Sensex Gains 200 pts At Open, Nifty Near 17,600; NTPC Jumps 3%

Sensex Today: Indian markets opened on a positive note amid mixed global cues on Friday morning. Frontline indices Nifty50 rose over 50 points to trade above 17,600 levels and the S&P BSE Sensex climbed over 200 points to trade at 58,979 levels.

Broader markets, too, reflected similar resilience as Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 surged up to 0.7 per cent.

All sectors opened in the green zone with marginal gains. Nifty Energy bucked the trend as the index gained over 1 per cent in trade.

NTPC, Bajaj Finserv, and Kotak Bank were top contributors to the benchmark indices. Meanwhile, Nestle India and Maruti Suzuki weighed on the indices.

V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said: “Market is back to a phase of high volatility. The recent resilience of the Indian market can be attributed largely to FIIs turning buyers. But this FII bullishness appears to be over in the near term as evidenced by the FII sell figure of Rs 2290 crore yesterday. Also, FIIs are increasing their short positions in derivatives. This is a rational response to the surging dollar index which touched a 20-year high of 109.6% yesterday. This, and the US 10-year bond yield racing to 3.26% are unfavorable for emerging market equities and therefore investors have to be cautious in the near term. US jobs data to be released today and the CPI numbers expected on September 13th will give an indication about the strength of the US economy and its influence on the US Fed’s rate decision later this month.”

“The near-term outlook for the market has turned bearish amidst volatility. Investors can utilise deep cuts in the market to buy domestic cyclicals like autos which are showing strong resilience supported by healthy and improving fundamentals,” he added.

Rupee Opens

The Indian rupee opened marginally lower at 79.63 per dollar on Friday against Thursday’s close of 79.55.

Global Cues

Asian shares were mixed and the dollar stood tall on Friday ahead of a key US jobs report as investors braced for more aggressive rate hikes from the Federal Reserve, while commodities took an overnight dive amid new China lockdowns.

Tokyo stocks traded lower on Friday morning ahead of US jobs data due later in the day. Shares had opened slightly higher, but around half an hour into the session, the benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down 0.16 per cent, or 45.40 points, at 27,616.07, while the broader Topix index was down 0.55 per cent, or 10.56 points, at 1,924.93.

A late rally helped the S&P 500 snap a four-session losing skid on Thursday with investor focus turning to a key report on the labor market on Friday.

Meanwhile, prices of crude oil were steady below $95 per barrel due to demand fears. While Brent Crude hovered around $93 per barrel, WTI Crude was at $87 per barrel.

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