Key benchmark indices moved in a narrow range in positive zone in afternoon trade. The barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 84.71 points or 0.42%, up close to 30 points from the day's low and off close to 55 points from the day's high. The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was strong. Gains in Asian stocks and rally in US stocks overnight underpinned sentiment on the domestic bourses.
Telecom stocks were mostly lower. Capital goods stocks edged higher. Tata Steel extended initial gains. Bank stocks edged higher.
The market edged higher in early trade on firm Asian stocks. The 50-unit CNX Nifty hit one-week high. Firmness continued on the bourses in morning trade. Key benchmark indices trimmed initial gains in mid-morning trade. Key benchmark indices moved in a narrow range in positive zone in afternoon trade.
Asian stocks rose on Friday, 7 February 2014, as US jobless claims fell and investors weighed company earnings.
At 12:20 IST, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 84.71 points or 0.42% to 20,395.45. The index jumped 139.77 points at the day's high of 20,450.51 in early trade, its highest level since 3 February 2014. The index rose 52.84 points at the day's low of 20,363.58 in mid-morning trade.
The CNX Nifty was up 29.40 points or 0.49% to 6,065.70. The index hit a high of 6,079.95 in intraday trade, its highest level since 31 January 2014. The index hit a low of 6,051.05 in intraday trade.
The BSE Mid-Cap index was up 50.69 points or 0.8% at 6,350.28. The BSE Small-Cap index was up 45.14 points or 0.72% at 6,354.15. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.
The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was strong. On BSE, 1,294 shares rose and 848 shares fell. A total of 157 shares were unchanged.
Among the 30-share Sensex pack, 23 stocks rose and rest fell. Sesa Sterlite (up 3.27%), Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (up 2.75%) and Dr Reddy's Laboratories (up 1.87%) edged higher from the Sensex pack.
Tata Steel rose 4.61%, with the stock extending initial gains.
Capital goods stocks edged higher. BEML (up 0.51%), L&T (up 0.72%) and Punj Lloyd (up 2.69%) gained.
Bhel fell 0.06% as the stock turned ex-dividend today, 7 February 2014, for interim dividend of Rs 1.31 per share for the year ending 31 March 2014.
Telecom stocks were mostly lower. Reliance Communications (down 1.1%), Idea Cellular (down 3.51%) and Bharti Airtel (down 2.16%) decliined. Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) rose 0.69%. MTNL was flat.
The Auction of spectrum in the 1800 MHz and 900 MHz band that began on 3 February 2014 continued for the fourth day on Thursday, 6 February 2014. At the end of day four, 28 rounds of bidding have been completed. Bids have been received in all 22 Service Areas in 1800 MHz band and in all 3 Service Areas in 900 MHz band. Thus, bidding has taken place in all the Service Areas in both bands, the Ministry of Communications & Information Technology said in a statement issued at 20:33 IST on Thursday, 6 February 2014.
Bank stocks edged higher. ICICI Bank (up 1.05%), HDFC Bank (up 0.21%), AXIS Bank (up 1.28%) and Kotak Mahindra Bank (up 0.12%) gained.
State Bank of India (SBI) gained 0.52% to Rs 1512. Shares allotted by the state-run bank to institutional investors under the recently concluded qualified institutional placement (QIP) were admitted for trading on the bourses today, 7 February 2014. SBI had raised Rs 8031.64 crore recently from issue of 5.13 crore equity shares to institutional investors at a price of Rs 1,565 per share.
Among other PSU bank stocks, Canara Bank, Union Bank of India, Bank of India, Bank of Baroda and Punjab National Bank gained by 0.62% to 2.87%.
Piramal Enterprises rose 1.26% to Rs 554 on reports that the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved on Thursday, 6 February 2014, the application of British telecom company Vodafone to raise stake in its Indian arm to 100%, for Rs 10141 crore, from 64.38% at present. In the process, Vodafone Plc, the parent, will buy out the minority shareholders, who together own 35.62% of the equity in Vodafone India. The company had approval from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) in December last year.
Piramal Enterprises, which owns 10.97% direct equity holding in Vodafone India, will get Rs 8900 crore, a premium of about 51% for its stake. The remaining Rs 1241 crore will go to Analjit Singh, founder-head of Max India, who indirectly holds the remaining stake, media reports added.
