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The benchmark indices continue to trade higher in today’s trade tracking strength in the Global peers. Also, optimism over the forthcoming Budget has boosted the sentiments of the market participants.
At 1 PM, the 30-share Sensex is up 173 points at 29,309 and the 50-share Nifty has surged 44 points to trade at 8,854.
Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors were net sellers in Indian equities worth Rs 183 crore on Monday, as per provisional stock exchange data.
LOCAL CURRENCY
The rupee has depreciated by 10 paise to 62.26 against the dollar today at the Interbank Foreign Exchange due to appreciation of the US currency overseas.
COMMODITY CORNER
Gold and silver slipped to one-month lows on signs that Greek banks will continue to get emergency funding despite a breakdown in debt talks between their government and euro zone partners.
Oil prices fell in Asia today ahead of the release of a report on US crude inventories and as traders kept an eye on the crisis in crude exporter Libya.
SECTORS & HOT STOCKS
On the sectoral front, 9 out of 12 sectoral indices are trading in the positive territory with BSE Consumer Durables index leading the rally up over 1.1% followed by Cpital Goods and Power indices trading higher up to 1%. However, BSE Metal, Teck and Oil and Gas indices are losing sheen and are down up to 0.5%.
Shares of defence equipment and manufacturers have rallied by up to 14% on the bourses after Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the country needs to increase its defence preparedness.
Pipavav Defence and Offshore (up 14% at Rs 78.75), Astra Microwave Products (up 9% at Rs 144), Bharat Electronics (8.8% at Rs 3,985), Walchandnagar Industries (up 7% at Rs 269) and BEML (5% at Rs 1,007) on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).
HDFC, Tata Power, ICICI Bank and HUL are some of the notable gainers on the BSE and are trading higher between 1-3%.
ITC is up 1% after the company acquired Savlon and Shower To Shower brands for India from Johnson & Johnson as part of its ambitious goal to become the country's largest FMCG company by 2030.
Shares of country's largest power producer NTPC have inched up in today’s trade and are trading higher by 2% on the BSE after the company decided to invest approximately Rs 60,000 crore for executing green energy projects in the next five years as part of government's plans to provide thrust to clean electricity generation.
Homegrown auto major Mahindra & Mahindra is trading higher by 2% to Rs 1,234 on the BSE after the company decided to upgrade the side curtain airbag software on all the XUV500 vehicles manufactured on or before July 2014.
City-based Cipla Hyderabad's Natco and US drug maker Mylan are among the companies in the fray to buy select brands of Sun Pharma that have been put up for sale by the companies as per an order of the Competition Commission of India. Sun Pharma is up nearly 1% while Cipla is trading higher by nearly 1%.
Tata Motors on Tuesday reported a marginal increase in global sales, including Jaguar Land Rover, at 80,499 units in January.Tata Motors has climbed nearly 1%.
On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp has dipped nearly 4.5% on reports that the promoter of the country’s biggest maker of motorcycles and scooters is planning to sell part of its holding through open market today.
Country's largest telecom player Bharti Airtel is down by 2.5%. It has launched its first pan-Africa customised 3G smartphone for $53, aiming to tap mobile data users.
Sesa sterlite, Axis Bank, Tata Steel, Bajaj Auto are some of the prominent losers on the BSE down between 0.7-2%.
In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap index is up 0.6% and Small-cap index is up 1%.
Market breadth is firm with 1,522 gainers and 1,157 losers on the BSE.
