Indian stock markets extended their bull run on Friday, taking off from the 333-point Sensex rally and the 1.50 percent Nifty gain on Wednesday. At around 10.05 am, the Sensex was trading 167 points higher at 27,875, led by Axis Bank, GAIL (India), NTPC and ICICI Bank, while the NSE Nifty was up 47 points at 8,650.
Read: Sector-wise analysis and stock picks by Motilal Oswal Securities
IT software services exporter Wipro was subdued with a loss of 0.64 percent at Rs 470 after declaring weak Q3 results on Wednesday though the Q4 IT revenue guidance was higher.
On Wednesday, the US stock markets witnessed history when the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) crossed the 20,000-mark for the first time. The index rallied 9.5 percent since President Donald Trump's victory over his rival Hillary Clinton on November 8, 2016, reported Marketwatch.
It also marked the second-fastest, 1,000-point rally on the DJIA, taking 42 days to climb from 19,000, enabled by expectations of of a slew of "pro-business policies, including a rollback of regulations, tax cuts and fiscal spending," the Marketwatch report said.
HDFC Bank was trading with marginal gains of 0.83 percent at Rs 1,298 despite news of India's second-largest private sector lender reporting a fall in its headcount between Q2 and Q3 this fiscal.
"Nifty has now rallied by about 9 percent in a month. Global cues have been quite strong as well. With expectations of budget getting built up and consumption scenario returning to normal, domestic consumption stocks, housing finance, infra stocks could continue to remain in focus," Motilal Oswal Securities said in a note on Friday.
Finance minister Arun Jaitley is set to create history by presenting India's first unified budget, after the Modi government decided to scrap the 92-year-old tradition of having a separate budget for Indian Railways, the world's fourth-largest rail network. Budget 2017 is scheduled to be presented on February 1 and will be the fourth by the Modi government; it will come amid expectations of tax incentives for individuals and a likely stimulus to revive a note ban-hit economy.
Bharat Electronics Ltd. (BEL), ITC and Sundaram Finance will be declaring their December quarter results today.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs/FPIs) have also turned bullish on Indian stocks; they were net buyers of Indian equities worth Rs 1,379 crore on Wednesday and "this could continue to fuel positive sentiment," Motilal Oswal said in its note.
