Market Update
The Sensex bucked the trend in Asian trading Friday as India's opposing Bharatiya Janata Party swept to a comprehensive victory by a margin not seen in the last thirty years.
The Sensex was up 3.4% at the time of writing. Earlier, it surged 4.5% creating another fresh record as early counting showed the BJP would rout the ruling Congress Party that has been plagued by corruption and misgovernance.
The rupee also gained as the dollar fell below the 59 rupee level, a drop of 1%.
Meanwhile, other Asian markets declined following a weak closing on Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei was down 1.4%. The Shanghai Composite traded flat while the Hang Seng was down 0.3%, snapping six straight sessions of gains. The All Ordinaries was down 0.6%.
Data out in China showed foreign direct investment in the country slowed in April. China’s own investments overseas also declined.
In Japan, data showed industrial production in April rose more-than-expected to a seasonally adjusted 0.7%.
Stocks on the Move
Tokyo stocks were additionally pressured by a stronger yen.
Japan Display shares plunged 12.1% after the company projected a pretax loss of 3.2 billion yen for the April-September quarter and a 21% decline in full-year profit.
Sony was down a further 2.9% while Sharp Corp. and Olympus fell 2.8% each respectively. Panasonic was off 2.4% while NEC Corp. and Fujitsu declined about a percent each.
Konami fell 3.3%.
Top weighted HSBC was up 0.8% in Hong Kong following gains in its London-listed shares Thursday.
But other banks were all lower with ICBC down 0.2% and AgBank down 0.3%. China CITIC Bank fell 1.1% while insurers Ping An and China Life Insurance were down half a percent and 1% each, respectively.
First Pacific was up 0.2% after it said along with Wilmar they would increase their offer price for Australia’s Goodman Fielder. Down under, Goodman Fielder shares were in a trading halt.
Stocks gained across the board in Mumbai with the feel-good sentiment pervading all corners of the market.
Banks led the gains, though with ICICI Bank up 8%, SBI, up 7.5%, Axis Bank, up 7%, and HDFC Bank, up 6%.
SSLT shot up 11.1%.
Other gainers included Tata Power, up 5.8%, Coal India, up 5.7%, L&T, up 5.5%, Airtel and Maruti Suzuki, up 5.3% each, and NTPC, BHEL, and RIL, all up about 5% each, respectively.
In Sydney, Crown Resorts was down 1.1% after the company lost out to Blackstone to buy Las Vegas casino The Cosmopolitan.
In the all-important resources sector, index leader BHP Billiton was down half a percent while Rio Tinto was 1.4% lower.
Fortescue Metals fell 2.6% while BlueScope Steel and OZ Minerals were down 3.6% and 3.7% each, respectively. Atlas Iron weakened 3.2%.