Sensex Gains Over 100 Points, Nifty Hovers At 15,950

The domestic stock markets have opened at fresh all-time highs, extending the gains witnessed in the previous session, on the back of buying interest in heavyweights such as ITC, Hindalco and Reliance Industries. At 9:20 am, the BSE Sensex was trading at 53,235, higher by 78.92 points and the NSE Nifty was at 15,950.35, up 24.45 points or 0.16 per cent. The broader markets are also trading in the green, with the BSE Midcap index and BSE Smallcap index gaining 0.1 per cent and 0.5 per cent respectively.

Shares in Asia-Pacific mostly fell in Friday morning trade as investors await the Bank of Japan’s monetary policy statement. The Nikkei 225 in Japan fell 0.84 per cent in morning trade, while the Topix index slipped fractionally. South Korea’s Kospi declined 0.52 per cent.

US stock indexes fell on Thursday as a rally in growth stocks ran out of steam, while economically-sensitive cyclicals gained as a fall in weekly jobless claims last week strengthened views about a recovery in the labour market. The Dow Jones was up 0.02 per cent, while S&P 500 was down 0.32 per cent and Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.70 per cent.

On the stock-specific front, ITC has rallied over 1 per cent to top the gainer’s list on the BSE. Sun Pharma, Dr Reddy’s, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Industries are the other significant gainers on the BSE.

On the other hand, HCL Tech, ICICI Bank, Tech Mahindra and Infosys have shed up to a per cent each on the BSE. 

Among stocks in the news, Wipro is in focus after the country’s leading software services company reported its best-ever quarterly earnings in the first quarter of the current financial year. Wipro’s net profit rose 9 per cent sequentially to Rs 3,243 crore from Rs 2,972 crore in the previous quarter. The stock has, however, edged lower by 0.5 per cent to Rs 572.90 on the BSE post its June quarter results.

The BSE market breadth is positive. Out of 2,672 stocks traded on the BSE, there are 1,727 advancing stocks as against 858 declines.