Nifty hovers around 8,250; financials dip

Markets have trimmed some of its gains during the noon trades with financiaals losing sheen on the 30-share Sensex. However,  renewed buying interest by the FII along with strong global cues have bolstered the sentiments of the market participants.

At 1 PM, the 30-share Sensex is up 147 points at 27,388 and the 50-share Nifty has climbed 43 points to trade at 8,243.

In the broader market, both the BSE midcap and smallcap indices are up nearly 1% each. Market breadth in BSE is positive with 1,679 advances against 939 declines.

Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors were net buyers in Indian equities to the tune of Rs 40 crore.

On the domestic front, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that the economy is expected to grow "much better" in 2015-16 as compared with the current financial year.

Sectors & Hot Stocks:

On the sectoral front, all 13 sectoral indices are trading in the positive territory with BSE Metal index up over 3% followed by Realty, Auto, power and Oil & Gas indices up between 1-2%.

Metal shares firmed up on hopes that the government may take the ordinance route to pave the way for auction of iron ore and other minerals.

Following the ordinances to implement coal and insurance reforms, the Ministry of Mines is hoping that the government would adopt the same for the mines sector which could offer a much wider decentralisation of power to states for allocation of resources. 

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Mines has made some changes to the draft amendent Bill which seeks to implement competitive bidding through the auction route for iron ore and other minerals.

Sesa Sterlite was the top Sensex gainer up 4% after Kotak Securities upgraded the stock to 'buy' from reduce'earlier with a target price of Rs 250.

Among other metal majors, Jindal Steel and Power, Hindalco, Coal India, Hindustan Zinc, JSW Steel, Hindalco, Tata Steel and Coal India were up 2.4-3.7% each.

In the financial segment, ICICI Bank and ABI are trading with marginal gains and HDC twins are up 0.4%. However, Axis Bank is down 0.4%.

 Kotak Mahindra Bank is trading nearly 0.5% lower in an otherwise firm market after the All India ING Vysya Bank Employees Union and All India ING Vysya Bank Officers Association called for a strike on January 7 to demand job safety after the merger of Kotak Mahindra Bank and ING Vysya Bank.

ING will be holding its annual general meeting in Bengaluru on January 7, where they are going to seek shareholders’ approval for the merger.

Bharti Airtel, India’s largest cellular operator, on Monday said it had decided against launching the recently announced special data packs for voice over internet protocol (VoIP) calls. The stock is up 0.6%.

Shares of Housing Development & Infrastructure were up over 5% at Rs 71 after the company which challenged the F.I.R with regards to a SRA project in suburban Mumbai was granted ad-interim relief by the Bombay High Court.

Global Markets:

Asian stocks rose to the highest level in almost three weeks, buoyed by gains in the US and new bank rules in China that will help spur lending. The euro traded near a two-year low while oil advanced, Bloomberg reported. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is trading up 2% and China’s Shanghai Composite has gained 1.6%, while Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average is trading lower by 0.4%.

US stocks ended higher on Friday, with both the Dow and S&P 500 closing at records in a broad rally, though trading was light with many market participants still out for the Christmas holiday. S&P500 Index up 0.33%, The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.13% and Nasdaq Composite gained 0.7%.