Listen To the Market Podcast here
Domestic equity indices BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty closed lower ahead of key macroeconomic data to be released today amid mixed global cues.
Sensex ended 86 points lower at 38,736 on Friday and Nifty50 ended at 11,552, a loss of 30 points.
Traders said markets were subdued ahead of the release of key macroeconomic data, namely Industrial production Y-o-Y, Foreign Exchange Reserves, Inflation Rate YoY and Manufacturing Production YoY, scheduled at 5:00 pm today.
Globally, US might roll back tariffs imposed on some Indian agricultural products such as almonds to restart negotiations on tariffs.
Equity indices opened on a bullish note but pared all early gains to trade in a range throughout the day. Sensex opened 117 points higher at 38,941.10 against previous close of 38,823.1 and Nifty50 started the day' at 11,601.15, up by 19 points against the last close of 11,582.
Top gainers on NSE included Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Vedanta, Hero MotoCorp & Sun Pharma, while Wipro, IndusInd Bank, Bajaj Finance, L&T and ONGC were among the top losers.
On the sectoral front, while metal and realty were among the top indices that traded on a bullish note, banks, auto, financial Services, FMCG, energy and infra ended logged major decline.
Shares of Infosys rose over 1% ahead of the company's Q1 earnings, while IndusInd bank lost 1% after declaring Q1 earnings. Karnataka Bank, Reliance Industries Infrastructure are also subjected to release their quarterly results today, as per data available with exchanges.
On the currency front, Indian Rupee opened at 68.45 from its last close of 68.43 at the interbank forex market and gained further to 68.42 against the US dollar.
Forex traders said the rupee is trading in a narrow range today. Release of key macroeconomic data, rising crude oil prices, foreign fund outflows and cautious opening in domestic equities, weighed on the domestic currency. Although, the weakening of the greenback for the 3rd consecutive day overseas supported the local unit.
Meanwhile, brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, rose 0.68 per cent to USD 66.97 per barrel. Oil prices hovered near six-week highs on Friday, after US oil producers in the Gulf of Mexico cut more than half of their output due to tropical storm amid tensions in the Middle East. Later, global benchmark Brent crude further gained 0.77% to $67.03 per barrel.
On the global front, markets traded mixed. Asian markets opened on a cautious note ahead of the release of China's economic data, that showed Beijing's exports falling in June. Later in the day, shares dipped in Australia and Japan and posted modest gains in Hong Kong, China and South Korea.
Another development was Donald Trump putting a damper on trade deal hopes as he mentioned on Thursday that China was not living up to promises it made on buying agricultural products from American farmers.
Stocks in Europe climbed alongside US equity futures on optimistic hopes after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, indicated that the central bank trigger a Fed rate cut in coming weeks, to support the economy.
"Uncertainties around trade tensions and concerns about the strength of the global economy continue to weigh on the US economic outlook," Powell said in his opening comments to the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday.
Edited by Rupa Burman Roy