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Benchmark indices came off their intra-day highs amid profit taking at higher levels after the government announced fuel reforms while the stellar performance by the BJP in the Maharashtra and Haryana Assembly elections also boosted investor sentiment.
Further, firm global cues also helped improve market sentiment.
At 1 PM, Sensex has gained 320 points at 26,428 while Nifty has climbed 95 points to trade at 7,875.
Meanwhile, Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have increased their stake in most of the state-owned oil and gas companies in the September quarter, stock exchange data showed.
FIIs have raised their holdings in ONGC, Oil India, HPCL, BPCL, IOC and GAIL India during July-September quarter. They bought an additional 34.71 million shares worth of around Rs 1,500 crore of these six companies during the recently concluded quarter.
Asian Markets:
Asian stocks are 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.
Japan's Nikkei share average surged 4.0% on Monday to post its biggest daily rise since June 2013 as investors took heart from upbeat US data and the weaker yen lifted exporters such as Toyota Motor Corp and Honda Motor.
The Nikkei share average added 578.72 points to end at 15,111.23, recouping most of the losses posted last week.
Sectors & Stocks:
On the sectoral front, BSE Auto and Oil & Gas indices are the top gainers up over 2% followed by Metal, Healthcare and Consumer Durables indices up between 1-2%. Bankex is up 1.7%. However, BSE IT and Teck indices are losing sheen and are down between 0.1-0.5%.
In the oil and gas space, ONGC being considered as the biggest beneficiary of the energy reforms, its stock has gained around 6.5%. 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%. However, 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.
Auto stocks have 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, M&M and Hero Motocorp are trading higher between 1-4%.
Among the financials, HDFC twins have gained around 1.5-3.5% each while SBI is up around 2% .
Axis Bank is gaining around 4% 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 has climbed 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 5% while Tata Steel and Sesa Sterlite have around 2% each.
Pharma majors, Sun Pharma, Cipla and Dr Reddys Labs have gained around 2% each.
The technology pack is under the selling pressure in today’s trade. Infosys, TCS and Wipro have lost between 0.2-1.4% on profit taking.
In the broader market both the BSE Mid Cap and Small Cap indices have gained around 1.2% each.
The market breadth is strong on the BSE with 1,661 shares advancing and 875 shares declining.
