Business News
Sensex up 101 points to 33,895; rupee rises by 14 paise against dollar
Mumbai: The benchmark BSE Sensex was trading higher by 101.89 points or 0.30 percent at 33,895.27 at 1220 hrs on buying in metal, capital goods, consumer durables, finance, banks and energy sectors on the back of higher Asian cues.
Oil prices hovering at 2 1/2-year highs on Iran’s anti-government protests raising concerns about supplies restricted the stocks’ movement in morning trade.
However, gains in Tata Steel, Dr Reddy’s, SBI, Coal India, L&T, Asian Paint, HDFC Bank, ITC and Reliance Industries helped the indices to break three-day falling trend.
Losers include Sun Pharma 1.36 percent, Tata Motors DVR 1.31 percent, Tata Motors 0.82 percent, Hero MotoCorp 0.63 percent and Wipro 0.66 percent.
The broader Nifty was trading above 10,450 level in afternoon trade as 26 of its 50 constituents advanced. The index was up 30.85 or 0.30 percent at 10,474.05.
Most Asian markets were trading higher as solid economic data from the United States and Germany reinforced investors’ optimism.
Tokyo’s benchmark Nikkei index rose by over 3 percent to a fresh 26-year high on the first trading day of 2018, taking a positive cues from US markets. The index surged 3.26 percent, or 741.39 points, to close at 23,506.33, the highest since January 1992.
The rupee pared its early losses to recover by 14 paise to 63.39 per dollar in afternoon deals on good bouts of dollar selling from banks and exporters.
The rupee opened lower at 63.59 per dollar from Wednesday’s closing level of 63.53 a dollar at the inter-bank foreign exchange market on Thursday.
Later, it fell to 63.62 a dollar before rebounding to 63.50 on dollar selling by banks. It was quoting at 63.39 at 1210 hrs.
The domestic unit hovered between 63.62 and 63.36 per dollar during morning deals.
The US dollar extended gains against basket of currencies in early Asian trade, after upbeat US data and supportive minutes from the Federal Reserve’s latest policy meeting helped it shake off recent weakness.
