Good news: Sensex soars over 200 points, rupee at one-month high

Indian equity markets opened in the green today on positive global cues. surprisingly weak US jobs numbers have revived speculation the Federal Reserve could keep policy loose for longer. US payrolls rose just 74,000 in December, the smallest increase in nearly three years and far below the 196,000 forecast. Private payroll operator ADT calculated that the private sector added 238,000 new jobs in December.

The BSE Sensex opened 190 points higher at 20949, led by gains by Tata Motors, Reliance Industries and ONGC while Nifty opened 53 points higher at 6225.

Both ONGC and Relaince are up 3 percent each. BSE oil & gas index rose more 2.1 percent - top sectoral gainer; as oil minister, Veerappa Moily yesterday said that the government may consider hiking yearly quota of subsidised LPG cylinders from 9 to 12 per household. Final decision will be taken by the cabinet committee on political affairs. He also said that higher power and fertilizer subsidy burden could be met from royalties earned via exploration.

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Tata Motors rose 2.5 percent after JLR announces record sales for 2013. With total sales up 19 percent year on year at 4.25 lakh units led by strong growth in Landrover while jaguar delivers best sales numbers since 2005.

Even the rupee today opened at a month high of 61.60 against the US dollar.

Agam Gupta, Standard Chartered told CNBC-TV18, “Dollar-rupee will open significantly lower due to dollar weakness after the shocking US jobs report. Opening levels for rupee could be around 61.50/USD but expect that level to get supported as importers buy at these levels.”

“The market will trade cautiously ahead of the CPI data. Expect rupee to trade between 61.40-61.80/USD as FIIs will continue to supply dollar in any uptick,” he added.

Third quarter earnings from blue-chips such as TCS, RIL and Wipro and inflation data for December will dictate the near-term trend on the bourses, say

experts. Besides, trend in investment by foreign institutional investors, global cues and movement of rupee against the US dollar will also influence the market trend.

Among major earnings this week are TCS, Axis Bank, Bajaj Auto, HCL Technologies, HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries, ITC and Wipro.

Inflation based on consumer price index will come out on Monday, while that based on wholesale price index will be announced on Wednesday.

According to Bhupali Gursale, Economist, Angel Broking: “In view of continuing sluggishness in growth and with food inflation expected to moderate and bring some respite from elevated headline WPI and CPI inflation prints, we expect the RBI to hold monetary policy rates during its January 28 policy review.”

With inputs from Agencies