Markets gain momentum; Nifty reclaims 8,600

A strong rally in the IT shares on the back of strong US jobs data is evident

After opening the session on a flat note, markets have gained momentum in the early trades led by a strong rally in the IT shares on the back of strong US jobs data. Meanwhile, renewed buying interest in financials has contributed to the rise on the Sensex. 

At 10:00 AM, the 30-share Sensex was up 155 points at 28,391 and 50-share Nifty was up 47 points at 8,612.

HDFC, Dr Reddy’s Lab, TCS, SBI and Cipla are the top 5 gainer on the Sensex and are up between 1-1.4%.

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(updated at 9:20 AM)


Markets opened marginally higher, shrugging off weak Asian cues, as gains in IT and financials helped offset losses in capital goods and FMCG shares.

At 9:20AM, the 30-share Sensex was up 30 points at 28,266 and 50-share Nifty was up 14 points at 8,578.

In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap index was up 0.7% and Small-cap index was up 0.5%.

Market breadth was positive with 1,062 gainers and 401 losers on the BSE.

Last leg of quarterly earnings from blue-chip companies coupled with progress of monsoons and Parliament proceeding is likely to dictate the trend on the bourses.

Meanwhile, the government will release inflation based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) data and industrial production data for June 2015 on August 12 and inflation based on the Wholesale Price Index for July 2015 on August 14.

The Indian rupee was trading marginally higher at 63.76 to the US dollar compared to the previous close of 63.80.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers in equities to the tune of Rs 94 crore on Friday.

SECTORS & STOCKS

All sectoral indices were in the green led by BSE IT, Healthcare, Power, Oil and Gas among others.

IT majors TCS and Infosys were up 0.7-0.8% each while SBI was up over 1% ahead of its April-June earnings on Tuesday and mortgage lender HDFC was up nearly 1%.

Tata Motors was down 1.8% on weak after the auto major last week reported 49% drop in net profit at Rs 2,769 crore for the quarter ended June because of lower Jaguar Land Rover sales in China. 

Among other shares, Divis Laboratories surged to lifetime highs, up 8% to Rs 2,130 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) in early morning trades, after the company reported a strong 45% year-on-year (YoY) rise in net profit at Rs 243 crore for the quarter ended June 2015 (Q1). The drug maker had posted a profit of Rs 168 crore in the year-ago quarter.

GLOBAL MARKETS

Asian shares are trading lower on new indications of a slowdown in the Chinese economy September. Japan's Nikkei fell 0.4% and Hang Seng slipped over 1.2%. The early indicator, SGX Nifty is down 0.2%.

In the meanwhile, the US Department of Labor said on Friday employers added 215,000 jobs in July. The unemployment rate held at a seven-year low of 5.3% and there were signs that wages were beginning to pick up. This has resulted in fears of a rate hike by the US Fed which hit the US markets on Friday.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.3%, hitting a six-month low. The S&P 500 shed also about 0.3%.