Sensex ends marginally higher; oil & gas, capital goods stocks major gainers

The Sensex and Nifty recovered from the previous session's multi-month lows to end marginally higher, led by software firm Tata Consultancy Services on upbeat quarterly profit, but a revenue forecast cut by smaller rival Infosys weighed on the technology index.

Domestic sentiment was also buoyed as retail inflation eased to a 13-month low as food items such as vegetables and pulses became cheaper.

However, gains were limited as

Infosys shares tumbled as much as 5.3 per cent to their lowest since July 20, 2015 after the country's second-largest IT services firm cut its fiscal-year revenue growth target for a second time in three months on an uncertain business outlook.

The 30-share BSE index Sensex ended higher by 30.49 points or 0.11 per cent at 27,673.60 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty ended up 10.05 points or 0.12 per cent at 8,583.40.

Among BSE sectoral indices, oil & gas index was the star-performer and was up 2.2 per cent, capital goods 1.56 per cent, infrastructure 1.48 per cent and PSU 0.85 per cent. On the other hand, TECk index was down 0.73 per cent, metal 0.52 per cent, and IT 0.5 per cent.

Top five Sensex gainers were GAIL (+4.05%), L&T (+2.51%), Tata Motors (+2.05%), Reliance (+1.94%) and Power Grid (+1.69%), while the major losers were Infosys (-2.34%), HUL (-2.32%), HDFC (-1.44%), Lupin (-1.09%) and M&M (-0.88%).

“I would pencil-in another 25 basis point cut (in repo rate), if not in December then definitely in March, as inflation numbers have come down,” said Ravi Sunder Muthukrishnan, head - strategic research group at ICICI Securities.

Global markets

European shares rose on Friday to claw back ground from losses in the previous session, with mining and telecom stocks outperforming.

Asian stocks and the dollar bounced on Friday, erasing some losses from the previous day, as stronger-than-expected Chinese inflation data eased some concerns about the health of world’s second-biggest economy.