Sensex rises nearly 300 points, Nifty at 10,342 on BJP win in Himachal, Gujarat exit polls

The Sensex and Nifty were trading higher in afternoon trade after exit polls predicted a BJP win in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat. At 11:51 am, Sensex gained 277 points to 33,523 and Nifty was up 91 points to 10,343. Here are the key highlights, which will affect the market today.

11:00 am: Slamming demonetisation, former chief economic adviser Kaushik Basu said it was not a targeted approach to deal with corruption. "The economy has slowed down as a consequence of that because it was not a targeted attack on corruption at all. My own calculation is that about 3 percentage points of the economy has slowed down because of demonetisation," he said.

10:45 am: HDFC Bank and Maruti Suzuki are among key stocks to hit fresh  52 week highs on the BSE.

10:30 AM: ICICI Bank (Rs 252.65 cr), Bharti Airtel (Rs 165.75 cr) and Axis Bank (Rs 19.16 cr) are among top stocks in terms of turnover on the BSE.

10:15 am: OPEC expects the world oil market to be balanced by late 2018 as its deal with other producers to cut output reduces excess oil in storage. OPEC cut its estimate of global demand for its crude in 2018 by 270,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 33.15 million bpd, in part because of higher US supply.

9:51 am: BSE Bankex too rises 350 points to 28,809 level.

9:49 am: Bank Nifty rises 371 points to 25,539 level.

9:41 am: Nifty PSU bank, metal, realty, auto, midcap and smallcap indices soar over 1 percent in early trade.

9:40 am: Rupee hits a near three-month high of 64.11 at opening hour.

9: 30 am: HDFC Bank (2.62%), Bajaj Auto (2.03%), L&T (2.01%) top Sensex gainers.

9: 18 am: Market breadth is positive with 1368 stocks rising against 282 falling on BSE.

9:17 am: Meanwhile Asian shares edged higher on Friday, on track for weekly gains, though sentiment was kept in check by Wall Street's weakness on concerns about the progress of US tax reform. Japan's Nikkei stock index slipped 0.8 percent, down 1.3 percent for the week, feeling the pinch of a stronger yen even amid fresh signs the economy is gathering momentum. On Wall Street on Thursday, major U.S. stock indexes fell, with the S&P 500 down the most in a month, as investor worries over potential roadblocks to the Republicans' tax overhaul more than offset optimism over the strong data.