 "A man looks at a screen across a road displaying the Sensex on the facade of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) building in Mumbai")
Markets continued to trade near their day's high in late noon deals with rate-sensitive shares gaining the most ahead of the RBI monetary policy review tomorrow.
At 1:55pm, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 340 points at 27,206 and the Nifty50 was up 115 points at 8,727. In the broader markets the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices were up over 2% each. Market breadth was strong with 2096 gainers and 613 losers on the BSE.
In the financial segment, ICICI Bank, SBI, HDFC and HDFC Bank were up 1%-1.7% each. SBI was up 1.7% after the government extended Chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya's term by one year, allowing her more time to lead a clean-up of bad assets and oversee a merger of affiliates.
Auto shares were amog the top gainers after robust sales in September 2016. Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, M&M, Bajaj Auto and Hero MotoCorp were up 1.5%-3.5% each.
However, IT exporters were down on account of a stronger rupee. Infosys and TCS were down 0.3%-0.6% each.
Among others, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (SEZ) has gained over 3% after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said that Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) can now invest up to 49% in the company from 40% earlier.
__________________
(Updated at 12:17pm)
Indian shares rose more than one per cent on Monday as expectations of a rate cut by the central bank lifted lenders and as auto makers such as Maruti Suzuki rallied after reporting strong sales for September.
Sentiment was also boosted as Asian shares got the new quarter off to a firm start, with MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gaining 0.8 per cent, as concerns eased about the health of German lender Deutsche Bank.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is due to hold its policy review on Tuesday, with a monetary policy committee set to fix interest rates for the first time.
Analysts were broadly divided on the outcome, with about 60 per cent of the 44 analysts polled by Reuters expecting the central bank to hold rates and the rest expecting at least a 25 basis point cut.
The meeting on Tuesday will also be Urjit Patel's maiden policy review as the governor.
"There is some optimism because of an expectation of a rate cut," said Saurabh Jain, assistant vice-president of research at SMC Global Securities.
The broader NSE Nifty was up 1.11 per cent at 8,706.60 as of 0615 GMT, while the benchmark BSE Sensex was one per cent higher at 28,142.80.
Banking stocks were among the top performers. IndusInd Bank Ltd and HDFC Bank Ltd led the rise with gains of 3.37 per cent and 1.19 per cent, respectively.
Meanwhile, State Bank of India rose 2.15 per cent after the government extended Chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya's term by one year, allowing her more time to lead a clean-up of bad assets and oversee a merger of affiliates.
Auto makers also gained on the back of upbeat monthly sales.
Maruti Suzuki Ltd rose as much as 4.43 per cent to a record high after posting a rise of 31 per cent in September vehicle sales.
Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd and Eicher Motors Ltd rose over three per cent each, while Tata Motors Ltd was up 2.08 per cent.
On the Nifty, the IT index was the only sector in red. Tata Consultancy Services Ltd was the biggest percentage loser, falling as much as 1.22 per cent.
