)
Markets continue to trade firm in late noon trades on Monday with IT shares leading the gains amid a weakening rupee. Meanwhile, further gains were capped as higher-than-expected headline inflation in September continued to weigh on market sentiment.
At 2:30PM, the 30-share Sensex was up 94 points at 20,623 and the 50-share Nifty was up 24 points at 6,120.
Headline inflation for September continued to be above 6% as onions continued to weigh, according to data released by Ministry of Commerce and Industry today. The Wholesale Price Index (WPI) based inflation stood at a seven-month high of 6.46% in September against 6% in August. This is well above various analysts' prediction of 6%.
The weakness in the rupee continued in afternoon trades amid dollar demand by importers.
At 2:10 pm the rupee was trading at Rs 61.21 compared with previous close of Rs 61.08 per dollar. Currency dealers see the rupee trading in the range of Rs 61.00 to Rs 62.00 per dollar for the rest of the day. According to them the bias will be towards weakening due to dollar demand.
Most Asian benchmark share indices except for Straits Times ended with gains on Monday. The Nikkei rose 1.5% Hang Seng gained 1.2% and Shanghai COmposite was up 0.4%. Straits Times was trading 0.5% lower.
The BSE IT index was the top gainer among the sectoral indices up 1.9% followed by Bankex, Oil & Gas and Auto indices.
Gains in shares of software exporters such as Infosys, Wipro and TCS, up 1-4% each contributed the most to the Sensex. TCS was up ahead of its second quarter earnings later today. most of the analyst expects TCS to post best revenue growth amongst peers at 5.8% quarter-on-quarter in dollar terms.
Index Reliance Industries was also up 0.7% ahead of its Jul-Sep results later today. Analyts said that the company is expected to post net profit numbers in the Range Rs 5,400 - 5,500 crore. Last quarter, the company had posted a net profit of Rs 5,353 crore, up 18.9% on year-on-year basis.
Other Sensex gainers include, Tata Motors, HDFC Bank, Dr Reddy's Labs and SBI.
FMCG shares, ITC and Hindustan Unilever were the top Sensex losers along with HDFC and M&M
Among other shares, MindTree rose 4% to Rs 1,371, after FIIs increased stake to 45.18% in September quarter compared with 39.44% holding at the end of June quarter.
In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices were up 0.7% each.
Market breadth continues to remain positive with 1,265 gainers and 1,021 losers on the BSE.
