 "Market rally")
Benchmark indices continue to hold on to their gains and are trading near one month high led by buying among pharma and rate-sensitive sectors.
At 13:15 pm, 30 share Sensex was at 26,000 levels, up by 162 points while the Nifty50 was at 7,911 levels, up by 50 points. Among broader markets, BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices are up 0.3%-0.5%
The top gainers from the Sensex pack are Dr Reddy’s Labs, NTPC, ICICI Bank, Tata Motors and ONGC, all surging between 1.7%-2.4%.
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Updated at 12 pm
Markets continue to remain firm in the noon trades led by gains in the auto shares and index heavyweights such as RIL and Tata Motors.
At 12 noon, 30 share Sensex was at 25,986 levels, up by 144 points while the Nifty50 was at 7,906 levels, up by 45 points.
The broader markets are also depicting strength with BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices gaining between 0.4-0.6% each. The market breadth is extremely strong with 1,523 advances and 788 declines on the BSE.
On the currency front, the rupee continued to rule higher against the American currency for the eighth straight session as it rose 7 paise to 66.14 in early trade at the Inter-bank Foreign Exchange market today on increased selling of the US currency by exporters and banks.
Meanwhile, in an absence of any immediate economic trigger, the investors would stay cautious as they roll-over positions to the January 2016 series from December series.
Further, Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were the net sellers to the tune of Rs 112.03 crore on Thursday as per provisional stock exchange data.
BUZZING STOCKS
Sectorally, BSE Telecom sector is under pressure, down by 0.8% while BSE Auto index has gained nearly 1%
Reliance Industries has gained 0.6% after its telecom arm of RIL, Reliance Jio on Sunday announced the much awaited fourth generation wireless broadband service for its employees under Jio brand name.
Its competitors Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular have come under pressure. Both these stocks have dropped between 1-2% each.
Pharma shares are in focus today. Sun Pharma, Lupin, Dr Reddy's have all gained strength and are trading higher between 1.2-2.5% each.
According to media reports, Tata Motors is planning to locally produce the automated manual transmission of the next generation Nano by 2016. The stock has gained over 2%
State-owned GAIL India will take 5% stake in the international consortium building the $8.7 billion Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline. The stock has gained 1%
ITC and HUL are set to expand their healthcare products category line. ITC is set to expand its Savlon brand across markets while HUL is aggressively pushing its Lifebuoy handwash programme. Both the FMCG companies have gained 0.3% each.
Among other notable gainers, Tata Power has climbed 2.4% after the company said it signed a pact with the Ministry for Development of Russian Far East to increase energy investment between India and Russia.
SMART MOVERS
KEI Industries has advanced 4.5% at Rs 110 on the BSE after the company announced that it has bagged orders/ notification of awards (NOA) valuing Rs 384.53 crore (ex-works) from Power Grid Corporation of India.
Tube Investments of India has surged 12.1% to Rs 448 on the BSE after the company announced that it will sell 14% of its stake in Cholamandalam MS General Insurance (Chola MS) to its joint venture partner, Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance (MSI) for Rs 883 crore.
SMS Pharmaceuticals has rallied nearly 9% to Rs 133, also its new high on the BSE in early morning trade, after the company announced that it has received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for an Andhra Pradesh-based manufacturing facility.
