Don’t miss the latest developments in business and finance.

Markets remain positive; Metals down 1%

Benchmark indices were marginally higher in late morning trades on Wednesday on the back of modest gains of 0.6-1.7% in index heavyweights Infosys, Reliance Industries, and Sun Pharma.

SI Reporter Mumbai
Last Updated : Feb 19 2014 | 11:32 AM IST

Benchmark indices were marginally higher in late morning trades on Wednesday on the back of modest gains of 0.6-1.7% in index heavyweights Infosys, Reliance Industries, and Sun Pharma.

At 11:25 hours, the 30-share Sensex was up by 38 points at 20,672, while the Nifty-50 was up 10 points at 6,137.

Broader markets outperformed the benchmark, with the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap increasing by 0.35% and 0.70% respectively, compared to Sensex's modest gain of 0.18%.

Breadth of the market was positive, with 1193 advances, 884 declines, and 114 scrips remaining unchanged.

With the currency, debt, and money markets remaining closed on Wednesday on account of Shivaji Jayanti, the rupee stayed at Tuesday's close of 62.20 versus the dollar.

Asian Markets

Also Read

Asian markets remained mixed today after clsoing Tuesday with substantial gains. Japan's Nikkei-225, which had a sharp increase of more than 3% yesterday on BoJ's announcement to pump additional funds through the banking sector, was down by 0.76% to 14,731.

Singapore's Strait Times and Hong Kong's Hang Seng, however, remained in the green and made modest gains of 0.25-0.55% each.

Sectors and Stocks

Amongst the various sectoral indices, the S&P BSE Consumer Durables was the biggest gainer, increasing by almost 1%. IT, Healthcare, Capital Goods, and Oil and Gas were up by 0.3-0.7% as well.

Metal index was down by more than 1%, pulled down by a significant fall of 2.5% in Jindal Steel as many coal block licenses issued to the firm were cancelled yesterday evening. Other power companies face similar problems as well.

With gains of 1.72%, Sun Pharma was leading the list of gainers in the S&P BSE Sensex, while Sesa Sterlite was the biggest loser, declining by 1.74%, followed closely by Tata Steel at a decline of 1.70%.

Shares of Hero MotoCorp were down over 1% at Rs 1,956 after the company announced reduction in two-wheeler prices following the excise duty cut by the Finance Minister in the interim budget.

Force Motors has soared 8.5% to Rs 383, extending its past two day’s rally on BSE, after promoter’s increased their stake in the company to 56.54% from 51.75% earlier.

Paper Products has gained more than 4% to Rs 80.65 after reporting a strong 66% year-on-year (yoy) jump in consolidated net profit at Rs 16.66 crore for the quarter ended December 31, mainly on account of Rs 7.05 crore gain on sale of office property in Mumbai. The company had profit of Rs 10 crore in the same quarter year ago.

More From This Section

First Published: Feb 19 2014 | 11:30 AM IST

Next Story