Opening Bell: Sensex rises 100 points on Fed Chief's dovish stance on rate hike, Nifty below 10,850 mark

The BSE sensitive index Sensex rose over 75 points to 36,182 while Nifty rose to near 20 points to 18,848, below 18,850 — a psychological level — in early trade on Friday. Market experts are looking at this rally as the Indian market's response to the Fed chief's 'no rate hike' announcement on Thursday. Power, infra, and auto stocks were among the top gainers while real estate, oil and gas, energy shares were in the negative zone.

Commenting upon the trend of the market Pradeep Kumar Kesavan, Chief Financial Analyst at Elara Securities informed in a written press statement, "Banking sector stocks would drive the Indian equity index performance while energy and auto sector stocks are expected to drag market performance." 

Kesavan went on to add, "The impact of declining crude prices would be felt the most in the energy space due to inventory losses (energy PAT down 23.8 percent YoY). NBFC is expected to bear the brunt of tightening liquidity, down 18.6 percent YoY, whereas banks would benefit, up 69.0percent YoY, due to improving credit-deposit ratios and improvement in pricing power, given the stress in the NBFC space. Softening coal and diesel prices coupled with operating leverage benefits would benefit cement, up 39.1 percent YoY, while a sharp ramp-up in execution is likely to boost infrastructure, up 20.4 percent. Healthcare, up 9.5 percent, would benefit from seasonal strength of Q3 (flu season) while a strong business outlook and receding benefits of rupee depreciation are likely to reflect in IT, up 3.5 percent YoY. Auto would face a challenging quarter, down 27.9 percent YoY, on lacklustre festival sales and elevated cost of ownership."

Among top gaining stocks today, Vakrangee Limited led from the front by logging around 4.85 percent gain from its previous close. Vakrangee Limited was followed by HFCL, Adani Transmission, KRBL and Repco Home Finance shares that registered 4.5 percent, 4.3 percent, 3.4 percent and 2.7 percent respectively. Among top losing stocks Tata Steel continue to lead the table by  shedding around 10 percent, Sobha limited lost by 3.3 percent, IL&FS Transportation Networks went northward by more than 2 percent. hexaware stock went down by around 2.62 percent.

Power major Adani Transmission gained by around 5.5 percent, Torrent Power was up by half a percent while GMR Infra was down by near one percent. In auto stocks, Tata Motors and Motehrson Sumi Systems went up by around 1 percent, TVS Motors went up by around 0.3 percent while shares like Appollo Tyres, Ashoka Leyland, Bharat Forge and Eicher Motors went southward. Tech stocks too had some rally at the Indian indices. Tech major Himachal Futuristic Communication registered more than 3.5 percent gain from its Thursday close while Sterlite Technologies went up by 0.9 percent, Reliance Communication logged more than 0.5 percent gain.

Asian stocks inched higher to one-month highs on Friday, after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell reiterated the U.S. central bank can be patient on raising interest rates further. But the rally's momentum slowed partly as investors sought more clarity on whether the United States and China could make headway on their talks on trade as well as intellectual property (IP) rights. US President Donald Trump had earlier on Thursday said that Washington was having "tremendous success" in its trade negotiations with China.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan edged 0.2 percent higher, while Japan`s benchmark Nikkei advanced 1.1 percent in early trade. Wall Street extended its rally into a fifth straight day on Thursday in a whipsaw trading session as investors responded to mixed comments by Powell, while a warning from Macy`s pummelled retail stocks.

On Wall Street, stocks rose in a choppy session, having shrugged off a hit to retail stocks after Macy's Inc cut its full-year profit and comparable sales forecast. The S&P 500 retail index fell 0.4 percent, and Macy`s shares sank 17.7 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 122.8 points, or 0.51 percent, to close at 24,001.92, the S&P 500 gained 11.68 points, or 0.45 percent, to finish at 2,596.64 and the Nasdaq Composite added 28.99 points, or 0.42 percent, to end at 6,986.07.