Nifty surpasses 7,700; Sensex soars over 300 points

FMCG majors ITC and HUL were the top gainers on hopes that release of salaries and pensions to govt employees may boost consumption

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

At 15:10 pm, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 329 points at 25,282 and Nifty50 rose 96 points at 7,700. Broader markers are outperforming- BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices are up over 1%.

Top gainers from the Sensex pack are SBI, Bharti Airtel, HUL, ITC, Tata Motors, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank.

Among other shares, Prestige Estates Projects has surged nearly 10% to Rs 153 on the BSE after the Board of Directors of the Company at its meeting held on March 19, 2016, has approved the payment of interim dividend at the rate of 12% i.e. (Rs 1.20 per share) for the financial year 2015-16.

Shares of Aurobindo Pharma are up 3% at Rs 743 after the company said that it has received final approval from the US Food & Drug Administration to manufacture and market Naproxen Sodium Tablets USP, 220 mg (OTC).

Welspun India is trading higher 4% at Rs 97.50 on the BSE after the stock turned ex-stock split today in the ratio of 1:10.


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Updated at 1:20 pm

Markets continued to trade firm in noon trades on Monday with FMCG stocks leading the gains on hopes that the release of salaries and pensions to nearly 1 million government employees would fuel consumption.

At 1:20pm, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 127 points at 25,079 and Nifty50 rose 36 points at 7,641.

In the broader market, the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices were up 0.8% each. Market breadth was positive with 1,337 gainers and 1104 losers on the BSE.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers in equities worth Rs 1,713 crore on Friday, as per provisional stock exchange data.

SECTORS & STOCKS

BSE Realty index was the top gainer up nearly 1.6% followed by Bankex, Capital Goods and FMCG.

FMCG major ITC and Hindustan Unilever were up nearly 2% on hopes that the release of salaries and pensions based on the seventh pay commission recommendations from July along with six months’ arrears would boost consumption.

In the consumer durables space, Whirpool, Bajaj Electricals, Rajesh Exports, Symphony and TTK Prestige were up 1%-3% each.

In the financial segment, state-owned banks were among the top gainers after the government announced a steep cut in interest rates on small savings schemes.

State Bank of India (SBI), Punjab National Bank (PNB), IDBI Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Allahabad Bank, Bank of India and Bank of Baroda were up more than 1% each. Among private banks, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Yes Bank and Axis Bank were up 0.8%-1.3% each

Among others, jewellery stocks Monday rose sharply by up to 8% after jewellers called off their 18-day old strike demanding rollback of proposed excise duty on non-silver jewellery.  Shree Ganesh Jewellery House jumped 7.85%, Gitanjali Gems zoomed 6.62%, Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri surged 5.56%, PC Jeweller climbed 5.3% and Titan Company rose 2.1% on the BSE.

Welspun India is trading higher 4% at Rs 97.50 on the BSE after the stock turned ex-stock split today in the ratio of 1:10.The Welspun India board had fixed March 22, as the record date for a stock split in the ratio of 1:10, i.e. a share of face value Rs 10 is split into 10 shares of face value Re 1 each.

Shares of cement companies continued to trade higher for the third straight session on the bourses on expectation of strong show in the current quarter as volume growth picking up, mainly from the infrastructure sector. UltraTech Cement and Ambuja Cements have touched their respective six-month high price.