Piramal Enterprises had invested a total of Rs 5900 crore to buy the 10.97% in Vodafone India, in two tranches. While Piramal Enterprises had invested an average Rs 537.83 a share for its stake, the selling price is Rs 811.30 a share. Piramal had first bought 5.47% stake for Rs 2893 crore in 2011. In February 2012, it bought another 5.5%, for Rs 3007 crore. Vodafone India's valuation rose 48% since February 2012, when Piramal took 5.5% for Rs 3007 crore, reports suggested.
As per reports, Vodafone India is now valued at Rs 81130 crore, about 42% higher than the Rs 57000 crore Vodafone Plc had paid Hutchison in 2007 to buy 67% stake in the company.
Burnpur Cement lost 3.01% after net profit fell 18.27% to Rs 0.76 crore on 4.41% decline in total income from operations to Rs 20.33 crore in Q3 December 2013 over Q3 December 2012. The Q3 result was announced after market hours on Thursday, 6 February 2014.
In the foreign exchange market, the rupee edged higher against the dollar on global risk-on sentiment. The partially convertible rupee was hovering at 62.315, compared with its close of 62.365/375 on Thursday, 6 February 2014.
The government will announce the advance estimate of GDP for 2013-14 at around 17.30 IST today, 7 February 2014. The GDP grew 4.6% annually in the first half of the current fiscal year, down from 5.3% in the corresponding period a year ago. Growth slowed in almost all sectors, including services such as tourism, transport and telecoms.
Last week, the Statistics Ministry revised down GDP growth for the previous fiscal year to 4.5%, from an earlier estimate of 5%.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram will present the Vote-on-Account or interim budget on 17 February 2014. The objective of a Vote-on-Account is to get Parliament's nod for expenditure to be incurred in the months prior to elections. The next full-fledged budget will be presented by the new government which comes to power after the Lok Sabha polls in April-May 2014.
The Reserve Bank of India next undertakes monetary policy review on 1 April 2014. Sighting elevated consumer price inflation, the Reserve Bank of India raised its key lending rates by 25 basis points after Third Quarter Review of Monetary Policy for 2013-14 on 28 January 2014.
Asian stocks rose on Friday, 7 February 2014, as US jobless claims fell and investors weighed company earnings. Key benchmark indices in Indonesia, South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan rose 0.77% to 2.7%.
China's Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.2%, reversing intraday losses as China's markets opened after Lunar New Year holidays. China's services sector grew at its slowest pace in almost 2-1/2 years in January after firms secured a smaller volume of new business, a private survey showed, adding to growing signs of slackening in the Chinese economy. The HSBC/Markit Services Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) retreated to 50.7 in January, a low last seen in August 2011 though still above the 50-point level that demarcates growth and contraction. December's PMI was 50.9.
Trading in US index futures indicated that the Dow could advance 59 points at the opening bell on Friday, 7 February 2014. US stocks surged on Thursday, 6 February 2014, as investors welcomed a larger-than-expected drop in weekly jobless claims and upbeat earnings from companies including Walt Disney Co.
Initial jobless claims dropped for the first time in three weeks, falling 20,000 to 331,000 in the period ended Feb. 1, according to the Labor Department.
The influential monthly US jobs data for January 2014 will be released today, 7 February 2014.
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) next undertakes monetary policy review on 18-19 March 2014. After a monetary policy review, the FOMC on 29 January 2014 announced it will reduce monthly bond purchases by another $10 billion to $65 billion. The Fed also signaled that it is likely to keep reducing bond purchases in the coming months, citing a pickup in US economic activity and improvement in the US labor market.
In Europe, the European Central Bank kept interest rates unchanged on Thursday as officials chose to set aside concerns that inflation may stay low for too long. The 24-member Governing Council, convening in Frankfurt Thursday, left the main refinancing rate at 0.25%. The ECB also held the deposit rate at zero and the marginal lending rate at 0.75%. ECB President Mario Draghi said at a news conference that medium- and long-term inflation expectations remain well-anchored, with no real deflation risk.
The Bank of England kept its benchmark rate at a record-low 0.5%, while its bond-purchase plan stayed unchanged at 375 billion pounds ($611 billion) on Thursday.
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