Sensex, Nifty end in green; Godrej Industries up 10%

Domestic markets ended in green. Sensex closed at 28,226.61, up 84.97 points or 0.30%, while Nifty at 8,734.25, up 17.85 points or 0.20%. 

Domestic markets recovered during the afternoon trade. At 1430 hours Sensex was trading at 28,254.42, up 112.78 points or 0.40%, while Nifty was trading at 8,745.05, up 28.65 points or 0.33%. 

Shares of Automobile companies plunged after the industry reported mixed sales numbers for the month of January.

Auto sector was trading down 219.23 points at 1349 hours. Bajaj Auto (-1.35%), Bosch (-1.37%), Tata Motors (-2.22%), Mahindra & Mahindra (-2.73%), Hero MotoCorp (-0.90%) were top losers.

The rupee remained in the positive territory today -- at 67.42 per dollar -- after the US Federal Reserve decided to hold rates and struck a cautious tone about any future hike.

Shares of Godrej Properties jumped on Thursday ahead of its quarterly financial result annuncement. At 1129 hours the shares of the company were trading at Rs 355.20 per piece, up 1.95% or Rs 6.80 on BSE. 

On 30-share benchmark, among top gainers were ITC (2.73%), NTPC (1.82%), Bharti Airtel (1.72%), ONGC (1.42%) and Sun Pharma (1.30%). Among losers were Mahindra & Mahindra (-2.04%), Tata Motors (-1.86%), Wipro (-1.70%), HDFC (-1.52%) and GAIL (-1.50%). 

Domestic markets on Thursday opened marginally up. But soon it slipped in red. At 0924 hours the Sensex was trading at 28,109.31, down 32.33 points or 0.11%, while, Nifty was at 8,708.40, down 8% or 0.09%. 

On domestic front, here are the top stocks which will be in  focus today:

Tata Motors: On Wednesday the company reported 1% decline in its passenger and commercial vehicle total sales to 46,349 vehicles in the month of January over 47,035 vehicles sold in the same month last year. 

Apollo Tyres: The company reported 6% increase in consolidated net profit to Rs 296 crore during the quarter ended on December 31 as against Rs 279 crore during the same period last year. 

Eicher Motors: Eicher Motors sold 59,676 units last month, up from 47,710 units sold in January 2016.

Quarterly results today: Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, Godrej Properties, Dr Lal PathLabs and Marico will be announcing their financial result for the third quarter of the current fiscal. 

Domestic markets on Thursday trade flat during the pre-open market session. At 0902 hours Sensex was trading at 28,154.34, up 12.70 points or 0.16%, while Nifty was at 8717.35, up 0.95 points or 0.01%.

Asian shares ticked up while the dollar was capped on Thursday after the US Federal Reserve stuck to its mildly upbeat economic view but gave no hint of any immediate rate hike, as reported by Reuters. 

While strong economic data from the United States and elsewhere underpinned risk assets, uncertainty and concerns over US President Donald Trump's policies are leaving markets on edge.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gained 0.2% while Japan's Nikkei also ticked up 0.05%, the report said. 

Domestic markets on Thursday will be closely watched after closing nearly 2% up on Wednesday after the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented Union Budget 2017-18 in the Parliament. 

Two major events- Elections in five states, which will be starting from February 4 and Monetary Policy, which is scheduled for February 8, will keep the markets volatile. 

Yesterday, Nifty saw biggest Budget day jump since 2005. It ended at 8,716.40, up 1.81% or 155.10 points, while Sensex closed at 28,141.64, up 1.76% or 485.68 points.