Key benchmark indices hovered near day's high in early afternoon trade. At 12:18 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 85.04 points or 0.29% at 29,421.61. The Nifty 50 index was up 30.20 points or 0.33% at 9,133.70. Gains in HDFC, HDFC Bank and Infosys boosted sentiment on the domestic bourses.
Domestic bourses edged higher in early trade on positive lead from Asian stocks. Key benchmark indices hovered in positive zone in morning trade. Indices extended gains and hit fresh intraday high in mid-morning trade.
The BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.63%. The BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.94%. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.
The broad market depicted strength. There were more than two gainers against every loser on BSE. On the BSE, 1,769 shares rose and 859 shares fell. A total of 155 shares were unchanged.
Index heavyweight and housing finance major HDFC advanced 1.88% to Rs 1,517.90. The stock hit high of Rs 1,531 and low of Rs 1,488.75 so far during the day.
Cement stocks gained. Ambuja Cements (up 1.79%), ACC (up 0.2%), UltraTech Cement (up 0.84%) gained. Shree Cement (down 0.24%) fell.
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Grasim Industries was up 4.64%. Grasim has exposure to the cement sector through its holding in UltraTech Cement.
IT stocks saw mixed trend. Infosys (up 0.73%), TCS (up 0.18%), Wipro (up 0.35%), HCL Technologies (up 0.63%), Oracle Financial Services Software (up 0.9%), Tech Mahindra (up 0.68%) rose. MindTree (down 0.6%), Hexaware Technologies (down 0.17%) and MphasiS (down 0.03%) fell.
Aviation stocks were trading sharply higher. Jet Airways India (up 5.85%), SpiceJet (up 7.24%) and InterGlobe Aviation (up 4.38%) gained.
Gujarat State Fertilizers & Chemicals rose 3.79% after the company executed an in-principle pact with Govt of Congo to evaluate the possibility of establishing a chemical complex. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 19 April 2017.
Gujarat State Fertilizers & Chemicals (GSFC) said it has executed an in principle agreement (in the form of Non-binding term sheet) with Govt of Republic of Congo (ROC) on 17 April 2017 to evaluate the possibility of establishing a Ammonia-Urea Complex at ROC to enhance the agriculture growth in ROC. It is expected that this project will act as a catalyst for ROC by reducing dependency on imported food for feeding the public of ROC, GSFC said.
Meanwhile, GSFC is one among the 16 stocks to be included in the futures & options (F&O) segment of the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) with effect from 28 April 2017, as per the circular issued by the NSE yesterday, 19 April 2017.
Overseas, Asian stock markets were trading on a mixed note. On the macro front, Japanese exports grew at the fastest rate in more than two years in March, supporting the bullish view in the debate over the health of the global economy. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve's Beige Book report showed the US economy continued to expand steadily and Fed Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer painted a picture of brightening global growth that can better manage the spillover of gradual monetary tightening.
Among US stocks, the Dow industrials and the S&P 500 ended lower yesterday, 19 April 2017 as a drop in oil prices fueled a selloff in energy shares while a drop in International Business Machines Corp. was responsible for half the session's losses in the blue-chip average. On the other hand, the Nasdaq Composite rose with big gains from shares of Intuitive Surgical Inc. and Lam Research Corp.
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