Key equity benchmarks trimmed gains in afternoon trade. The sentiment continued to be bullish amid strong global cues. At 13:22 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex rose 248.16 points or 0.60% at 41,700.51. The Nifty 50 index gained 72.10 points or 0.59% at 12,288.
In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.77%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index rose 0.75%.
The market breadth was strong. On the BSE, shares 1,514 rose and 829 shares fell. A total of 170 shares were unchanged.
On economic front:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday, 9 January 2020, met economists and sector experts at the Niti Aayog to discuss the state of the economy and steps which can be taken to revive growth.
Modi called for a focussed effort from all stakeholders in order to achieve the target of $5 trillion economy in India. He said that the strong absorbent capacity of Indian economy shows the strength of basic fundamentals of the Indian economy and its capacity to bounce back. The prime minister said that the sectors like tourism, urban development, infrastructure and agri based Industry have a great potential to taking forward the economy and for employment generation.
Earlier on Monday, 6 January 2020, PM Modi interacted with top business persons to discuss the issues facing the economy and measures needed to boost growth and create jobs.
These meetings are aimed at formulating Union Budget proposals to accelerate economic growth. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will be presenting her second Union Budget on Saturday, 1 February 2020.
The National Statistical Office on Tuesday forecast India's GDP growth to be 5% in 2019-20, slower than the previous year's 6.8% and in line with the RBI estimate.
The World Bank on Wednesday cut India's growth for financial year 2020 to 5% from 6% estimated earlier.
Stocks In Focus:
Coal India (up 4.09%), GAIL (India) (up 2.51%), Vedanta (up 2.28%), NTPC (up 1.59%) and Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (up 1.57%) advanced.
Zee Entertainment Enterprises (down 2.74%), Britannia Industries (down 0.70%), Titan Company (down 0.31%), UPL (down 0.31%) and ICICI Bank (down 0.27%) declined.
Yes Bank fell 4.76% to Rs 45.05 after the media reported that Uttam Prakash Agarwal resigned as an independant director of the bank.
Uttam Prakash Agarwal was appointed as an independent director on the board of Yes Bank with effect from 14 November 2018 for a period of 5 years. The media reported that the early resignation was due to corporate governance concerns at the bank.
Yes Bank is banned from trading in NSE's F&O segment after the security crossed 95% of market wide position limit.
Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) was up 0.39%. HDFC said that it has completed the acquisition of 50.80% shares of Apollo Hospitals Group in Apollo Munich Health Insurance Company for Rs 1,485 crore. It also acquired 0.36% stake in Apollo Hospitals held by employees for Rs 10.67 crore. Apollo Munich has been renamed to HDFC ERGO Health Insurance, which will operate as a subsidiary of HDFC.
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) gained 0.23%. The IT major said it has expanded its partnership with Vipps AS, Norway's leading player in the payments and identification segment, to leverage TCS' Machine First' Delivery Model (MFDM) and cloud services to accelerate the latter's growth and digital journey.
IT bellwether Infosys advanced 1.57% ahead of its Q3 December 2019 results later today.
Tata Steel was trading 1.72% higher at Rs 491.30. The steel major announced its operational update for Q3 December 2019 before market hours today, 10 January 2020. Tata Steel India's production volume rose 1.83% to 4.46 million tons in Q3 December 2019 as against 4.38 million in Q3 December 2018. Production in Europe surged 6.84% to 2.5 million tons in same period. Sales Volume showed a significant improvement on YoY basis. Tata Steel India's sales jumped 24.42% to 4.84 million tonne in Q3 December 2019. Sales in Europe declined 1.7% to 2.31 million tons on the back of overall slowdown and seasonal weakness.
Bharti Airtel rose 0.34%. The telecom major's board will meet on Tuesday, 14 January 2020, to discuss QIP issue pricing.
Foreign Markets:
European markets opened higher while Asian shares traded higher on Friday, following the easing of US-Iran tensions, and after US stocks shot to record highs.
In US, stocks swept to record highs once again on Thursday as investors focused on progress on the trade pact with China due to be signed next week and amid an easing of concerns about war in the Middle East.
China's Vice Premier Liu He, the head of the country's negotiating team in trade talks with the United States, will sign a "Phase 1" deal in Washington, DC, next week, the commerce ministry said on Thursday. Liu will visit the US capital from January 13 to 15, said Gao Feng, a spokesman at the commerce ministry.
In economic data, the number of Americans who applied for unemployment benefits fell in early 2020 for the fourth week in a row, putting new jobless claims back near the lowest level in about 50 years. Initial jobless claims declined by 9,000 to 214,000 in the seven days ended 4 Jan 2020.
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