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Markets continued to trade firm in early noon trades led by financials as the fuel reforms would further ease inflation and help contain the fiscal deficit.
At 11.55 AM, Sensex is at 26,504 with a gain of 395 points while Nifty is up 121 points at 7,901.
In the broader market both the BSE Mid Cap and Small Cap indices gained around 1.4% each.
The market breadth is positive with 1,646 advance against 680 declines.
The rupee is trading at 61.26 against US Dollar. On Friday Rupee closed at 61.44. Rupee was seen appreciating in early trades on increased selling of the US currency by exporters and banks amidst oil and gas reforms announced by the government.
Asian markets
Asian stocks were trading higher tracking gains on Wall Street because of robust earnings from US corporations and upbeat economic data. However, investors will closely watch the developments with regards to the on-going pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. The Nikkei was up 3.8% led by exporter stocks after the yen fell sharply against the US dollar. Hang Seng was up 0.5% while shares in mainland China were marginally higher with the Shanghai Composite rising 0.3%. Singapore's Straits Times was up 0.5%.
Sectors and stocks
BSE Auto, Capital Goods and Oil & Gas indices have gained more than 2% each while gains in BSE Consumer Durables, Realty, Metal and Healthcare indices is around 1.4% each. Among the 12 sectors, BSE IT index has alone declined by 0.2%.
With ONGC being considered as the biggest beneficiary of the energy reforms, its stock has gained around 7%. ONGC will rake in about Rs 1,950 crore in additional profit this fiscal from the 46% rise in natural gas prices announced by the government.
GAIL has also benefitted from the announcement of energy reforms and its stock is up around 2%.
Among the financials, HDFC twins have gained around 1.5-3.5% each while SBI is up around 2% .
Axis Bank is gaining around 3% on the back of strong Q2 performance. The bank declared a 18% net profit at Rs 1,610.71 crore and a rise of around 12.5% at Rs 10,549.97 crore in the total income for the July-September quarter compared to the same quarter last fiscal. In the corresponding quarter last fiscal net profit was around Rs 1,362 crore while the total income was around Rs 9,375 crore.
ICICI Bank is up around 2% on street expectations of positive quarterly results to be released on October, 30 2014.
Metal shares have rebounded on reports about Chinese Bank considering injecting more liquidity in the economy to revive demand and arrest the deceleration in the Chinese growth. Hindalco is the biggest gainer and is up around 4% while Tata Steel and Sesa Sterlite have around 2% each.
Auto stocks firmed up on expectations that lower diesel prices would lead to higher demand for cars and two-wheelers during the on-going festive season.
Tata Motors has gained around 4% on reports about its prized possession Jaguar Land Rover planning to set up a factory in the US, the world's second-biggest automobile market.
Maruti Suzuki, Bajaj Auto and M&M have gained around 2% each while Hero Motocorp is trading flat.
Pharma majors, Sun Pharma, Cipla and Dr Reddys Labs have gained around 2% each.
UltraTech Cement is up over 3% after the cement major reported better-than-expected earnings during the second quarter ended September 30, 2014 because of robust sales growth.
IT shares are under pressure. Infosys has lost around 1%, Wipro 0.4% while TCS is trading flat.
Reliance shares have lost around 0.3% as till the arbitration proceedings are going on the company will not be able to benefit from the hike in gas prices. Till this is resolved, the difference between the revised and earlier price of $4.2/mBtu will be credited to a gas pool account maintained by GAIL.
Shares of Jindal Steel have plunged around 9% after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a case for alleged cheating and criminal conspiracy related to one of its largest functional coal mines in Chhattisgarh.
Among other shares, Repco Home finance has gained around 4% in on the back of Reserve Bank of India permission to the housing finance company to raise its foreign shareholding to 49%.
Unichem Laboratories has dipped 8% after reporting a 38% year on year (yoy) decline in net profit at Rs 22.30 crore for the quarter ended September 2014, due lower growth in operational income and higher raw material cost.
