 "Markets quiet in mid-morning trades")
The markets are having a sedate session of trade this morning, in a possible attempt at digesting the runaway gains witnessed on Wednesday. The Sensex is quoting at 22,730, higher by 27 points and the Nifty is at 6,800, up three points. The Bank Nifty, which had a stellar time in the previous trading session, is placed at 12,975, up 37 points. The broader markets continue to outperform, with the mid-cap index gaining 0.6% at 7333 and the small-cap index adding 0.6% at 7475.
The markets had surged to record levels on Wednesday on the back of fresh buying by FIIs. The foreign institutional investors, who were net buyers to the tune of Rs 1044 crore on Wednesday, have been lapping up shares buoyed by expectations of a market-friendly government assuming office post the ongoing elections. The election battle enters its decisive phase, with Delhi, Haryana and Kerala, and several parts of UP, Bihar, Odisha and Maharashtra, going to the polls on Thursday.
US stocks rallied on Wednesday after minutes from the Federal Reserve's latest policy meeting showed a more supportive central bank than investors had previously expected.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 181.04 points or 1.11%, to end at 16,437.18. The S&P 500 gained 20.22 points or 1.09%, to finish at 1,872.18. The Nasdaq Composite added 70.914 points or 1.72%, to close at 4,183.90.
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Stocks in Europe had ended higher on Wednesday, with auto shares leading the gains. The CAC-40 ended up 0.4% at 4,443, DAX gained 0.2% to close at 9,506 and the FTSE-100 ended up 0.7% at 6,636.
However, the Asian edged lower on Thursday as Chinese trade figures unexpectedly fell, tempering optimism after the Federal Reserve eased concern about a rise in US rates. Key benchmark indices in China, Singapore, Indonesia, Taiwan and South Korea were down 0.05% to 3.08%.
Among the index heavyweights, Tata Motors has surged 3% to Rs 433 to lead the gainers charts on the BSE. Citi has maintained a 'buy' rating on the stock and revised the target price to Rs 486 from Rs 421 apiece. Among the previous day's , SBI has extended its gains by another 2% at Rs 2024, Axis Bank has strengthened by 0.6% at Rs 1495 and HDFC has edged higher by 0.2% at Rs 923.
Among other stocks, Torrent Pharmaceuticals has surged nearly 9% to Rs 608, its record high on the BSE, on report that Competition Commission of India (CCI) has approved the company’s proposed Rs 2,000 crore acquisition of Elder Pharma's formulations business in India and Nepal.
Man Industries has galloped 10% to Rs 72.15 after bagging orders worth Rs 700 crore from domestic and international customers for the supply of large dia meter pipes for oil and gas as well as water sector projects.
On the other hand, ONGC has shed 2% at Rs 316. Pharma shares are also out of favour, with Dr Reddy's losing 1.4% at Rs 2582 and Cipla losing 1.1% at Rs 395.
Infosys has lost 0.6% at Rs 3235 after the company announced that its Finacle core banking solution running on an Oracle SuperCluster engineered system has set new global benchmarks for the number of transactions processed across key banking functions.
In other market-related news, the Bangalore-based amusement park operator Wonderla Holidays plans to raise about Rs 180 crore from an initial public offering (IPO) between April 21 and April 23. The company has fixed the price band for the offering between Rs 115 and Rs 125 per share.
The market breadth is overwhelmingly in favour of the bulls. Out of a total 2266 shares traded on the BSE thus far, there are 1291 advancing shares as against 864 declines.