Markets off record highs on profit taking; HDFC up 4%

Benchmark share indices came off their record highs amid profit taking at higher levels even as financials continued to trade firm.

Earlier markets surged to fresh record highs, amid a rally in global stocks, after the European Central Bank's at its meeting late Thursday announced higher-than-expected monetary measures to boost the economy in the euro zone.
 
At 10:30AM, the 30-share Sensex was up 216 points at 29,222 after hitting a record high of 29,408.73 and the 50-share Nifty was up 50 points at 8,812 after touching a record high of 8,866.40.
 

ECB has committed to purchase government bonds of Euro Zone countries worth 60 billion Euros ($69 billion) a month from March this year to September, 2016.  With commodity markets remaining soft and uncertain, it is likely the money will flow into equity markets with strong upsides, such as India.

Market expectation was that Draghi would announce a euro 50 billion per month QE program which would run for a year totalling between euro 600-700 billion.
 
Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors were net buyers in Indian equities worth Rs 593 crore on Thursday, as per provisional stock exchange data
 
Asian markets are trading higher boosted by the ECB move and the rebound in crude oil prices after Saudi Arabia announced that King Abdullah had died and his successor, Salman, moved quickly to name his own heir to rule the world's biggest oil exporter. Nikkei, Hang Seng, Shanghai Composite and Straits Times were up over 1% each.

Rate-sensitive sectors were among the top sectoral gainers led by Capital Goods, Auto, Healthcare, FMCG and Bankex indices.
 
Among the financials, HDFC, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and SBI were among the top gainers up 1-3.5% each

Tata Motors was up 2.3% after the company received good response for its
hatchback Bolt with a starting price of Rs 4.64 lakh (ex-showroom, Mumbai). The company is pitting this car against segment leaders Maruti Suzuki Swift and Hyundai Grand i10.

In the capital goods segment, L&T was up over 2%. BHEL was trading marginal gains. Meanwhile, The Department of Disinvestment has invited engagement from merchant bankers to offload 10 per cent government stake in IOCL, Nalco and NMDC each and five per cent in BHEL.

Among the index heavyweights, ITC and Reliance Industries were up 0.6-2.3% each.

In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices were down 0.3-0.5% each.

Market breadth weakened with 1,264 losers and 938 gainers on the BSE.