Sensex up over 200 points; Advanced Enzymes zooms 37%

Financials continued to be the top gainers while autos firmed up on robust July sales from Maruti Suzuki

Markets extended gains after the first hour of trade with financials and auto shares leading the gains.

At 10:40am, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 213 points at 28,264 and the Nifty50 was up 68 points at 8,707. In the broader market, the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices were up 1% each. Market breadth was strong with 1448 gainers and 704 losers on the BSE.

Maruti Suzuki was up 1.4% after the auto major reported nearly 13% growth in July sales.

IT shares also witnessed renewed buying interest led by TCS which gained over 3% followed by Infosys and Wipro.

Among other shares, Astra Microwave Products has dipped nearly 9% to Rs 115 on the BSE in an otherwise strong market after the company reported net loss of Rs 2.43 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2016 (Q1FY17), because of lower operational income. The company engaged in defence sector had registered a profit of Rs 4.90 crore in the year ago quarter.

Advanced Enzyme Technologies which made its debut on the bourses today was up 37% at Rs 1228. The company listed at Rs 1,210, a 35% premium against its issue price of Rs 896 per share on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).
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(Updated at 9:21am)
Markets opened higher tracking gains in their Asian peers with financials leading the gains in early trades on expectations that the crucial GST Bill is likely to be passed very soon.

At 9:21am, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 189 points at 28,241 and the Nifty50 was up 62 points at 8,702.

"In the last three trading sessions, the bulls have vehemently tried to surpass the 8675 mark on the
Nifty. We see a higher probability of the index surpassing the mark and reaching its next resistance zone of 8750 – 8800," Angel Broking said in a technical note.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers in equities worth Rs 14 crore on Friday, as per provisional stock exchange data.

STOCKS

Financials were among the top gainers with mortgage lender HDFC leading the gains followed by HDFC Bank, Axis Bank and State Bank of India.

Among others, ITC, Tata Motors and TCS were among the top Sensex gainers.

ICICI Bank was down nearly 1% after it reported a 25% fall in its net profit at Rs 2,232 crore in the June quarter, compared with Rs 2,976 crore in the same period a year ago. Asset quality pressure continues to persist and gross non-performing assets (NPA) as a percentage of total advances jumped to 5.87 per cent in the quarter under review from 3.68 per cent a year ago.

L&T was up nearly 1% after the engineering and infrastructure major's net profit for the quarter ended June grew 46% to Rs 610 crore against Rs 419 crore for the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

GLOBAL MARKETS

Asian stocks edged higher on Monday on expectations that the US Fed won't hike rates after second quarter US GDP data came in lower-than-expected. US GDP in April-June quarter grew 1.2% against economists expectations of around 2.6%. China shares weakened with the Shanghai Composite down 1.2% while Hang Seng rose 1.3%. Nikkei gained 0.3% and Straits Times rose 0.8%.

US stocks ended mixed on Friday with the Dow Jones industrial average closing flat with negative bias. The benchmark index closed 0.1% lower at 18,432, S&P 500 gained 0.2% at 2,174 and Nasdaq closed 0.1% higher at 5,162.