Indian equity markets were pushed higher on Wednesday ahead of the release of key macro-economic data, supported by fresh buying.
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However, Consumer Durables rose by 0.82 per cent, Oil& Gas by 0.54 pct and FMCG by 0.08 pct. Both the key indices on Monday had ended on a high as the markets witnessed a spurt of buying activity.
While, the Nifty fell by 94.35 points, or 1.09 per cent to 8,572.55 after moving between a high of 8,684.85 and a low of 8,547.55.it had declined almost 100 points in two weeks.
The 30-share Sensex after opening higher, stayed in the negative zone for the most part of the session and touched a low of 27,696.99.
Bharti shares fell 6.3 percent, their biggest single-day decline since August 2012, while Reliance dropped 2.9 percent.
Anand James, Chief Market Strategist, Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services, said, “with an eye on monsoon driven growth in the next quarters, markets largely ignored weak Q1 GDP figures, but with cement stocks, which were among the leaders yesterday, coming under pressure from the Competition Commission of India (CCI) directive, stocks stayed on the back foot”.
The wider 51-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) provisionally closed higher by 35 points, or 0.40 per cent, at 8,809.65 points.
The 30-share Sensex surged by 131.37 points, or 0.46 per cent, to 28,474.38 points in early trade. The US Dow Jones Industrial Average, however, ended 0.26 per cent down in yesterday’s trade.
The headline indices were trading in a range, tracking muted trend seen in Asian markets ahead of United States jobs data, which is expected to came in stronger, thus raising chances of a Federal Reserve rate hike soon.
Among the BSE sectoral indices, auto rose the most by 1.01% followed by infrastructure 0.98%, realty 0.95%, healthcare 0.69%, power 0.61% and bankex 0.55%, while metal fell by 0.29%, IT 0.21% and capital goods 0.10%.
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In sync with general trend, broader markets too displayed a bullish trend with the mid-cap and small-cap indices rising by 0.49 per cent and 0.36 per cent, respectively as investors widened their bets. The major Sensex gainers on Thursday were: GAIL, up 2.06 per cent at Rs 392; Coal India, up 1.32 per cent at Rs 338.05; ICICI Bank, up 1.24 per cent at Rs 260.90; and Lupin, up 1.21 per cent at Rs 1,501.60. Japan’s Nikkei was up 0.2% while Shanghai Composite was down 0.2%.
