SENSEX breaks three session losing run

Indian equity benchmarks snapped their three-session, losing run on Friday by clocking handsome gains of over a percent in the session, buoyed by strengthening sentiment across the Asian markets, as a Sino-US trade deal looked more imminent.

Key gauges traded on positive note since the beginning, as traders took support with reports of the Reserve Bank of India announcing a  simultaneous purchase and sale of government securities through special open market operations (OMOs) for Rs 10,000 crore each on December 30 following a review of liquidity situation. Traders also took note of ICRA’s report that is aided by better recoveries and declining slippages. The overall net non-performing assets (NPAs) of the banking sector are likely to improve to 3.2-3.3 per cent from 3.7 per cent in September 2019 by the end of this fiscal.

Investors even overlooked private report indicating that the government could miss its FY20 divestment target by as much as Rs 50,000 crore. Besides, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) raised doubts over India's methodology to calculate gross domestic product (GDP) numbers, saying certain changes to historical series and discrepancies between GDP by activity and GDP by expenditure have made the growth calculation process complex. Textile stocks were in the focus with the report that suggests that the operating margin of domestic cotton yarn spinners is expected to shrink by 2-4 percentage points in the 2020 over higher domestic cotton prices and a sharp fall in exports.

The BSE Sensex ended at 41,575.14, up by 411.38 points or 1 per cent after trading in a range of 41,264.92 and 41594.1. There were 26 stocks advancing against 4 stocks declining on the index. The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.93 per cent while Small cap index was up by 0.88 per cent.

The top gaining sectoral indices on BSE were PSU up by 1.82 per cent, Energy up by 1.78 per cent, Realty up by 1.68 per cent, Telecom up by 1.46 per cent, and Oil & Gas up by 1.37 per cent while Consumer Durables down by 0.09 per cent was the lone losing index on BSE.

On the Sensex, the top gainers were Axis Bank up by 3.33 per cent, Power Grid up by 2.27 per cent, SBI up by 2.24 per cent, ICICI Bank up by 1.93 per cent, and Bharti Airtel up by 1.89 per cent. On the flip side, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.42 per cent, TCS down by 0.13 per cent, Titan Co down by 0.17 per cent, and Ultratech Cement down by 0.11 per cent, were the top losers.