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The market was trading flat in the afternoon trade on Friday, amid muted global cues, after the US Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said a rate hike may ensue 'relatively soon'. Strong US housing sector data released Thursday, in fact, raised prospects of a rate hike as early as December.
At 12:37 pm, the S&P BSE Sensex was trading at 26,256, up 29 points, while the broader Nifty50 was quoting 8,096, up 17 points.
"Going forward, 8,050-8,000 remains to be a strong support zone; whereas a possibility of a bounce towards 8,220-8,300 remains valid," said brokerage Angel Broking in a technical note.
Rupee hits 68 mark
Rupee crossed the 68 mark against the US dollar after the American currency jumped to almost 13-year high against a basket of major currencies, fueled by expectations that President-elect Donald Trump's policies will lead to higher interest rates.
Stocks and Sectors
BSE Power, oil & gas and Healthcare indices were the top sectoral gainers and rose 1% each, on the other hand, consumer durable and metal indices were the top sectoral losers falling more than 1% each.
NTPC was the top gainer on the Sensex and surged over 4% on the BSE, followed by Sun Pharma and Cipla, which rallied 2% each.
Petronet LNG rallied 8% to Rs 374 after the company reported robust 82% year on year (YoY) jump in net profit at Rs 460 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2016 (Q2FY17).
Delta Corp extended gains for the second straight session after ace investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala acquired 12.5 lakh shares in the company through a bulk deal.
Among losers, Deepak Fertilisers & Petrochemicals Corporation slipped 11% in intra-day trade after the company reported 4.8% year on year (YoY) fall in net profit at Rs 26.96 crore for the quarter ended September 2016 (Q2FY17).
Tata Steel, GAIL and ITC were the top losers on the Sensex.
Demonetisation woes linger on
Demonetisation has now started affecting not just demand but also the supply chain with cash crunch hitting the farmers. Prices of few key commodities have fallen considerably since the move was announced amid drying up of demand. Now, fears have risen regarding production of the key commodities as farmers are not getting enough cash to buy seeds for winter crops.
Global markets
Asian share markets weakened on Friday as rising US bond yields carried the dollar to a more than 13-1/2 year high against a basket of major currencies, fuelled by expectations that President-elect Donald Trump's policies will lead to higher interest rates.
The post-election shift in expectations has left Asian stocks vulnerable to investors potentially rotating funds out of emerging markets to the United States.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dropped 0.4% to hover just above its four-month low touched earlier in the week and logged its fourth straight week of losses.
The dollar's rise, however, was a boon for Japan's exporter-driven Nikkei average, which entered bull market after rising 20% from June low.
Overnight, the benchmark S&P 500 index rose 0.5% to within a hair's breadth of its record high, as the prospect of higher interest rates boosted bank stocks and consumer discretionary stocks were helped by favourable economic data and earnings.
