Markets rebound after 3-day decline, Banks, Metal stocks lead gains

After three consecutive sessions of losses equity benchmark indices rebounded on Friday driven by buying in banks, financial services and metal stocks. At close, the Sensex was up 218.14 points or 0.27 percent at 81,224.75, and the Nifty was up 104.20 points or 0.42 percent at 24,854.05.About 1833 shares advanced, 1928 shares declined, and 106 shares unchanged.Axis Bank, Wipro, Eicher Motors, ICICI Bank, Shriram Finance the top gainers on the Nifty, while losers included Infosys, Britannia Industries, Nestle India, HUL and Asian Paints.
On the sectoral front, bank and metal rose more than 1 percent each, while IT index was down more than 1 percent and FMCG index was down 0.5 percent. BSE smallcap indices ended in the red, while Midcap index ended marginally higher.
Market This Week
● Market posts weekly losses for 3rd straight week, longest losing streak of 2024,
●Friday’s surge helps market cuts weekly loss, Sensex & Nifty down 0.2-0.4 percent,
●Financials outperform this week led by ICICI Bank & HDFC Bk, Nifty Bank up 2 percent.
Rupee Close:
On 18 Oct'24,the Indian rupee hit its all-time low on Friday pressured by equity outflows but managed to avert a sharp fall on account of sustained dollar sales from state-run banks, most likely on behalf of the Reserve Bank of India, according to information.
The rupee closed at 84.0650 against the U.S. dollar on Friday versus Thursday's close of 84.0675.
Trading Guide:
Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services reportedly quoted as saying,after the morning sell-off, the market bounced from the oversold level driven by selective buying in financials, auto and metals stocks. Initial set of results from private banks were positive, building an expectation that the upcoming set of financial results in the weekends will also be optimistic. The metals also performed well, benefiting from a slightly better-than- expected growth in China’s Q3 GDP. Consecutive rate cuts by the ECB supported rate sensitive stocks.
Market experts have  recommended six stocks to buy today-State Bank of India, HEG Ltd, SeQuent Scientific Ltd,HCL Technologies, National Aluminium Co., and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd.

(Business Correspondent)