Key indices held firm near day's high in mid-morning trade. At 11:15 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 239.28 points or 0.63% at 37,957.24. The Nifty 50 index was up 91.95 points or 0.81% at 11,461.85. Positive leads from Asian markets and overnight gains on the Wall Street boosted investors sentiment.
The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was strong. On BSE, 1690 shares rose and 596 shares fell. A total of 123 shares were unchanged.
Most IT stocks declined. MindTree (down 1.3%), MphasiS (down 1.25%), HCL Technologies (down 0.5%), Infosys (down 0.5%), Wipro (down 0.32%), Hexaware Technologies (down 0.26%), Oracle Financial Services Software (down 0.15%) and TCS (down 0.13%), edged lower. Tech Mahindra (up 0.51%) and Persistent Systems (up 1.29%), edged higher.
Pharmaceutical shares rose. Aurobindo Pharma (up 3.60%), Piramal Enterprises (up 3.33%), Glenmark Pharmaceuticals (up 3.01%), Wockhardt (up 2.98%), IPCA Laboratories (up 2.22%), Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (up 2.09%), Cadila Healthcare (up 2.06%), Dr Reddy's Laboratories (up 1.99%), Divi's Laboratories (up 1.96%), Lupin (up 1.85%), Cipla (up 1.70%), Strides Shasun (up 1.10%) and GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals (up 0.26%), edged higher. Alkem Laboratories was down 1.43%.
Vedanta was up 3.49%. The company notified on 13 September 2018, the management committee, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) of a hydrocarbon Discovery in well A3-2 within its operated block KG-OSN-2009/3 within Krishna-Godavari Basin, Vedanta holds 100% participating interest in the block. A3-2 is the first exploration well drilled within the KG-OSN-2009/3 block. Multiple reservoir zones were encountered in the Mesozoic rift formation between the depths of 3351-3944m MDBRT with indications of hydrocarbon during drilling and formation evaluations. Down hole formation tester (MDT) sampled oil and gas from the zones of interest. The zone from 3610-3715m MDBRT flowed gas to surface during well testing. Further appraisal will be required to assess the potential commerciality of this Mesozoic rift discovery.
On the data front, India's industrial production (base year 2011-12=100) growth remained nearly flat and healthy at 6.6% in July 2018, compared with 6.9% growth recorded in June 2018. The industrial production growth for June 2018 has been revised marginally downwards from 7% increase reported provisionally. The data was announced after market hours on Wednesday, 12 September 2018.
The all-India general consumer price inflation (CPI) inflation dipped 3.69% in August 2018 (new base 2012=100), compared with 4.17% in July 2018. The corresponding provisional inflation rate for rural area was 3.41% and urban area 3.99% in August 2018 as against 4.11% and 4.32% in July 2018. The core CPI inflation declined to 5.90% in August 2018 compared with 6.29% in July 2018. The data was announced after market hours on Wednesday, 12 September 2018.
Overseas, Asia markets were trading higher. The gains, however, were tampered by enduring concerns around trade following a tweet from US President Donald Trump.
Trump said on Thursday that Washington was "under no pressure to make a deal with China, they are under pressure to make a deal with us." He added that the US "will soon be taking in billions in tariffs & making products at home."
Trump's response came after reports on Wednesday said the US was seeking to restart trade negotiations with China as the two economic powerhouses remain locked in conflict with no resolution in sight.
Meanwhile, China reported better-than-expected industrial output and retail sales on Friday, but a key investment gauge fell to a fresh record low. Industrial output rose 6.1% in August from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said, a tick better than July. But production of key goods including motor vehicles and transport equipment actually fell. Output of cars barely grew, while crude steel production increased by just a third of the pace in the previous month. Retail sales rose 9% on-year. Fixed-asset investment growth slowed to 5.3% in January-August from the same period a year earlier, weighed down once again by slowing infrastructure growth.
US stocks closed higher Thursday, with the S&P 500 up for a fourth straight session on the back of strong technology shares. News that China may be receptive to overtures from the US on new talks also soothed trade-related jitters.
On the US data front, the consumer-price index rose by 0.2% in August, its fifth straight increase. Separately, initial jobless claims fell slightly in the latest week, coming in at a 49-year low.
Meanwhile, the European Central Bank (ECB) made no change on interest rates, and repeated that it does not expect any changes until summer 2019 at least as it remains on track to end its bond-buying program in December. The ECB slightly trimmed its GDP growth forecasts for both 2018 and 2019, and ECB President Mario Draghi said that risks to the euro area's growth outlook were "broadly balanced."
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