last fiscal.
Rallis India fell 5.5% after the company reported marginal decline in its consolidated net profit to Rs 73.43 crore for the quarter ended September 30.
Insecticides (India) has surged 16% after the agrochemicals company said that its board at its meeting on October 30 will consider to issue bonus shares to its equity shareholders.
Zee Entertainment advanced around 3%. Consolidated net profit stood at Rs. 227.55 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2014 compared with Rs. 236.27 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2013, an decline of 3.81%. Advertising revenue of the company rose 7.3% on y-o-y basis to Rs 625.90 crore
In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap index ended up 0.3% and the Small-cap index ended 0.3% lower.
Market breadth ended weak with 1,497 losers and 1,337 gainers on the BSE.
