Key equity market barometers continued trading near the day's high in afternoon trade. Buying was seen across the board. At 13:29 IST, the S&P BSE Sensex, gained 178.08 points or 0.43% at 41,564.48. The Nifty 50 index was up 61.45 points or 0.50% at 12,241.80.
In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index gained 0.86% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.54%.
The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 1380 shares rose and 952 shares fell. A total of 154 shares were unchanged. In Nifty 50 index, 43 stocks advanced while 7 stocks declined.
Stocks in Spotlight:
Yes Bank (up 6.96%), Coal India (up 2.70%), NTPC (up 2.42%), Larsen & Toubro (up 2.20%) and JSW Steel (up 2.19%) were the top gainers.
Power Grid Corporation of India (down 2.20%), Bharti Airtel (down 1.43%), Cipla (down 0.60%), TCS (down 0.42%) and Reliance Industries (down 0.22%) were the top losers.
Among Nifty companies, UltraTech Cement (up 0.2%) and JSW Steel (up 1.24%) will announce their Q3 2019 earnings today, 24 January 2020.
IT major Infosys declined 1.08% to trade at Rs 776.10 after media reports suggested that the market regulator Sebi could order a forensic audit into its books. The said forensic audit comes in the wake of a whistleblower complaint which alleged that the company's chief executive officer Salil Parekh and the chief financial officer Nilanjan Roy indulged in unethical practices" to boost revenue and profits. The whistleblower complaint, which was also sent to the US Securities and Exchange Commission on 30 September, became public on 21 October 2019. The Securities and Exchange Board of India's (Sebi's) decision comes after Infosys's internal audit committee on 10 January 2020 concluded that the charges made by the whistleblowers were substantially without merit.
Gail (India) rose 0.35% to Rs 130.05 after the company filed an application with Supreme Court seeking clarification on the provisional assessment orders received from the Department of Telecommunication (DoT).
Global Markets:
European markets opened higher while Asian markets were trading mixed on Friday as worries over rapid spread of the deadly coronavirus virus kept investors on guard.
Investors continued to monitor the situation surrounding a fast-spreading coronavirus that was first diagnosed less than a month ago. The total number of coronavirus cases in China jumped to 830, Chinese state media reported on Friday. There are at least 14 known cases outside mainland China, bringing the cases worldwide to 844.
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday declined to designate the ongoing outbreak of a novel virus in China a global health emergency, saying that, for now, health officials have enough resources to combat the outbreak there and in other countries and that the agency does not need the additional authorities that come from such a declaration.
Major markets across the region such as China and South Korea were closed on Friday ahead of the Lunar New Year that starts on Saturday.
Back in Europe, the euro and German bund yields sank on Thursday after the European Central Bank (ECB)'s President Christine Lagarde struck a slightly more dovish tone than markets were expecting in a press conference, after the ECB left monetary policy unchanged at its first meeting of 2020.
In US, stocks ended mixed on Thursday, recovering from early losses, as investors digested earnings reports and took heart from the WHO's decision.
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