 "Sensex jumps 226 points to 41,685, Nifty rises over 62 points to 12,236; HDFC, ICICI Bank, Infosys among top gainers")
Market benchmark Sensex jumped over 200 points in the opening session on Friday driven by gains in HDFC twins, ICICI Bank and Infosys amid strong foreign fund inflow. In the opening session, the 30-share BSE index was trading 233.20 points or 0.56 percent higher at 41,692.99, and the broader NSE advanced 59.85 points, or 0.49 percent, to 12,234.50.
#CNBCTV18Market | Banks lead market higher, #Nifty above 12,200, #Sensex up nearly 200 points pic.twitter.com/G6U9z7uXEK
— CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) February 14, 2020
All Sensex components were trading on a positive note with Asian Paints rising up to 1.33 percent, followed by HDFC, HCL Tech, UltraTech Cement, Bharti Airtel and L&T.
#CNBCTV18Market | Nestle & BPCL amongst top Nifty gainers after earnings pic.twitter.com/tN21Q96ybX
— CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) February 14, 2020
In the previous session, Sensex settled 106.11 points or 0.26 percent, lower at 41,459.79, and Nifty dropped 26.55 points or 0.22 percent to close at 12,174.65. Meanwhile, on a net basis, foreign institutional investors bought equities worth Rs 1,061.39 crore, while domestic institutional investors sold shares worth Rs 960.48 crore on Thursday, data available with stock exchanges showed, according to a PTI report. [caption id=“attachment_4428589” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Stock brokers. Representational image. Reuters.[/caption] According to traders, domestic equities advanced tracking significant foreign fund inflow ahead of the release of wholesale inflation data. Globally, concerns over rising cases of coronavirus patients kept investors on edge, they said. Bourses in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Seoul were trading on a positive note, while those in Tokyo slipped in the red. Stock exchanges on Wall Street closed with losses on Wednesday. Rupee slips 2 paise to 71.33 against US dollar in early trade The rupee fell marginally by 2 paise to 71.33 against the US dollar in opening trade on Friday, amid strengthening of the American currency in the overseas market, according to a PTI report.
#Rupee opens nearly flat Vs Thursday's close pic.twitter.com/QBTJXMZFar
— CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) February 14, 2020
Forex traders said rupee traded in a narrow range as a strengthening of the US dollar weighed on the local unit, while easing crude oil prices, positive opening in domestic equities and foreign fund inflows gave support and restricted the fall. The rupee opened on a positive note at 71.29 at the interbank forex market, but soon lost ground and fell to 71.33 against the US dollar, down 2 paise over its last close. The rupee had settled at 71.31 against the US dollar on Thursday. Meanwhile, Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, fell 0.09 percent to $56.29 per barrel. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remained net buyers in the capital markets, as they purchased shares worth Rs 1,061.39 crore on Thursday as per provisional data. Domestic bourses opened on a positive note on Friday with benchmark indices Sensex trading 126.42 points higher at 41,586.21 and Nifty up 50.15 points at 12,224.80. The dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, rose by 0.08 percent to 99.14. The 10-year government bond yield was at 6.43 percent in the morning trade. Asian shares tick up, aim for second week of gains amid virus scare Asian shares edged up on Friday, on course to post the second straight week of gains, helped by hopes governments will make provisions to soften the impact on their economies from the coronavirus epidemic, according to a Reuters report. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan ticked up 0.3 percent, led by gains in Hong Kong and South Korea. On the week, the pan-regional index was up 1.94 percent. “China is already easing its monetary policy and providing more liquidity while more stimulus is likely. Factories are starting to reopen albeit with some delays,” said Yukino Yamada, senior strategist at Daiwa Securities. Japan’s Nikkei dropped 0.55 percent, not helped by the news of first coronavirus death and signs of a potential rise in domestic human-to-human infections in the country. On Wall Street on Thursday, the S&P 500 lost 0.16 percent but its futures gained 0.23 percent in subsequent Asian trade to hit record levels. The daily death toll in Hubei, the Chinese province at the centre of the coronavirus outbreak, halved and the number of new cases dropped from a record posted the day before. Ryutaro Kimura, fixed income strategist at Axa Investment Management, expected “considerable impact” on the global economy as China now accounts for around 17 percent compared to 4 percent during the SARS outbreak in 2002-2003, and it is integral to more supply chains. “That means countries are likely to keep interest rates low for a longer period, keeping global bond yields low. Such an expectation, in turn, is supporting the world’s share prices.” Market sentiment improved also after World Health Organization official said the big jump in China’s reported cases reflects a decision by authorities there to reclassify a backlog of suspected cases by using patients’ chest images and is not necessarily the “tip of an iceberg” of a wider epidemic, Still, sceptics saw it as undermining confidence in data accuracy, a constant issue in Chinese data.
While many investors hope the epidemic will gradually slow down in the coming months, allowing companies and businesses to come back to normal operations, how long that process will take remains anybody’s guess. “Until Wednesday, people had been saying that you can buy shares because the number of new cases had peaked out. The reality seems to be quite different. An early end to this seems improbable,” said Norihiro Fujito, chief investment strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities to Reuters.
Impact Shorts
More Shorts“Investors will surely avoid Asia for the time being and will shift funds to the US, geographically the most separated from the region,” he said. That meant more demand for the US dollar in the currency exchange market. The dollar’s index against a basket of currencies hit a four-month high, having risen 1.8 percent so far this month. The euro fell to as low as $1.0827, its lowest level in almost three years, and last stood at $1.0836. It also hit a nine-week low against the British pound and 4-1/2 year low against the Swiss franc. The euro has been bruised also by rising political uncertainties in Germany as well as worries about sluggish growth in the region. Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, who had been long expected to succeed Chancellor Angela Merkel next year, earlier this week gave up her bid to run for the top job, raising more concerns about political stability in the euro zone’s biggest economy. Eurozone GDP data due later on Friday is expected to show a sluggish growth of 0.1 percent from the previous quarter. Sterling jumped and so did UK bond yields as investors bet on a higher-spending budget next month after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson forced the resignation of Sajid Javid as finance minister. Javid, known to have been at odds with Johnson’s powerful policy adviser Dominic Cummings over spending plans, was replaced by Rishi Sunak, a Johnson loyalist. The pound traded at $1.3045, after 0.65 percent gains on Thursday. The 10-year gilts yield jumped to a three-week high of 0.660 percent, bucking falling yields in most other major bond markets. The yen stayed in a familiar range in the past couple of weeks and last traded at 109.86 yen. Oil prices extended their week-old recovery on hopes that the world’s biggest producers would cut output more as demand looks set to drop sharply due to the outbreak of coronavirus. The International Energy Agency (IEA) expects oil demand in the first quarter to fall for the first time in 10 years. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up 0.12 percent at $51.48 per barrel in early Friday trade but up 2.3 percent on the week, on course to post their first weekly gains in six weeks. --With inputs from agencies
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