Nifty crosses 8,900 as financials lead charge

Markets continued to trade near their day's high in late noon trades on Tuesday with financial shares leading the gains after slower than expected US jobs data in August is likely to result in further delay in interest rate hike by the US Federal Reserve.

At 2:30pm, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 356 points at 28,888 and the Nifty50 was up 104 points at 8,915. In the broader markets, the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices extended gains and were up over 1% each. In the banking pack, Axis Bank was up nearly 4% followed by ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and SBI among others.

"We believe PSBs are not out of the woods yet and would continue to face asset quality pressures. Even under bull-case  assumptions, PSBs are trading at premium valuations for an unappealing sub-10% return on equity (ROE). We maintain our negative stance," Parag Jariwala and Vikesh Mehta of Religare Institutional Research had said in their September 01 report on the sector.


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(Updated at 2:40pm)



Infosys was up over 1% after the IT major said it has entered into a JV with Saudi Prerogative Company to conduct IT services for customers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Tata Motors extended gains and was up nearly 3%. The company recorded total vehicle sales (including exports) grew 6% in August 2016 at 43,061 vehicles compared to 40,679 units in August 2015.

Reliance Industries was trading 0.6% higher after encouraging response from subscribers post the launch of mobile services through its telecom arm, Reliance Jio. The company will provide unlimited services up to December 31, 2016 after which users have been promised voice calls — both local and subscriber trunk dialling or STD — as well as roaming free of cost, for life.

Maruti Suzuki India rose 2% after the company announced that its total production rose 3.3% to 1.27 lakh units in August 2016 compared with August 2015.

Among other shares, Jubilant FoodWorks, which operates Domino’s Pizza and Dunkin Donuts chains in India, slipped nearly 9% in morning deals on the National Stock Exchange (NSE), after the company reported 31.08% fall in its June quarter net profit to Rs 19 crore, as against Rs 27.57 crore during the previous corresponding quarter.

Inox Wind dropped nearly 5% after the company reported sharp drop in net profit for the quarter ended June 30, 2016 on the back of lower sales. Consolidated net profit for the June 2016 quarter decreased 80% to Rs 11.8 crore compared with Rs 60.4 crore in the same quarter last year.

Entertainment Network (India) surged 5% after the company said it launched three more FM radio channels on 5 September 2016.
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(Updated at 9:45am)

Markets opened higher on Tuesday and were trading firm with bank shares leading the gains after slower than expected US jobs data in August is likely to result in further delay in interest rate hike by the US Federal Reserve.

At 9:45am, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 245 points at 28,777 and the Nifty50 was up 67 points at 8,876. In the broader markets, the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices were up 0.6% each. Market breadth was strong with 1371 gainers and 468 losers on the BSE.

"We would prefer to reassess the market developments over the next few days and want to wait for clear signals to emerge for a near term direction. If the Nifty is able to surpass the 8850 mark, then it may continue to head higher; whereas, on the flipside, a minor profit booking could lead to some corrective move towards 8720 – 8670 levels," Angel Broking said in a technical note.

Markets were closed on Monday on account of Ganesh Chaturthi festival.

The Reserve Bank of India on Monday formally notified the appointment of Urjit Patel as the 24th governor of the central bank, effective September 4.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers in equities worth Rs 231 crore on Friday, as per provisional stock exchange data.

Some of the major companies that will announce their June quarter earnings on Wednesday include, BHEL, GAIL and ONGC.

In the financial segment, HDFC Bank, HDFC, Axis Bank, SBI and ICICI Bank were up 1%-2% each.

Tata Motors extended gains and was up over 2%. The company recorded total vehicle sales (including exports) grew 6% in August 2016 at 43,061 vehicles compared to 40,679 units in August 2015.

Reliance Industries was trading higher after encouraging response from subscribers post the launch of mobile services through its telecom arm, Reliance Jio. The company will provide unlimited services up to December 31, 2016 after which users have been promised voice calls — both local and subscriber trunk dialling or STD — as well as roaming free of cost, for life.

Other gainers include, L&T, Maruti Suzuki, Asian Paints and ITC among others.


Global Markets

Most Asian stock indices were trading with gains ahead of Australia's central bank decision on policy decision which is widely expected to maintain status quo. Singapore's Straits Times was the top gainer in the region up 1% followed by Nikkei and Hang Seng which gained 0.2% each. Stocks in China pared early gains and were trading flat with negative bias.

European shares surged in intra-day trade on Monday but gains tapered off at the end of trade. US markets were closed on account of Labor Day. The FTSE-100 was down 0.2%, DAX eased 0.1% and CAC-40 ended flat with negative bias.