Sensex closes 337 points higher, Maruti Suzuki gains 3.8 pc

Equity markets traded with a positive bias on Friday with auto stocks and select private banks ranking among top outperformers.

The BSE S & P Sensex closed 337 points higher at 36,982 while the Nifty 50 edged up by 98 points to 10,946.

At the National Stock Exchange, Nifty auto gained by 2.6 per cent to close at 7,102. A day earlier, Union Road Transport and Highway Minister Nitin Gadkari had said at the 59th annual SIAM Convention that he will recommend a reduction of Goods and Services Tax to help the auto sector come out of a prolonged slump. He also said that India will not ban petrol and diesel vehicles.

 

Consequently, auto companies cheered the announcements. Maruti Suzuki gained 3.87 per cent on Friday to close at Rs 6,199.90 per share. Bajaj Auto and Eicher Motors were up by 2.8 per cent each, Tata Motors by 2.7 per cent and Mahindra & Mahindra by 2.6 per cent.

The other prominent gainers were Tech Mahindra, Tata Steel, Hindalco, NTPC and Axis bank.

However, Indiabulls Housing Finance closed the week 4.57 per cent lower at Rs 427.50 per share after portions a public interest litigation against its promoters landed on the social media.

The company rubbished it. "Instead of going to the right forums of various regulatory agencies and making the complaint, the petitioners have deliberately chosen the route of PIL to attract attention and play into the hands of blackmailers and corporate rivals at a sensitive time of merger process of Indiabulls Housing Finance and Laxmi Vilas Bank," it said in a statement.

Similarly, shares of real estate major DLF closed 3.2 per cent lower at Rs 154.20 per share even though the company denied allegations of a relationship with the Indiabulls Group. "The said allegations are malicious and are completely and unambiguously denied by us," the company said in regulatory filings at stock exchanges.

The other prominent losers were Yes Bank, Sun Pharma, Wipro, HCL Tech, Cipla and Hindustan Lever.

Meanwhile, Asian stocks joined global peers and rose amid hopes for easing US-China trade tensions and as firm US economic data increased risk appetites.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gained by 0.4 per cent. The Shanghai Composite Index was up by 0.4 per cent while Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.6 per cent. South Korea's KOSPI climbed 0.2 per cent and Japan's Nikkei advanced 0.5 per cent.

Global equity markets welcomed the news that the United States and China agreed on Thursday to hold high-level talks early in October, raising hopes for substantial progress in de-escalating their long, bitter trade conflict.