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Benchmark indices have trimmed some of the early gains but are still trading firm helped primarily by the rebound in banks, metals and select auto shares.
At 1:01PM, the 30-share Sensex was up 188 points at 28,415 and the 50-share Nifty was up 58 points at 8,584.
In the broader market, both the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices, up 0.7% each have performed marginally better than the front-liners. Market breadth in BSE is positive with 1,494 advances against 966 declines.
The government on Monday estimated India’s economic growth this financial year at 7.4%, against 6.9% in 2013-14, as the country changed its definition of gross domestic product (GDP) and the base year for calculating it. The estimated growth for 2014-15 is the same as China’s growth for 2014. Earlier, both the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank had said India’s growth would exceed China’s by 2016-17. Capital Goods and Power shares will be in focus.
Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors continued to remain sellers in Indian equities with net sale of Rs 660.30 crore on Monday, as per provisional data.
Buzzing Stocks
4 of the 12 sectoral indices of BSE are in red. BSE Bankex, up 1.9%, is the top gainer followed by BSE Auto and IT indices, up 1.5% and BSE Power index up 1.3%.
Bank shares are trading firm in noon trades. ICICI Bank has gained around 3%. The private banking major has initiated the process of repatriating capital from its Canadian arm for the second time in as many years. Meanwhile, HDFC Bank is up 1.5%, SBI is up 2.5% and Axis Bank is up 0.5%.
Private sector lender Axis Bank today said it will seek shareholders' approval for raising up to Rs 15,000 crore by issuing long-term bonds or non-convertible debentures to select investors in the domestic market.
Metal stocks have rebounded in today’s session. Tata Steel is up 1%, Sesa Sterlite is up 2% and Hindalco is up 3.5%.
NTPC BHEL Power Projects Private Limited (NBPPL) today signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with APGenco for supply of spare parts for coal and ash handling plants and other equipment required by the Andhra Pradesh power utility’s thermal power plants. NTPC has gained around 0.9% and BHEL has gained 1.4%.
Among losers, Housing finance major HDFC has declined 0.8%, TCS and Wipro have declined over 1%, Sun Pharma has declined 1.8% and RIL has lost 0.6%.
Among other shares, Motherson Sumi Systems is trading higher by 3% after the company posted a 1.84% rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 254.21 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2014 as compared to Rs 249.6 crore in the same period last fiscal.
