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Key benchmarks continued to trade firm in noon trades amid buying interest seen in information technology(IT) and banking shares among other heavyweights. Infosys hit a new all-time high post its third quarter earnings.
Markets are bolstered by weaker-than-estimated US jobs report which eased fears of US Federal Reserve accelerating the pace of tapering its bond-buying program.
At 12:56 pm, the 30-share Sensex was up 254.87 points at 21,013.36 and the 50-share Nifty was up 66.95 points at 6,238.40.
"Nifty remain under range bound trading, with upside capped near 6290 and downside floor towrads 6150 zone. No major long short trade is currently visible in this range," says Navneet Daga- Analyst, KR Choksey Securities.
The rupee hit 61.52 at opening, its highest since December 12. The rupee was trading at Rs 61.45 compared with previous close of Rs 61.91 per dollar. The dollar weakened after weak US jobs data. Strong gains in equities also boosted sentiment.
The consumer price inflation data due to be released post market hours pm will be crucial for further near-term direction.
Asian markets pared early gains and were trading marginally lower. The Shanghai Composite was down 0.2% after China pegged its currency to a record high. Among other shares in the region, Hang Seng was down 0.1% and Straits Times was trading 0.2% lower.
The BSE IT index was the top gainer among the sectoral indices up 2.3% followed by Oil and Gas, Bankex and Capital Goods indices.
Infosys was the top Sensex gainer up 3.4% at Rs 3,670 after hitting a record high of Rs 3,674. Shares of the country’s second-largest software services provider has surged 6% in past two trading sessions after posting 145bp quarter-quarter (qoq) growth in EBIT margin to 25.0% for the third quarter ended December 2013 (Q3), led by operational efficiency with higher utilization level and sequential decline in S&M spends. The company expects margins to stabilize around the current levels in the medium to long term.
TCS was up 2.5% ahead of its third qaurter earnings due this Thursday.
In the Oil and Gas pack, Reliance Industries and ONGC were up 1.9-2.2% each after the government has officially notified the new gas pricing policy that would be applicable to all the domestically produced gas from April 2014 which will be effective for five years.
As per the new pricing mechanism, the new gas price is likely to be US$8.4/mmbtu for FY2015. Currently, gas prices are in the range of US$4.2-5.7/mmbtu for domestically produced gas.
Tata Motors was up 2.3% after its British subsidiary Jaguar-Land Rover (JLR) has reported a strong 21% year-on-year growth in retail sales at 40,635 units for the month of December 2013.
Shares of pharmaceutical company Ranbaxy Laboratories has tanked 7% to Rs 432 in early noon deals on back of heavy volumes. According to media report, the US Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) is inspecting Ranbaxy’s active pharmaceutical ingredient or API manufacturing factory at Toansa in Punjab.
In the financial space, HDFC, HDFC Bank, SBI and ICICI Bank were up 1-2% each.
Among other shares, shares of Gati is locked in upper circuit of 10% at Rs 62.30, extending its past two week rally on the BSE, after ace investor Radhakishan Damani has acquired over 5% stake in the logistics company through open market.
Bharat Forge has surged nearly 5% to Rs 347 after the company said its indirect subsidiary in Hong Kong has shed its 51.85% stake in its Chinese joint venture FAW Bharat Forge (Changchun) Company Ltd in favour of its joint venture partner China FAW Corporation Ltd for $28.208 million (Rs 175 crore).
In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices were up 0.3-0.6% each.
Market breadth was positive with 1,293 gainers and 904 losers on the BSE.
