 "Markets open higher; Sensex hits record high")
Markets have opened firm with Sensex touching life time high of 26,643 with Index heavyweights L&T and ICICI Bank leading the rally.
However, markets are likely to remain volatile in the latter half of the trading session with expiry of August derivative contracts today.
However, markets are likely to remain volatile in the latter half of the trading session with expiry of August derivative contracts today.
At 9:18AM, the 30-share Sensex is up 55 points at 26, 615 and the 50-share Nifty is up 17 points at 7,953.
In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices are trading 0.4-0.5% higher.
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Market breadth is strong with 712 gainers and 256 losers on the BSE.
In the Sensex pack, L&T, Bharti Airtel, Coal India and ICICI Bank are among the gainers while Infosys, Sun Pharma and ONGC are trading marginally lower.
Global Markets:
US stocks ended mixed on Wednesday with trading activity seen in retailer stocks post their earnings annoucement. Tiffany & Co ended higher after the retailer reported better-than-expected revenue. Meanwhile, S&P 500 held on to the 2,000 mark to end at a new record closing high of 2,000.12. The global benchmark Dow Jones gained 0.1% at 17,122.01 while the tech-laden Nasdaq ended tad lower by 0.02% at 4,569.62.
European shares ended mixed on Wednesday. The CAC-40 ended flat with positive bias up 0.04%, DAX lost 0.2% and FTSE-100 ended up 0.1%.
Asian shares are trading firm tracking overnight cues from Wall Street. However, Japanese shares are trading marginally lower. The benchmark Nikkei is trading 0.5% lower. China's Shanghai Composite is up 0.05% while Hang Seng and Straits Times have gained 0.4% each.
Back home, Rupee is trading at 60.36/37 versus the dollar, higher than yesterday's close of 60.45/46.
Meanwhile, overseas investors bought shares worth 2.90 billion rupees on Wednesday - provisional exchange data shows
Meanwhile, overseas investors bought shares worth 2.90 billion rupees on Wednesday - provisional exchange data shows
Sectors & Stocks:
On the sectoral front, barring BSE Realty index, all other indices are trading in the positive territory. BSE Capital goods index is leading the rally followed by Consumer Durables and Oil & Gas indices. Bankex is up 0.2%. However, BSE Healthcare and IT indices are trading flat with a positive bias.
The Auto pack is continuing its yesterday's rally with Tata Motors, Baja Auto and Maruti Suzuki trading up between 0.2-1% after Tata Motors decided to challenge the penalty imposed on it by CCI.
In the financial segment, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and HDFC twins have gained between 0.2-1%.
Engineering conglomerate L&T has climbed 0.8% during the early trades on fresh buying. BHEL has added 0.6% to the rise on the Sensex.
Select metal stocks are witnessing fresh buying. Sesa Sterlite, Tata Steel and Coal India have gained between 0.2-0.5%.
Bharti Airtel, Wipro and RIL are some of the notable names in green among others.
On the flip side, Hero Motocorp, TCS, Sun Pharma and Cipla are some of the prominent names in red among others down between 0.5-1%.
DLF continues to be under pressure after the Supreme Court on Wednesday directed DLF, the country’s largest real estate player, to deposit Rs 630 crore in the registry within three months and is down 1.2% to Rs 181 on the BSE.