Key equity indices extended initial gains and hit fresh intraday high in early afternoon trade. At 12:18 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 267.66 points or 0.80% at 33,616.97. The Nifty 50 index was up 89.20 points or 0.89% at 10,119.20.
Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was up 2.14%. The BSE Small-Cap index was up 1.24%. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.
The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was strong. On BSE, 1556 shares rose and 687 shares fell. A total of 142 shares were unchanged.
Cement shares were in demand. Ambuja Cements (up 0.81%), UltraTech Cement (up 0.09%) and ACC (up 0.01%), edged higher.
Grasim Industries was up 1.89%. Grasim has exposure to cement sector through its holding in UltraTech Cement.
Telecom shares rose. Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) (up 6.19%), Reliance Communications (up 1.46%), Bharti Airtel (up 0.64%) and Vodafone Idea (up 0.41%), edged higher. MTNL was down 0.13%.
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Telecom tower infrastructure provider Bharti Infratel was up 1.52%.
On the macro front, India's exports rose by 9.8%, in financial year 2017-18, which is the highest rate of growth in six years. This positive growth in exports has taken place at a time when there is a lot of negative headwinds globally. This was stated by Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu, at the Export Summit 2018 organised by Confederation of Indian Industry in New Delhi today. The Minister further stated that Commerce Ministry is working on a strategy to revitalize India's exports and is working with key exporting ministries to formulate sectoral, commodity and territory specific export strategy. Meetings with concerned ministries have already been held where different ministries and stakeholders have been consulted after which a matrix of specific action points have been prepared sector wise, commodity wise and territory wise.
Suresh Prabhu further stated that he is personally monitoring the progress and regular meetings are being held with sectoral ministries, export promotion councils and exporters. Certain issues which were affecting growth of exports have been specifically taken up with Department of Revenue and Ministry of Environment. The Commerce Minister also said that the soon to be unveiled agri export policy will give a major boost to the agricultural sector and will pave the way for Indian farmer's income to be doubled. India produces 600 MT of agricultural produce and has the capacity to export the excess production to the world.
Overseas, Asia markets declined on Monday. Investors will likely follow the latest geopolitical developments around the world.
In Brazil, far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro was declared the next president of Latin America's biggest country. Reports said that with 96% of ballots counted, Bolsonaro has 55.5% of the votes.
Meanwhile in Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel's junior coalition partners gave her conservative Christian Democrats until next year to deliver more policy results, threatening to end their alliance if there is no improvement. Both parties suffered in a regional election on Sunday.
US stocks closed lower Friday with the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average turning red for the year in the wake of disappointing results from a handful of mega-cap companies.
Investors were wary ahead of the weekend amid persistent worries about slowing global growth, rising interest rates and concerns that companies have seen peak earnings growth. Trade worries were also simmering after US officials reportedly said talks with China won't resume until Beijing comes up with solid proposals over forced technology transfers and other economic issues.
On the data front, the Commerce Department reported that the US economy grew 3.5% in the third quarter. Second-quarter growth held at 4.2%. Meanwhile, the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index came in at 98.6.
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