Markets trim gains, Nifty hovers around 8,500; Midcaps outperform

Markets have trimmed gains and are trading marginally positive on account of profit booking at higher levels.

At 10:55 am, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 74 points at 27,700 and the Nifty50 was up 22 points at 8,490. Among broader markets, BSE Midcap index is up 0.4% whereas the Smallcap index has gained 0.1%.

In overseas stock markets, Japanese stocks led gains in Asian markets after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) recorded a landslide victory in parliamentary elections over the weekend.

The dominating win could provide the Japanese prime minister with a mandate to propose sweeping constitutional reforms in the coming months.

Back home, the rupee edged lower by 3 paise to 67.16 against the dollar in early trade today on scattered demand for the American currency from importers.

Among key stocks, Quess Corp listed at Rs 500, a 58% premium against its issue price of Rs 317 per share on the National Stock Exchange.

Coal India has lost almost 2% after the company said its board approved buyback of shares at a price of Rs 335 per share.

Shriram EPC has gained 13% after the company said its board approved preferential issue of shares to the holding company and conversion of the working capital term loan of the lenders into equity shares.

Shares of Edelweiss Financial Services are up over 2% at Rs 81 after the company said it plans to enter the general insurance business.


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Updated at 9:30 am

Benchmark share indices extended gains on Tuesday tracking gains in their Asian peers and rally on Wall Street in overnight trades.

At 9:30am, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 86 points at 27,713 and the Nifty50 was up 25 points at 8,493 .

 

GLOBAL MARKETS

Asian stocks edged higher tracking overnight gains on Wall Street. Japanese shares were the top gainers with Nikkei up 2.7% while Shanghai Composite was trading flat. Further, Straits Times and Hang Seng were up 0.4% each.

US stocks edged higher to with the S&P 500 hitting record highs on Monday after better-than-expected jobs data signalled that the economy is picking up pace. The Dow Jones industrial average ended up 0.4% at 18,227, the S&P 500 ended up 0.3% at 2,137 and the Nasdaq settled 0.6% higher at 4,989.

STOCKS

Financials continued to remain as the top gainers with HDFC, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank were up 0.4%-1.5% each.

Among the index heavyweights, ITC was up 0.4% while Reliance Industries was up 0.5%.

Coal India was down nearly 2%. The company in a release said its board has approved the buyback of 108,955,223 equity shares on a proportionate basis through the tender offer route at Rs 335 a piece.

IT shares witnessed profit taking after gains in the previous sessions. TCS and Infosys was down 0.2% each.