Markets have a quiet start; Nifty hovers at 8,775

The capital goods and banking stocks are among the gainers in this morning's trades, while the auto pack is trading weak.

The markets are listless in early trades despite the encouraging industrial output in February and the positive trends across the Asian bourses.

The Sensex did scale 29,000 to touch an intra-day high of 29,005 at opening bell, but retraced immediately thereafter. At 9:45 AM, the Sensex is quoting at 28,881, up two points, while the Nifty is at 8775, down five points.

At 9:45 AM, the Sensex is quoting at 28,881, up two points and the Nifty is at 8775, down five points.

The broader markerts have, however, taken off from where they left last week; the midcap index has strengthened by 73 points or 0.6% at 11,166 and the smallcap index has raced ahead by 115 points or 0.9% at 11,963.

In the IIP numbers announced post market hours on Friday, the industrial growth jumped to a three-month high of 5% in February from 2.8% in January, with strong performances in almost every segment, barring consumer durables and intermediate goods. February was only the third month in 2014-15 to have recorded industrial growth of five per cent or more.

Among Asian peers, the Chinese and Hong Kong markets are having a good session of trade.

Markets had registered gains last week after global rating agency Moody’s raised India’s credit outlook to ‘positive’ from ‘stable’, anticipating policymakers' actions will lift India’s economic growth. In the week ended April 10, the 30-share Sensex ended up 619 points, or 2.19%, at 28,879 and the 50-share Nifty ended up 194 points or 2.26%, at 8,780.

 
Meanwhile, the government will release data for March consumer price inflation later in the day.

The rupee has opened flat at 62.33 per dollar on Monday against 62.31 on Friday.

Global Markets

The Chinese markets are leading gains in Asia to touch fresh seven-year highs early Monday. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index elevated 0.4% to its highest level since January 2008 and South Korea's Kospi index has hit its highest level since August 2014. On the other hand, Japan's Nikkei is struggling to find momentum shy of the key 20,000 mark.

The major US share indices ended with marginal gains with General Electric leading the gains on Wall Street after the global major announced plans to divest GE Capital business and also buyback of shares upto $50 billion. The Dow Jone gained 0.6% to end above 18,000 at 18,057.65, the tech-laden Nasdaq gained 0.4% at 4,995.98 and the broader S&P 500 ended up 0.5% at 2,102.06.

SECTORS & BUZZING STOCKS

The capital goods space is seeing action this morning. Bhel has strengthened by 1.2% at Rs 237 to top the gainers list on the BSE and giving it company is L&T, which has added 0.8% at Rs 1776. Larsen & Toubro Has signed an agreement with AREVA for Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project.

Select financials will be in focus after they announced cut in home loan rates over the weekend.

HDFC has gained 0.9% at Rs 1302 as it announced a reduction in its retail prime lending rate (RPLR) by 20 basis points, with effect from 13 April 2015. The announcement was made post market hours on Friday.

State Bank of India has added 1.8% at Rs 287 after reducing the interest rate on home loans by another 10 basis points with effect from 13 April 2015. Earlier, the bank had reduced this rate by 15 basis points, to 10% per annum, with effect from 10 April 2015.

Sanghvi Movers has surged 7% to Rs 310, also its 52-week high on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), after domestic mutual funds bought nearly three million equity shares or 6% stake in the company through open market purchase.

Shriram EPC has surged nearly 15% to Rs 45.45 on the Bombay Stock Exchange after the company said that a part of the loans under corporate debt restructuring (CDR) package have been converted to equity.

On the other hand, Gail has shed 2.3% at Rs 391 to emge as the top loser on the BSE. Select auto stocks are also in the red. Tata Motors has skid by 1.1% at Rs 555 and M&M has slipped by 1.1% at Rs 1268.