Moneycontrol Bureau
The market closed marginally higher after a rollercoaster ride on Friday. The Sensex rallied 217 points intraday to hit 26000-mark after a flat start but could not sustain in last hour of trade. Technology, select oil & gas and auto stocks supported market but the selling in banking & financials and index heavyweight ITC limited upside.
The 30-share BSE Sensex rose 26.57 points to 25868.49 and the 50-share NSE Nifty advanced 13.80 points to 7856.55. The broader markets outperformed benchmarks with the BSE Mipcap and Smallcap indices rising 0.9 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively.
The market has seen consolidation and has been in a range of 7500-8000 for quite some time, but despite that experts say they remain bullish on India.
Christopher Wood, CLSA says Greed & fear maintains a triple overweight on India in the Asia Pacific ex-Japan relative-return portfolio and 46 percent of the Asia ex-Japan long-only portfolio is invested in India.
He believes it is still the case for now that India remains a better relative-return story in the Asia and emerging market context than an absolute-return story given the continuing lack of any evidence of a renewed private-sector capex cycle.
For the week, the Sensex and Nifty gained 1 percent each, especially driven by global rally post FOMC minutes that indicates likely hike in Fed rates in December.
Gas stocks were in limelight today on reports that RasGas, the Qatar-based company, may modify long term contract with Petronet LNG. GAIL topped buying list on the Sensex, up 10 percent. Petronet LNG, Indraprastha Gas and Gujarat Gas gained 4-7 percent.
IDFC Securities sees maximum benefit of RasGas deal to GAIL due to reduction of Petchem cost, improving transmission volumes and no take or pay liability. In case of Petronet LNG, the brokerage says the company will see recovery of Rs 160 crore shipping cost.
Dr Reddy's Labs was up 1.9 percent after losses in previous sessions. The company has filed a lawsuit in a US court against AstraZeneca for material breach of a settlement agreement that had released the company from any liability in connection with generic versions of Nexium.
Select auto stocks continued to be in demand after recommendations by 7th pay commission. The seventh Central Pay Commission has recommended a 23.6 percent hike in pay, allowances and pensions for central government employees. Maruti Suzuki, Mahindra & Mahindra and Bajaj Auto gained 1.5-2 percent.
Among others, Reliance Industries, TCS, Infosys, Wipro, L&T and Vedanta were up 0.5-2 percent while ITC and Sun Pharma saw profit booking, down more than 2 percent. HDFC, Tata Motors, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and Hindalco declined 0.5-1 percent.
In broader space, Adani Power rose 2.3 percent after the Supreme Court set aside customs demand of Rs 300 crore against the Gujarat-based power generation company. Financial Technologies rose gained 2 percent on completion of sale of its entire 25.64 percent stake in IEX.
Jubilant Foodworks went up 2 percent as analysts expect higher discretionary spending on the back of 7th pay commission recommendation. Additionally the company in its presentation at the Morgan Stanley Global Consumer & Retail Conference has stated that it increased potential store count for India to 1800 from 1300.
The market breadth was positive as about 1448 shares advanced against 1206 declining shares on the BSE.
On the global front, Asian markets ended higher as investors continue to mull a likely interest rate hike by the US Federal Reserve in December. Hang Seng jumped 1.1 percent and Shanghai gained 0.4 percent. European markets were mixed despite hopes of further European Central Bank stimulus, as uncertainty over global security and the economy weighs on investor sentiment.
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