Equity Markets Show Strength

Buying continue unabated as the key benchmark indices hit fresh intraday high in mid-morning trade. At 11:21 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 184.44 points or 0.54% at 34,285.57. The Nifty 50 index was up 52.70 points or 0.50% at 10,511.35. Nifty was trading above the 10,500 mark.

The key indices opened higher and firmed up further as the session progressed. The Sensex rose 186.99 points, or 0.55% at the days high of 34,288.12 in mid-morning trade, its highest intraday level since 28 February 2018. The index rose 53.81 points, or 0.16% at the days low of 34,154.94 in early trade. The Nifty rose 54.65 points, or 0.52% at the days high of 10,513.30 in mid-morning trade, its highest intraday level since 1 March 2018. The index rose 17.15 points, or 0.16% at the days low of 10,475.80 in early trade.

Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.81%. The BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.77%. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.

The broad market depicted strength as 1,448 shares rose and 821 shares fell on BSE.

Overseas, Asian stock markets gave up some of their early gains Friday after China reported a surprise trade deficit for March. Chinas trade balance swung to a deficit of $4.98 billion in March from a $33.7 billion surplus in the previous month. Exports declined 2.7% in March from a year earlier, following a 44.5% surge in February. Imports in March expanded 14.4% from a year earlier, compared with a 6.8% increase in February.

US stocks closed sharply higher on Thursday, as geopolitical concerns appeared to fade after President Donald Trump tweeted that a military strike on Syria may not be imminent. Escalating tensions over the Middle Eastern country were seen as a major contributor to weakness in Wednesdays session.

Back home, cement shares were mixed. ACC (up 0.27%) and UltraTech Cement (up 0.23%), edged higher. Ambuja Cements was down 0.13%.

Grasim Industries was down 0.12%. Grasim has exposure to cement sector through its holding in UltraTech Cement.

Most telecom shares rose. Reliance Communications (up 1.35%), Idea Cellular (up 1.30%) and Bharti Airtel (up 0.58%), edged higher. MTNL (down 0.73%) and Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) (down 1.79%), edged lower.

Telecom tower infrastructure provider Bharti Infratel was up 1.99%.

On macro front, the all-India general consumer price index (CPI) inflation eased marginally to five-month low of 4.28% in March 2018, compared with 4.44% in February 2018.

Indias industrial production continued to record a healthy growth for the fourth straight month at 7.1% in February 2018 over February 2017. The manufacturing sectors production surged 8.7% in February 2018, contributing to the overall growth in industrial production. However, the growth of electricity generation output moderated to 4.5%, while the mining output declined 0.3% in February 2018.