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Benchmark indices pared losses in the afternoon trade after opening in red on Friday tracking mixed global cues. Wall Street declined in overnight trade even after higher-than-expected GDP number. Back home, investors kept an eye out for the GST Council Meet that began yesterday.
Sensex rose almost 150 points while Nifty50 reclaimed 8,000 level led by gains in Sun Pharma, Bajaj Auto, L&T and Maruti Suzuki.
At 1:30 pm, the S&P BSE Sensex was trading at 26,117, up 138 points, while the broader Nifty50 was ruling at 8,018, 39 points higher. In broader markets, BSE Midcap was gained 0.40% while BSE Smallcap rose 0.43%
"Nifty continued to drift as 8,100 was breached with a gap. The momentum indicator RSI is quoting at 35 & is yet to witness an oversold situation. Hence a follow through move below 7,950 could see an immediate movement towards 7,840. On the flipside 8,140 remains a critical resistance for the coming week of expiry & could be maintained as a stop for trading positions," said Sacchitanand Uttekar, Equity Technical Analyst at Motilal Oswal in a note.
On Wednesday, the foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 614.40 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 319.79 crore, provisional data available with the stock exchanges suggested.
Meanwhile, Brent futures for February climbed 59 cents, or 1.1%, to $55.05 a barrel on Thursday. US WTI crude futures advanced 46 cents, or 0.9%, to $52.95 a barrel.
Sectors and Stocks
Oil & Gas, Consumer Durables and Capital Goods stocks gained the most in Sensex. Oil & Gas sector index was up 0.47% led by gains in Castrol India, IOC and GAIL.
FMCG and realty are the only teo sectoral indices trading in red on BSE Sensex.
Sun Pharma, Bajaj Auto, L&T and Maruti Suzuki were the top gainers on BSE Sensex. Biggest laggards included Tata Motors, Axis Bank, ITC and M&M.
Among other stocks, Welspun Enterprises fell 4.7% at intra-day after the company announced plans to buy back up to 25% of its share capital at Rs 62 per equity share.
Shares of Hinduja Ventures touched intra-day high 4.25% after the company said its board has approved disinvestment of stake in Hinduja Energy (India).
GST Council meet
The PM Narendra Modi’s push to demonetisation has derailed the timely implementation of the GST with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley extending the deadline beyond April 2017. It may not be easy to reach consensus in the GST Council meeting as states won't risk another setback by rushing the sales tax into force.
A slump in business activity stemming from the cash crunch has already caused the revenue of state governments to slump by 25-40%.
US GDP revised
Data on Thursday showed that the US economy grew faster than previously estimated in the third quarter, notching its quickest pace in two years. GDP for the quarter was revised to 3.5% from the previously reported 3.2%.
The upward revision reflected stronger growth in consumer spending, business investment in structures and intellectual property products than previously estimated, underscoring the economy's solid fundamentals, which contributed to the Federal Reserve raising interest rates last week.
How India lobbied Moody's for ratings upgrade, but failed
India criticised Moody's ratings methods and pushed aggressively for an upgrade, documents reviewed by Reuters show, but the U.S.-based agency declined to budge citing concerns over the country's debt levels and fragile banks.
Winning a better credit rating on India's sovereign debt would have been a much-needed endorsement of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's economic stewardship, helping to attract foreign investment and accelerate growth.
Global Markets
Asian stocks stepped back in subdued trade on Friday as Wall Street took a breather from its relentless rise since the U.S. election, while the dollar hovered below the 14-year high set earlier this week.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan, which touched a five-month low on Thursday, eased 0.3%, heading for a weekly drop of 1.6% in its second consecutive week of declines.
China's CSI 300 index extended losses to 0.5%, on track to lose 0.8% for the week. Hong Kong's Hang Seng retreated 0.5%, poised to end the week down 0.5%.
Japan's Nikkei, closed for a holiday on Friday, was up 0.1% for the week. The index has posted seven straight weeks of gains, its longest winning streak since early 2013, boosted by the yen's weakness in the face of a surging dollar.
Overnight, U.S. equities posted their first back-to-back daily declines of the month in light trading ahead of the Christmas weekend. U.S. indices fell as much as 0.4% on Thursday.
(With inputs from Reuters)
