 "Market gains third straight day; Sensex up 148 points")
The 30-share Sensex provisionally ended up 148 points at 28,270 and the 50-share Nifty was up 38 points at 8,552.
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(updated at 2:10PM)
Benchmark indices have recouped gains and are trading close to intra-day highs, shrugging off a sell off in Chinese markets, led by sustained buying in oil and bank shares.
At 2:10PM, the 30-share Sensex was up 197 points at 28,319 and the 50-share Nifty was up 52 points at 8,566.
In the broader market, BSE Midcap index is largely in-line with the front-liners with a gain of 0.6% while the Smallcap index is performing better than its larger peers with a gain of 0.9%. Market breadth in BSE is positive with 1,678 advances against 1,151 declines.
Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors were net buyers in Indian equities worth Rs 1,100 crore on Friday, as per provisional stock exchange data.
Buzzing Stocks
All the 12 sectoral indices of BSE are in green. BSE Consumer Durables index has surged around 3% and is the top gainer followed by BSE Capital Goods index up 1.3%, BSE Oil &Gas index, up 1.1%. BSE Bankex and Power index have gained around 1% each.
IT stocks are trading mixed after gaining in opening deals led by the strong gains in Wipro which has surged over 6% post its better-than-expected third quarter earnings on the back of dollar revenue growth. TCS and Wipro however are under pressure and trading lower by 1% and 0.8% each after paring early gains.
RIL has gained around 2% after paring early losses. According to media reports, the company will commission all of its 1400 fuel retail outlets in a year's time and plans to replicate the success of 2006 in the fuel retail segment by mopping up a market share of 14.3 per cent in high speed diesel and 7.2 per cent in petrol. From oil and gas space, ONCG has gained around 0.8% while GAIL has gained over 2%.
Banking stocks are trading mixed. HDFC Bank has gained around 0.5%. The private sector bank now figures in a list of the top 50 global banks in terms of market capitalisation along with SBI. Mortgage lender HDFC has declined around 0.8% paring early gains. ICICI Bank is up 1.7%, SBI is down 0.7%after shedding early gains and Axis Bank has gained around 2.5%.
Metal stocks have trimmed gains. Tata Steel and Sesa Sterlite have gained around 0.4% each while Hindalco has gained around 1.2%.
Among prominent losers, FMCG major HUL has shed around 2.1% ahead of its results to be released later today.
Among other stocks, Ramky Infrastructure has moved higher by 15% after the company announced that it has bagged orders worth of Rs 210 crore.
V-Guard Industries has dipped 6% after reporting a sharp 47% year-on-year (yoy) drop in net profit at Rs 9.23 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2014 (Q3), due to poor sales and hike in advertising spends. The company had profit of Rs 17.53 crore in a year ago quarter.
Global Markets
China stocks suffered their biggest one-day percentage drop in more than six and a half years, dragged down by record tumbles in financial stocks as authorities battled excessive market speculation. Shanghai Composite index declined over 8% while Hang Seng index lost around 1.6%.
Japan's Nikkei share average rose on Monday after strong U.S. Economic data buoyed sentiment and the weaker yen helped exporters. Nikkei gained around 0.8%.
European markets have on a cautious note. FTSE 100 and German DAX indices have gained around 0.3% and 0.4% each while French CAC 40 index is trading flat.