Sensex up 200 pts, Nifty 50 eyes 10800-mark; Yes Bank loses more of its shine post Moody's blast

Dalal Street, as expected, opened on a positive note with,Sensex trading at 35,633.41 above 120.37 points or 0.34%, whereas Nifty 50 edged higher by 24.40 points or 0.23% at around 09:17 hours. Within a few minutes of opening, Sensex gained more than 164 points, however, the index was trading at 35,674.74, up by 161.60 points or 0.46%, while Nifty 50 was heading above 39.25 points or 0.37% trading at 10,724.85 at around 09:30 hours. In pre-market opening, the Sensex was trading between 35,500 to 35,600-level. Meanwhile, the global peers dithered on Wednesday, on the other hand, the dollar jumped to near 1-1/2-year high as risk assets rowed back amid conflicting signals on prospects for de-escalating the Sino-U.S. trade dispute. Coming to Indian currency, the rupee slightly appreciated in the opening bell against US benchmark dollar index at interbank forex market. 

On Sensex, the top gainers list included IndusInd Bank, which took the lead by trading at Rs 1613.25 per piece, up by 1.82%, followed by Infosys at Rs 647.45 per piece, up by 1.64%, TCS at Rs 1910.50 per piece, above by 1.04%, Hero Motocorp at Rs 2997 per piece,  up by 1% and Sun Pharma at Rs 497.60 per piece, above by 0.81%. 

On the other hand, the losers list included, no surprise, Yes Bank taking the top spot, trading at Rs 175.40 per piece, down by 4.23%, followed by ONGC at Rs 145.30 below 0.68% and Vedanta at Rs 144.85 per piece below 0.61%. There were companies like NTPC, Adani Ports and Coal India also tumbling between 0.20% to 0.50%. 

The decline in Yes Bank was due to ratings provided by Moody's Investor Services, who raised a red flag on the bank, by downgrading  the bank's outlook ahead with a negative opinion. The issues highlighted by Moody's paints a very cautious picture for investors on Yes Bank shares.

Giving rationale to their rating, Moody's raised concerns over corporate governance. The agency considers the resignation of various members of the bank's Board of Directors -- which, when seen in conjunction with the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) directive in September 2018 to restrict the term of the bank's MD&CEO as well as founder, Rana Kapoor, till 31 January, 2019. 

Analysts at ICICI Securities in today's trading session said, "Indian markets are expected to open positive tracking upbeat global cues. Key monitorables, going ahead, include global newsflows, FII flows, state elections, etc."

Moreover, the Indian Rupee was trading at 70.865 below 0.020 points or 0.04% against US dollar.

According to Reuters report, MSCI`s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan see-sawed between positive and negative territory and last was flat. Australian and South Korean stocks were both down 0.2 percent. 

It needs to be noted that, apart from global peers, crude oil prices, rupee and Q2FY19 corporate performance, the Indian markets will also react on the back of India's GDP numbers which will be presented this Friday for Q2FY19.