Stock mkts end higher on firm global trend

Mumbai: Benchmark stock indices Sensex and Nifty closed with gains in a volatile session on Monday, powered by buying in auto and consumer discretionary shares and a firm trend in global markets. The 30-share BSE Sensex edged higher by 76.54 points or 0.09 per cent to settle at 80,787.30 despite profit-booking by investors in the last hour of the session.

The barometer opened higher and later jumped 460.62 points or 0.57 per cent to a high of 81,171.38 as auto, oil and private bank shares advanced. However, selling in IT and FMCG shares trimmed gains at the fag-end. The 50-share NSE Nifty ended marginally higher by 32.15 points or 0.13 per cent at 24,773.15.

Among Sensex firms, Tata Motors rose the most by 3.97 per cent. Mahindra & Mahindra jumped by 3.96 per cent. Maruti, Adani Ports, Bajaj Finance and UltraTech Cement were also among the gainers. However, Trent declined 3.81 per cent. Asian Paints, HCL Tech, Tech Mahindra, L&T, TCS, Power Grid and Sun Pharma were also among the laggards.

“The domestic market failed to sustain its early gains as a late-session sell-off reflected the prevailing ‘buy-on-dips, sell-on-rallies’ strategy, highlighting investor caution. Auto and ancillary stocks continued to rally on expectations of demand recovery following GST rate cuts, while IT remained weak amid global uncertainties. Globally, sentiment improved after soft US jobs data raised hopes of a Fed rate cut in September,” Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Investments Limited, said.

Among BSE sectoral indices, auto jumped 3.12 per cent. Consumer discretionary (1.13 per cent), services (0.85 per cent), telecommunication (0.71 per cent), realty (0.44 per cent), capital goods (0.37 per cent), metal (0.36 per cent) and commodities (0.33 per cent) also advanced. BSE Focused IT declined 0.91 per cent, followed by IT dropped 0.80 per cent, teck (0.71 per cent), consumer durables (0.71 per cent) and FMCG (0.34 per cent).

As many as 2,286 stocks advanced while 1,940 declined and 181 remained unchanged on the BSE.

“Markets started the week on a positive note and ended with modest gains amid mixed cues. After opening firm above the 24,800 mark, the Nifty gradually moved higher through the day; however, sharp profit-taking in the final hour trimmed the gains. Investor sentiment was supported by the GST rate cut tailwinds and dovish signals from the US Federal Reserve, which bolstered rate-cut hopes after weak US jobs data,” Ajit Mishra - SVP, Research, Religare Broking Ltd, said.

In Asian markets, South Korea’s Kospi, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index, Shanghai’s SSE Composite index and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng settled in positive territory. Markets in Europe were trading higher. US markets ended lower on Friday. The August non-farm payrolls report showed the American economy added just 22,000 jobs, while the unemployment rate rose to 4.3 per cent from 4.2 per cent.

This soft labour data has strengthened hopes of a rate cut by the US Fed. Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 1,304.91 crore on Friday, while Domestic Institutional Investors (DIIs) bought stocks worth Rs 1,821.23 crore, according to exchange data.