Moneycontrol Bureau9:45 am Jaitley's speech: If the nation's largest financial entity LIC is listed on the bourses, it would command the highest valuation in the country in terms of market capitalisation, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said.
"If LIC is listed, it would be the most valued company in the country with the highest valuation as well as one of the largest across the world," he said. With around Rs 40,000 crore profit last fiscal, LIC is the most profitable entity in the country, next only to the RBI which transferred Rs 66,000 crore of its surplus profit to the government in the past fiscal. The net income of Reliance Industries, the most profitable private sector corporate, is not even 60 per cent of the Corporation.
With an asset base of over Rs 22.10 lakh crore and practically no debt, even a 10 per cent divestment in LIC can net the government billions of dollars and can massively catapult the market capitalisation on BSE, which now stands at over Rs 110 lakh crore.
9:30 am FII view: Ridham Desai of Morgan Stanley feels market's character is changing. Junk has beaten quality, value has outperformed growth, defensives have lagged cyclicals and small cap has topped large cap cumulatively since June 2015, he explains. This feels like an entrenched bull market and is also behaving like one, according to him."We do not doubt the fundamentals of the market but we do worry about the pace of the move," he says.As the dust settles and signals of an earnings recovery become clearer, growth styles will probably emerge as the best performing, he feels.Don't miss: Investment tips: Should you buy Bharti, Idea or Reliance?
The market has opened higher with the Sensex up 86.13 points or 0.3 percent at 28509.61. The Nifty is up 21.70 points or 0.2 percent at 8796.35. About 237 shares have advanced, 93 shares declined, and 19 shares are unchanged.
Tata Motors, Hero MotoCorp, Coal India, ITC and Dr Reddy's Labs are top gainers while BHEL, Bharti, Axis Bank, Sun Pharma and Infosys are losers in the Sensex.
The Indian rupee opened higher by 10 paise at 66.85 per dollar on Friday versus previous close 66.95.
Bhaskar Panda of HDFC Bank said, "In the recent days, we have seen healthy chunky inflows. Excess supplies in the market has been absorbed by the central bank, thus preventing rupee from too much appreciation." The dollar was on the back foot after taking a tumble following a surprise contraction in US manufacturing in August, casting some doubts on the strength of US economic growth ahead of the closely-watched employment data due later in the day.
Among global peers, potential for a strong US non-farm payrolls number later in day - and with it an elevated chance of a Federal Reserve rate hike soon - kept Asian financial markets nervously marking time on Friday.
Australian stocks lost 0.6 percent and South Korea's Kospi was little changed, while Japan's Nikkei dipped 0.2 percent on a slightly stronger yen.
Asian equity markets took few cues from overnight moves on Wall Street, where stocks were flat with gains in the tech sector offsetting sluggish US factory activity data and lower oil prices.
US stocks were flat on Thursday, with gains in the tech sector offsetting sluggish factory activity data and lower oil prices, as investors exercised caution ahead of a key payrolls report.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 18.42 points, or 0.1 percent, to 18,419.3, the S&P 500 lost 0.09 points to 2170.86, and the Nasdaq Composite added 13.99 points, or 0.27 percent, to 5227.21.
In the world of commodities, crude oil advanced, trimming a weekly decline, after the biggest four-day drop since February as US inventories climbed last week, keeping supplies at the highest seasonal level in at least three decades.
Russian energy minister said there's no need for an output freeze with prices at around USD 50 a barrel as OPEC members plan to meet this month to discuss action to stabilise the market.
Gold held steady after falling to its lowest in over two months the session before, with weak US manufacturing data raising doubts on the economy's strength ahead of closely-watched nonfarm payroll numbers.
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