The market firmed up further and hit fresh intraday high in mid-morning trade. At 11:19 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 170.84 points or 0.51% at 33,520.15. The Nifty 50 index was up 49 points or 0.49% at 10,079.
Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was up 1.33%. The BSE Small-Cap index was up 1.07%. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.
The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was strong. On BSE, 1405 shares rose and 668 shares fell. A total of 113 shares were unchanged.
Most metal shares rose. Jindal Steel & Power (up 1.89%), Tata Steel (up 1.24%), Steel Authority of India (up 1.03%), Hindustan Zinc (up 0.95%), NMDC (up 0.75%), Hindustan Copper (up 0.53%) and Hindalco Industries (up 0.09%), edged higher. National Aluminium Company (down 0.15%) and JSW Steel (down 1.35%), edged lower.
Vedanta was up 1.20%. The Government of India, acting through the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (the GoI) has granted its approval for a ten-year extension of the PSC for the Rajasthan Block, RJ-ON-90/1 (the RJ Block). The tenure of the RJ Block PSC is due to expire on 14 May 2020. The tenure of the RJ Block PSC has been extended for an additional period of 10 years with effect from 15th May, 2020. Such extension has been granted by the GoI, pursuant to its policy dated 7th April, 2017 for extension of Pre-New Exploration Licensing Policy (Pre-NELP) Exploration Blocks PSCs signed by the GoI (the Pre-NELP Extension Policy), subject to certain conditions. The applicability of the Pre-NELP Extension Policy to the RJ Block PSC is currently sub judice.
FMCG shares were mixed. Dabur India (up 3.71%), Bajaj Corp (up 2.13%), Britannia Industries (up 2.05%), Marico (up 1.62%), Jyothy Laboratories (up 1.56%), Colgate Palmolive (India) (up 1.01%) and Tata Global Beverages (up 0.14%), edged higher. Procter & Gamble Hygiene & Health Care (down 0.3%), GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare (down 0.73%), Hindustan Unilever (down 1.7%) and Godrej Consumer Products (down 1.94%), edged lower.
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FMCG major Nestle India was up 2.71%. Nestle India's net profit rose 30% to Rs 446.11 crore on 17.57% rise in total income to Rs 3006.39 crore in Q3 September 2018 over Q3 September 2017. The result was announced after market hours on Friday, 26 October 2018.
Commenting on the results, Suresh Narayanan, Chairman and Managing Director, Nestle India said, the quarter has witnessed another strong performance as it continues to deliver broad based volume driven growth. The company is witnessing headwinds in commodity and crude oil prices coupled with currency depreciation
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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