Mumbai: The benchmark Sensex climbed 257 points on broad-based buying, led by bank stocks, and notched up its first weekly gain in four amid optimism before the release of India's second-quarter GDP data later on Friday.
ICICI Bank, State Bank of India and HDFC Bank shares, along with ITC and Larsen & Toubro, helped to lift the Sensex while auto stocks Mahindra & Mahindra and Hero MotoCorp dragged it lower.
Sesa Sterlite and BHEL topped the 25 gainers on the 30-share index. All 13 BSE sectoral indices advanced.
The S&P BSE Sensex opened stronger at 20,558.93 and soared to the day's high of 20,819.77. It ended at 20,791.93, registering a gain of 257.02 points or 1.25 per cent.
"With the RBI's insistence on bringing down inflation levels through numerous raises on the repo rate...the markets will be waiting to see if the RBI's actions resulted in an adverse impact on economic growth. Anything below a 4.6 per cent figure would seem to indicate that the RBI would have a difficult time convincing the market of further repo rate increases," said Raghu Kumar, Co-founder of RKSV.
Over the past five sessions, the Sensex has added 574.54 points to clock its first gain after three successive weeks of declines.
The index fell 373 points this month, after a record close of 21,239.36 on November 3.
The 50-share CNX Nifty on the National Stock Exchange rose 84.25 points, or 1.38 per cent, to 6,176.10.
The SX40 on the MCX Stock Exchange closed 159.26 points higher at 12,344.49.
Domestic institutional investors bought Rs 330.51 crore of shares and foreign institutional investors purchased a net Rs 102.91 crore of stocks on Thursday, according to provisional data with the stock exchanges.
The government was scheduled to release GDP growth data for the July-September quarter after trading hours.
Asian stocks ended mixed. Key indices in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan gained while they fell in Japan, Singapore and South Korea.
In Europe, stocks were mixed. Indices in Germany and UK moved up, while France's CAC was quoted lower.
In the domestic market, the major Sensex gainers were Sesa Sterlite (4.25 pc), BHEL (3.65 pc), State Bank of India (3.64 pc), ICICI Bank (3.01 pc), Cipla (2.61 pc), ONGC (2.17 pc), Larsen & Toubro (2.07 pc) and ITC (2.07 pc).
Mahindra & Mahindra fell 1.17 pc, followed by Hero MotoCorp 0.89 pc and Wipro 0.5 pc. Among the S&P BSE sectoral indices, Bankex rose 2.21 pc, followed by PSU 1.88 pc, Capital Goods 1.79 pc, Metal 1.76 pc, Realty 1.51 pc, Power 1.3 pc, Oil & Gas 1.26 pc and FMCG 1.17 pc.
The Auto sector inched up 0.12 pc. "Equity markets are awaiting a favourable GDP data due later on Friday, which is expected to be around 4.4 pc to 4.6 pc," said Jignesh Chaudhary, Head of Research at Veracity Broking Services.
The market breadth turned positive as 1,461 shares gained, 1,032 fell and 179 ruled steady. Total turnover fell to Rs 2,061.58 crore from Rs 2,243.60 crore on Thursday.
Next: Rupee falls three paise to 62.44 against dollar
Rupee falls three paise to 62.44 against dollar
Mumbai: The rupee fell for the second day, dropping three paise to close at 62.44 against the dollar, amid demand for the US currency from oil refiners even as local equities firmed up on optimism about GDP data.
A weak dollar overseas and sustained capital inflows into local stocks limited the rupee's decline, a forex dealer said.
At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee opened higher at 62.30 a dollar from the previous close of 62.41. The local currency moved in a range of 62.20 to 62.64 before settling at 62.44, a fall of three paise.
Yesterday, it dropped 27 paise. The rupee advanced for the second straight week, adding a total of 67 paise. However, the local currency fell 94 paise in November, the first monthly drop in three.
"Month-end oil-related dollar demand kept rupee under pressure. Dollar index was trading weak and was heading towards the third weekly fall in a row, taking cues from mixed economic data," said Pramit Brahmbhatt, CEO, Alpari Financial Services (India).
The 30-share benchmark Sensex flared up 257 points, or 1.25 per cent, on expectations economic growth is recovering. The country's GDP expanded 4.8 per cent in July-September compared with 4.4 per cent in April-June, the government said after the markets closed. Also, the fiscal deficit in the first seven months (Apr-Oct) of FY14 reached 84.4 per cent of the full-year budget target compared with 71.6 per cent last year.
Overseas investors bought a net Rs 102.91 crore of shares yesterday, according to provisional data. The dollar index, consisting of six major global rivals, was down 0.03 per cent.
"The surging Indian stock market and the flat dollar index didn't provide help to the falling rupee," said Abhishek Goenka, CEO of India Forex Advisors. "Dollar demand is seen coming back to the markets." A dollar-rupee swap window for foreign currency deposits by non-resident Indians is scheduled to close tomorrow. The facility was opened by the Reserve Bank of India on September 10.
