Markets come off record high; IT shares weaken

Benchmark indices have come off record high and are trading marginally in green as losses in IT shares cap gains.

 

Sensex hit a life-time high of 28,282.85 levels and the Nifty touched record high of  8,454.50 mark during the intra day trades. 

 

At 12. 50 PM, the 30-share Sensex is up 21 points at 28,199 and the 50-share Nifty has gained 3 points to trade at 8,433.

 

The broader markets are outperforming the benchmark indices- BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices have gained between 0.5-1%.

 

The market breadth is strong on the BSE with 1,612 shares advancing and 1,189 shares declining.

 

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that he is in touch with the various state governments and most of the contentious issues on the implementation of the Goods and Service Tax (GST) have already been resolved.

 

Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors were net buyers in Indian equities worth Rs 656.37crore on Monday, as per provisional stock exchange data.

 

Rupee:

 

The rupee seems set to continue its losing streak on Tuesday as well, trading weak at 61.83 against the dollar. 

 

Hot Stocks:

The BSE Power index is the top gainer up over 1% followed by Metal, Healthcare, Oil & Gas and Bankex indices among others. BSE Realty, FMCG and IT indices are down between 0.1-0.3%.

 

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries is up nearly 1%. Reliance Jio Infocomm, the telecommunications arm of Reliance Industries Ltd, will raise $1.5 billion from 26 banks to refinance loans it took up in 2010, the company said in a statement late on Monday.

 

Bharti Airtel has gained 2% as the company will not be affected once the 900MHz spectrum allocated in 1995 comes up for renewal as it smartly bought a lot of 1800 MHz spectrum in February as insurance. So even if it fails to retain its 900 MHz spectrum, its services will not get disrupted: the subscribers can be migrated from one band to another.

 

SBI has climbed over 0.5% post its robust second quarter earnings. Further, reports suggest that in order to make gains from rising stock market it has expanded its list of equities for investments to go beyond the National Stock Exchange's Nifty 50 index scrips.

 

Capital goods stocks rebounded today with L&T and BHEL up between 0.7-1%.

 

Pwer stocks are hogging limelight in today’s trade. Tata Power and NTPC have gained between 0.5-1.5%.

 

Sun Pharma is trading with marginal gains. The company has recalled about 68,000 bottles of its anti-depressant venlafaxine hydrochloride, from the US market. The company withdrew the drugs, manufactured in its Halol unit in India, after they failed to dissolve properly, said the US Food and Drug Administration.

 

Sesa Sterlite surged 4% as the company is set to take up the Rs 2,500-crore expansion at its copper smelter plant in Tuticorin.

 

Infosys is trading nearly 1% lower. Barclays raises Infosys price target to 5000 rupees from 4650 rupees; rating overweight.

 

Shares of sugar manufacturers are in demand and trading higher by up to 10% on the BSE on media reports that the government is likely to subsidise the production of ethanol for blending with petrol.

 

Bajaj Hindusthan  is up 10%, Balrampur Chini Mills has jumped 10%,  Dhampur Sugar has climbed 8% and Shree Renuka has surged nearly 9%.

 

Shares of jewellery companies are trading lower by up to 2.5% on concerns that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) may increase the restrictions on gold imports.

 

Titan Company has shed 1%, Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri  is down 2.3%, Shree Ganesh Jewellery House has slipped 1.5% and Tara jewels has dipped 1%. However, shares of Gitanjali gems are trading with marginal losses.