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Markets continued to trade higher in the late-morning session this Monday after the central bank announced more measures to support the domestic currency.
The Reserve Bank on Friday announced that it will sell government bonds worth Rs 22,000 crore every Monday to check volatility in the forex market.
At 11:20AM, the 30-share Sensex rose 112 point at 18,900 and the 50-share Nifty gained 21 points at 5,586 levels.
Indian Rupee, the worst currency of Asia this year, inched up in early trades but gains were modest on back of dollar buying by the banks. The currency traded at 60.76 a dollar from Friday's close of 60.88 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange Market.
Investors are keeping a close tab on the industrial output data scheduled later in the day. Economists expected industrial production to be subdued in June which would drag down factory output growth in the first quarter of the current financial year.
Moody's Analytics, research and analysis arm of Moody's Corportion, has forecast the IIP to grow by 1% in June.
Industrial production contracted 1.6% in May, which resulted in just 0.1% growth in IIP in the first two months of the current financial year.
Globally, Asian shares traded firm as Chinese stocks surged to a 3-1/2 week high as investors took heart from last week's encouraging data from the world's second-biggest economy, helping offset a slightly disappointing second quarter Japanese GDP report. .
Japan’s Nikkei declined 0.8% to 13,501, Singapore’s Straits Times added 0.1% to 3,233, China’s Shanghai Composite index was up 1.6% at 2,087 while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 1.8% to 22,214 today.
Domestically, among the key sectoral indices, metal, healthcare, FMCG, consumer durables, auto sectors gained while oil & gas, banks, power indices declined on the BSE.
The gainers included counters such as Sun Pharma gaining 7%, Tata Steel and Jindal Steel rose 5% and 6% respectively, Sterlite Industries added 5% while Cipla gained 2.5% on the BSE.
The laggards were SBI and HDFC Bank declining 2-3%, TCS dropped 1.2%, Dr Reddy’s fell 1.3% while Reliance Industries dropped over 1% on the BSE.
The key notable movers included counters such as Cipla which is trading higher by 4% at Rs 427 on reporting better than expected 32% year-on-year (yoy) growth in net profit at Rs 485 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2013 (Q1 FY14), on back of higher other income and net sales. The pharmaceutical company had profit of Rs 367 crore in year ago quarter.
The broader markets traded firm with mid-caps and small-caps gaining 1 per cent on the BSE.
The market breadth was positive. Out of 1,698 stocks traded, 1,066 stocks advanced while 546 stocks declined on the BSE.
