Markets extend gains, RIL leads
Markets have strengthened their gains with the Sensex and the Nifty gaining by almost 1% each. Firm Asian cues and index heavyweights like RIL, HDFC and Infosys are lending strong support to the markets.
At 11:30 hrs, the Sensex was up 152 points at 17,775 and the 50-share Nifty rose 51 points at 5,387.
On the global front, Asian markets advanced after Toyota Motor raised its profit forecast and as Greece's government edged closer to securing a bailout package. Strait Times, Shanghai Composite Nikkei, Kospi, Hang Seng and Taiwan Index have gained between 0.2-1%.
Back home, index heavyweight RIL has surged 1.64% and is close to its maximum buyback price of Rs 870 per share. The company's buyback programme commenced from February 1.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Goldman Sachs upgraded RIL to buy from neutral, citing a potential lift in margins on increased refining and recovering oil demand.
Metal stocks like Jindal Steel, Coal India, Hindalco and Sterlite have surged by almost 2% each.
DLF is the top Sensex gainer, up 3%. Realty stocks have gained on expectations that the central bank will start cutting interest rates in the coming months to prop up slowing economy.
From the banking space, SBI and HDFC have gained by nearly 1% each. ICICI Bank is down 2% on back of huge volumes.
Maruti Suzuki and Hero MotoCorp have gained between 2-3%.
IT stocks like Wipro, TCS and Infosys have gained between 1-2% on positive economic data in the US. TCS has extended yesterday’s gain after the company inked a multi-year, multi-million euro contract with European car rental company Europcar for deployment of IT services in France.
Capital goods majors L&T and BHEL rose 1-2%.
However, Bharti Airtel has dropped nearly 5% extending yesterday’s fall after disappointing bottomline in Q3.
The broader markets are trading fitm with the Mid-cap index up 1.26% and the Small-cap index up 1.34%.
The overall market breadth in BSE remains positive with 1,640 shares advancing and 801 shares declining.