Stocks hovered in a small range amid positive bias in afternoon trade. At 13:15 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 254.31 points or 0.71% at 35,949.41. The Nifty 50 index was up 72.05 points or 0.67% at 10,799.40. The undertone of the market continued to be strong amid positive global cues. The Sensex was trading below the 36,000 mark after crossing that level in morning trade.
The indices opened higher and extended gains in morning trade. Indices pared gains in early afternoon trade.
Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.41%. The BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.54%.
The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was strong. On BSE, 1434 shares rose and 943 shares fell. A total of 175 shares were unchanged.
Tata Motors (up 3.84%), Axis Bank (up 3.06%), Maruti Suzuki India (up 2.25%), NTPC (up 1.61%) and TCS (up 1.34%) edged higher from the Sensex pack.
Bajaj Auto (down 1.1%), Hero MotoCorp (down 0.47%), Coal India (down 0.36%), Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (down 0.23%) and Bajaj Finance (down 0.22%) edged lower from the Sensex pack.
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ONGC rose 0.96%. ONGC Videsh (OVL), the wholly owned subsidiary and overseas arm of ONGC, has registered a significant discovery of oil in its onshore block CPO-5, Colombia, in Llanos Basin. OVL, which is operator, holds 70% stake in the block along with its Partner Petrodorado South America S.A. Sucursal (PDSA), Colombia (30%).
Meanwhile, the provisional figures of Direct Tax collections up to December, 2018 show that gross collections are at Rs 8.74 lakh crore which is 14.1% higher than the gross collections for the corresponding period of last year. Refunds amounting to Rs 1.30 lakh crore have been issued during April 2018 to December 2018, which is 17% higher than refunds issued during the same period in the preceding year. Net collections (after adjusting for refunds) have increased by 13.6% to Rs 7.43 lakh crore during April - December 2018. The net Direct Tax collections represent 64.7% of the total Budget Estimates of Direct Taxes for FY 2018-19 (Rs 11.50 lakh crore).
An amount of Rs 3.64 lakh crore has been collected as Advance Tax, which is 14.5% higher than the Advance Tax collections during the corresponding period of last year. The growth rate of Corporate Advance Tax is 12.5% and that of PIT Advance Tax is 23.8%.
Overseas, Asian shares advanced on Monday as a dovish turn by the Federal Reserve and startlingly strong US jobs data soothed some of the market's worst fears about the global outlook.
Investor sentiment also picked up slightly ahead of a round of trade negotiations between the United States and China in Beijing. The US and China will hold vice ministerial level trade talks in Beijing on January 7-8, according to the Chinese commerce ministry.
US stocks surged higher on Friday, buoyed by a better-than-expected jobs report for December and dovishly interpreted remarks by the chairman of the Federal Reserve.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics said the US economy added 312,000 jobs in December. The surge in hiring was the largest since February.
Investor optimism was further reinforced by comments by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, who said during a Friday morning appearance that the jobs report didn't materially increase concerns over rising inflation, while reiterating that the central bank would continue to keep an open mind about how much it will raise interest rates in 2019 and how aggressively it will shrink its balance sheet, based on incoming data about the US and global economy, including recent weakness in equity markets.
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