Sensex, Nifty extend gains as oil & gas, metal stocks shine

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Benchmark BSE Sensex rose by 130 points while Nifty extended gains for a fifth straight session in a range-bound trade on Friday as oil and gas, metal and power shares advanced. Recovering from its early losses, the 30-share BSE index ended 130.18 points or 0.22 percent higher at 59,462.78 as 13 of its constituents ended in the green.

The barometer opened lower and fell by over 200 points to a day's low of 59,113.01 due to profit booking in IT, auto and pharma stocks. The broader NSE Nifty advanced 39.15 points or 0.22 percent to close at 17,698.15, marking its fifth straight session of gains. Oil & gas, metal and power stocks ended with gains whereas healthcare and IT stocks declined. The key indices also registered their fourth straight week of gains as Sensex rose by 1,074 percent or 1.83 percent and Nifty by 300 points or 1.95 percent on weekly basis.

A largely positive trend in global equities and foreign capital inflows also supported the domestic equity markets, traders said. However, IT and healthcare stocks remained a drag on the indices, they added. Brokers said investors picked up fundamentally strong stocks ahead of the Index of Industrial Production and the consumer inflation data to be released after market hours. NTPC was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, climbing 3.26 percent, followed by Tata Steel, PowerGrid, ICICI Bank, SBI and ITC.

Reliance Industries rose by 1.64 percent as oil prices recovered. On the other hand, Infosys, Maruti, L&T, Tech Mahindra, Sun Pharma and HUL were among the laggards. Infosys fell the most by 1.56 percent among Sensex shares. "Return of FIIs and declining dollar index aided the market rally. While metals and oil & gas garnered buying interest, IT and pharma weighed on sentiments. Oil and gas stocks were in focus as the government diverted some natural gas from industries to city gas operators in an effort to moderate the prices of CNG and piped cooking gas," Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, said.

Amol Athawale, Deputy Vice President - Technical Research, Kotak Securities, said that benchmark indices settled higher for the fourth straight week ahead of India's retail inflation data. In an extremely volatile trading session, metal and private banks indices outperformed. The metal index rallied over 4.5 percent and Private Banks rallied over 3.5 percent, Athawale said. "Markets consolidated in a narrow range and ended marginally higher, taking a breather after the recent surge. After the flat start, the tone was positive for most of the session however profit taking in the last two hours trimmed the gains, Ajit Mishra, VP - Research, Religare Broking Ltd said.

World stocks headed for a fourth straight week of gains as investors scaled back views on how far U.S. interest rates and inflation can climb, while oil recouped some of the previous week's losses, Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research, HDFC Securities, said. Siddhartha Khemka, Head - Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd, said that global as well as domestic indices saw a lackluster movement after US Fed officials commented that they would continue its hawkish rate hikes until data show further slowing in inflation.

Market breadth was in favor of the bears, with 17 of the 30 Sensex counters registering losses. Sectorally, BSE power, oil&gas, metal and energy climbed up to 2.47 percent, while IT, healthcare and auto suffered losses. Broader markets were up, with the BSE midcap index advancing 0.15 percent and the smallcap gauge rising 0.39 percent.

Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in Hong Kong, Tokyo and Seoul ended with gains, while Shanghai closed in the red. Equities in Europe were trading higher in mid-session deals. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net buyers in the Indian capital market as they purchased shares worth Rs 2,298.08 crore on Thursday, according to exchange data. Meanwhile, the international oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 0.40 percent higher at USD 100 per barrel.