Nifty eyes 8,150; Oil & Gas and FMCG shares gain

Markets continue to trade firm in the late morning trades with oil and gas shares and FMCG stocks contributing the most to the gains on the 30-share Sensex. Further, markets this week will closely track events like the hearing of coal blocks allocation case in Supreme Court, industrial output figures and inflation data as investors await fresh triggers for benchmark indices to resume their upward journey.

 

At 11.55 AM, the Sensex is up 200 points at 27,227 and the Nifty is up 58 points at 8,145 levels after hitting a new high with the index scaling a high of 8,143.50 in the opening trades. The earlier high for the index was at 8,141.90.

 

Goldman Sachs has raised Nifty's target to 9,000 points for September 2015. Its previous target was 8,600 points for June 2015.

 

Goldman said that earnings sentiment remains positive for the overall market.

 

The broader markets are in line with the large counterparts with both the small and midcap indices up between 0.7-1.5%.

 

The market breadth is firm with 1,803 shares advancing and 830 shares declining on the BSE.

 

Global Markets:

 

Asian shares edged down on Monday, taking little comfort from mixed Chinese trade data, while sterling's decline after a poll showed rising support for Scottish independence helped bolster the dollar.

 

China's exports rose more than forecast in August while imports unexpectedly fell, pushing the trade surplus to a record high for the second consecutive month and underlining the challenges of sluggish domestic demand.

 

Data on Friday showed U.S. nonfarm payrolls grew by only 142,000 last month. The downbeat jobs report suggested the Federal Reserve will hold off on hiking interest rates anytime soon, and helped the S&P 500 hit a fresh closing high.

 

Rupee:

 

The Reserve Bank of India was seen buying dollars via state-run banks to prevent further appreciation in the rupee, four traders said on Monday.

 

Meanwhile, overseas investors bought Indian shares worth 3.10 billion rupees on Friday - data shows.

 

Sectors & Stocks:

 

On the sectoral front, BSE Oil & Gas index is leading the rally up over 1% followed by Capital goods, FMCG, Healthcare and power indices, up between 0.5-1%. Bankex has gained 0.6%. However, Consumer Durables index is losing sheen on the BSE.

 

Oil and Gas major ONGC has surged nearly 2.5% after Bank of America Merrill Lynch upgraded the stock to "buy" from "neutral". Further, ONGC has gained from weakness in Brent crude, which is at a 16-month low of around $100.70 a barrel, after having posted its third weekly drop in four weeks. GAIL is up 1% and RIL has added 0.7%.

 

Drug maker Cipla has climbed 1% after the company announced that Medispray Laboratories, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company at its board meeting held on 05 September 2014 approved the acquisition of two manufacturing undertakings worth Rs 100 crore. Sun Pharma  and Dr Reddy’s Lab have gained between 0.5-1.5%.

 

In the FMCG space, HUL is up 1.4% and ITC has climbed 0.6% in the late morning trades on fresh buying.

 

Engineering conglomerate L&T has appreciated by 1%.

 

In the financial segment, SBI, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and HDFC twins have gained between 0.3-1% on renewed buying.

 

Bharti Airtel has gained nearly 1% after reaching a consensus on the sale of its telecom towers in Nigeria for more than $1 billion within the next three weeks.

 

Some buying is evident in the metal pack with Hindalco, Sesa Sterlite and Coal India up between 0.5-2% ahead of the Supreme Court verdict on the coal block allocation tomorrow.

 

On the flip side, shares of Maruti Suzuki are trading lower by 1% after after the Haryana government asked the company to stop all construction work on a facility at Rohtak. M&M is down 0.6%.

 

Tata Power and Tata Motors are some of the notable names in red.

 

Among other shares, Shares of Punj Lloyd have surged over 9% to Rs 40.40 on the BSE after winning the mega Rs 3,515 crore Rapid tank farm order from PRPC refinery and Cracker, a subsidiary under the Petroleum National Berhad (PETRONAS) group, Malaysia’s national emergency group.

 

PSU OMCs, HPCL, BPCL and IOC, have gained between nearly 0.5-1% on the BSE as crude oil prices dropped on Friday.