INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
NEW DELHI: Indian equities got a shot in the arm on Friday, reversing their three-day losing streak, as strength in global markets, a strong
rupee and depressed crude prices made the pitch conducive to go higher
A surge in Kotak Bank shares on reports that Berkshire Hathaway was planning to pick up stake in the lender too lent a hand
The lender, however, in a BSE filing clarified that it was unaware of any such plans.
Healthy buying in banking, financial and auto stocks
added to the rebound.
Investors went the distance after US Fed Chairman Jerome Powell signalled that the three-year tightening cycle is
IMF chief Christine Lagarde's remarks the US is not likely to see an economic contraction in the near term put more life in stocks.
In a
session that was otherwise marked by high volatility, the Sensex and the Nifty logged significant gains in the last hour of trade.
The BSE
Sensex ended higher by 361 points, or 1.02 per cent, at 35,673 while the NSE Nifty settled the day shy of the 10,700 at 10,694, up 93
points, or 0.87 per cent.
Kotak Mahindra Bank was the top Sensex gainer, up 8.53 per cent, after reports emerged that Warren Buffett led
Berkshire Hathaway was looking to buy a 10 per cent stake in the company.
Adani Ports, Bajaj Auto, Infosys, Asian Paints and Hero MotoCorp
were in pools of green on the Sensex.
Sun Pharma was the worst index performer, down 2.03 per cent
Coal India, YES Bank, NTPC, Tata Steel and Power Grid joined Sun on the losers' list.
Midcap and smallcap stocks underperformed the
BSE Midcap ended up 0.27 per cent while BSE Smallcap closed with a loss of 0.23 per cent.
Among BSE sectoral indices, utilities declined the
most with 1.05 per cent, followed by oil gas, telecom, metals and pharma.
On the BSE, the advance-decline ratio stood at 2:3, indicating
that for every two stocks that gained, three fell
This suggests underlying bearishness in market.
Let's check out the movers and shakers of Friday.
Strong gains in rupeeThe domestic unit
rebounded after posting significant losses in Thursday's session and gained nearly 45 paise against the US dollar, given a sharp decline in
Weakness in the US currency supported the upmove in the rupee
The rupee was trading 70.65 against the greenback at the time of writing this story.
Crude oil prices easeOil prices fell on Friday as Opec
discussed a potential exemption from cutting output for Iran and the producer club sought to get heavyweight supplier Russia on board,
International Brent crude oil futures fell below $60 per barrel, trading at $59.53 per barrel at 0750 GMT, down 53 cents, or 0.9 per cent
US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $51.05 per barrel, down 44 cents, or 0.9 per cent.
Financials grab eyeballsStrong
buying marked private banking, finance and auto stocks
Nifty Private Bank gained 1.97 per cent while Nifty Auto rose 1.14 per cent and auto 0.89 per cent.
Global stocks recoverWorld stocks
attempted a rebound on Friday, with Asian and European markets gaining modestly after the previous day's selloff
The pan-European STOXX 600 index was up 1.2 per cent by 0857 GMT, after falling as much as 3.2 per cent during Thursday's rout
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan nudged up 0.2 per cent
That followed a 1.8 per cent drubbing on Thursday
Japan's Nikkei added 0.8 per cent, Reuters reported.
Expert-take:Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services
"Indian equity
market had turned cautious during the week, profit booking was evident in anticipation of the final outcome of the state elections, a
precursor of the general election
Domestic market rebounded today along with global market, which has lightened up, hoping for a resolution of US-China trade war
OPEC's decision to delay the final resolution to cut oil output caused prices to fall, boosting sentiment in India."
