Stock indices cautiously moved up, while the rupee strengthened against the US dollar on Friday.
The rupee has made a strong come back and closed at 61.41 a dollar compared to the previous day’s close of 61.75 on Thursday. The benchmark BSE 30-share Sensitive Index (Sensex) moved up marginally by 38.72 points or 0.18 per cent to close at 20,996.53. It touched a high of 21049.84 intra-day. However, profit-booking pulled it back to close below the 21,000-mark.
Power stocks gained the most with 2.27 per cent followed by consumer durables 1.24 per cent, capital goods 0.81 per cent and metal 0.63 per cent. But the information technology stocks were the lone loser among sectoral indices.
On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the 50-share Nifty closed at 6259.90, up by 18.80 points or 0.30 per cent.
“If the election poll result is decisive and better than the exit poll, markets will see a turnaround in the sentiment of the domestic investors,” said Raamdeo Agrawal, Joint Managing Director, Motilal Oswal Financial Services.
However, he said, stick to buying quality companies with strong fundamentals and not on stocks depended on the outcome of exit poll. He also added that if the election results were on track, market would start moving onto a completely new expectation mode.