The rupee also settled with a marginal gain of 5 paise at 73.02 against the US dollar on Friday, as the domestic equities continued their record-setting spree. At the interbank forex market, the local unit opened at 73.05 against the greenback and witnessed an intra-day high of 73.01 and a low of 73.15.
During the session, RIL gained 4.1% after its chairman Mukesh Ambani detailed the company’s alternative energy strategy. He was speaking at a global energy conference. As a result, RIL contributed 278 points to the sensex, along with Infosys, Titan and others. Selling in HDFC Bank, HDFC and HUL, among others, limited gains in the index. Had it not been for RIL, the sensex would probably have closed in the red, dealers said.
According to Motilal Oswal Financial Services head (retail research) Siddhartha Khemka, liquidity in the domestic market has been strong for the past couple of days with foreign funds’ net-buying at over Rs 6,000 crore in the last four sessions. “Further, strong service PMI data and healthy GST collection numbers boosted market sentiments,” Khemka said.
Writing in a post-market note, Khemka referred to India’s services PMI for August — at 56.7, up from 45.4 in July — indicating the fastest growth in over 18 months, while the GST collection remained above the Rs 1-lakh-crore mark for the second consecutive month at Rs 1.12 lakh crore, also for August.
Outside of the sensex stocks, HDFC Life Insurance announced it will buy out the promoters in Exide Life Insurance for Rs 6,687 crore through a mix of cash and stocks. HDFC Life stock, however, closed 3.2% lower as market players believe the price was on the higher side. On the other hand, Exide Industries closed 6.3% higher.
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