Markets near day's high led by energy shares; Nifty above 7,750

The S&P BSE Sensex was higher by 198 point at 25,518 and the Nifty50 has gained 62 points at 7,763

Markets have extended gains and are trading near day’s high led by oil and gas shares.

By 10:02 am, the S&P BSE Sensex was higher by 198 points at 25,518 and the Nifty50 has gained 62 points at 7,763.

The top gainers from the Sensex pack are GAIL, ONGC, BHEL, Bharti Airtel and Sun Pharma, all sup between 1%-5%.

Oil shares have extended gains following slight rebound in global crude oil prices. Reliance Industries rose over 2% while ONGC gained between 1%-2%.


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Updated at 9:30 am

Markets opened higher, amid firm global cues, and are on track for third straight day of gains. Meanwhile, market participants across the globe are eagerly awaiting the outcome of the US Federal Reserve's two-day meet which ends later today.

By 9:30 am, the S&P BSE Sensex was higher by 96 points at 25,416 and the Nifty50 has gained 28 points at 7,729.

The broader markets are outperforming the benchmark indices- BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices are up 0.5%-0.6%.

 
According to Angel Broking's morning report, "Yesterday’s upmove was very much on our expected lines as we had mentioned about few positive developments on smaller degree charts. Our first target of 7,700 was met during the session and considering the ongoing momentum, a possibility of extending this move towards 7,750 – 7,800 cannot be ruled out.

The report further adds, “Traders holding long positions should now trail their stop loss higher at 7,620 (tad below yesterday’s low of 7,625.10). We witnessed a lot of stock specific action during yesterday’s session, which we expect to continue in today’s session as well. Thus, traders can also focus on individual stocks with a proper exit strategy."

Meanwhile, the foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 48.67 crore yesterday as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges.

Among macro-economic front, India’s merchandise exports fell for the twelfth consecutive month in November this year, contracting by 24% to $20 billion, according to data released by the government.

Besides, advance tax collection from top 45 companies in Mumbai has gone up both at quarterly level as well as in the first nine months of the current financial year, according to Income-Tax officials.

In the overseas market, Asian stocks edged higher with sentiment lifting as US market jumped overnight before a likely hike in US interest rates, while the dollar held to large gains made as Treasury yields picked up. The Fed is widely expected to raise the federal funds rate by 25 basis points after the conclusion of a two-day monetary policy meeting today, 16 December 2015.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 1.5%. Japan's Nikkei gained 1.9% and Shanghai stocks edged up 0.4%.

Among key stocks, BHEL, GAIL, HUL, Hindalco, NTPC, ONGC, and TCS are up 1%-1.2%.

BHEL is up almost 2% after the company announced that it has added one more coal-based power plant to the grid by successfully commissioning a 500 megawatts (MW) thermal generating unit in West Bengal.

Infosys has gained nearly 1% after the IT major announced that Fubon Bank (Hong Kong), a wholly owned subsidiary of Fubon Financial Holding Company, has decided to adopt Infosys Finacle's newgeneration Finacle Core Banking solution.

HDFC Bank announced that it has issued and allotted on a private placement basis senior, unsecured, redeemable, long term, non-convertible bonds in the nature of debentures amounting to Rs 2975 crore. Shares of HDFC Bank are up almost 1%.

Shares of M&M are down over 5% ahead of court decision on banning diesel vehicles in Delhi.

Wipro is trading lower by 0.4% after the company issued a warning saying that disruption at its Chennai facilities due to recent floods and the costs associated with subsequent invocation of business continuity plans would have a material impact on the performance of the company in the October-December quarter of FY16.

Shares of PSU Oil marketing companies are trading firm after cutting prices of petrol by 50 paise a litre and diesel by 46 paise a litre in Delhi with prices varying marginally in other places due to local levies. BPCL, HPCL and IOC have risen between 2%-3%.  

Sugar stocks are trading higher by upto 3% after a bill was passed by the Lok Sabha on Tuesday to hike the sugar cess ceiling from Rs 25 to Rs 200 per quintal. Bajaj Hindusthan, EID Parry, Balrampur Chini and Dwarikesh Sugars are up 1%-3%.

Tara Jewels has extended gains by upto 5% on the back of block deals.


With Reuters input