)
At 12:53PM, the 30-share Sensex was up 43 points at 28,304 and the 50-share Nifty was up 11 points at 8,582.
In the broader market, both the BSE Midcap index, down 0.4% and Smallcap index, down 0.6% have underperformed the front-liners. Market breadth in BSE is negative with 1,678 declines against 906 advances.
Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 354.59 crore on Friday, 20 March 2015, as per provisional data.
Buzzing Stocks
5 out of the 12 sectoral indices of BSE are in red. BSE Consumer Durables index down 0.6% is the top loser followed by BSE Metal and Oil & Gas indices down around 0.2% each. BSE Auto index up 0.7% followed by BSE Healthcare and Power indices that are up 0.6% each are the top gainers.
Tata Motors is trading higher by around 1.3%. The company has said its board will meet on Wednesday to consider and approve details of the proposed Rs 7,500 crore rights issue, including fixing the issue price. M&M has gained around 2%, Bajaj Auto and Hero Motocorp have gained 0.6% and 0.3% respectively.
Among pharma stocks, Sun Pharma has gained over 1% after US anti-trust regulator FTC has passed its final order settling charges that Sun Pharma’s $4 billion deal to acquire Ranbaxy Laboratories could result in unfair business practices. Cipla and Dr Reddys Lab have gained around 1% each.
Among capital goods shares, L&T has gained around 0.5% while BHEL is down around 2.4%.
Metal stocks like Sesa Sterlite, Tata Steel and Hindalco have gained between 0.5% and 2.8%.
Bharti Airtel has gained around 1%. Bharti Airtel has announced partnership with Amazon Web Services to offer its cloud computing services to customers in India.
RIL is among the top losers and has shed over 1%. Oil prices fell further today after Saudi Arabia said it was pumping more oil that according to analysts may worsen the global supply glut. ONGC, however has gained over 1%.
Infosys has lost 0.8%. According to media reports, Infosys and Accenture are about to earn an outsourcing contract worth Rs 900 crore from financial services provider Macquarie Group with a time horizon of five years.
Coal India has dropped nearly 0.6% after HSBC downgraded the miner to "neutral" from "overweight.”
