Auto stocks in top gear; Tata Motors up 3%

Auto stocks emerged as the top gainers led by Tata Motors

Markets came off their early highs amid profit taking even as auto stocks emerged as the top gainers.

At 11:15am, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 97 points at  28,440 and the Nifty50 was up 40 points at 8,785. In the broader market, the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices were up 0.4%-0.5% each.

Tata Motors extended gains and was up over 3% post its June quarter results. The auto major reported better-than-expected revenues with 9% growth in consolidated net income and JLR revenue for the June 2016 quarter.

Among other auto shares, Maruti Suzuki and M&M were up 0.5% while in the two-wheeler space Hero MotoCorp gained 2% and Bajaj Auto gained nearly 1%.

Financials continued to trade firm with private lenders among the top gainers. ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank were up 0.5%-0.8% each.

IT majors witnessed profit taking after gains in the previous session. Infosys and TCS were down 0.5%-0.9% each.

Among others, shares of private sector lender RBL, formerly known as Ratnakar Bank, was up 32% at Rs 298. Earlier, the stock made its debut today on the National Stock Exchange at Rs 274.2 per share, a 22% premium over the issue price of Rs 225 per share.
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(Updated at 9:54am)
Markets opened marginally higher with private banks among the top gainers even as profit booking at higher levels after a sharp rally in the previous session capped further upsides.

At 9:54am, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 137 points at  28,480 and the Nifty50 was up 57 points at 8,800. In the broader market, the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices were up 0.5% each.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers in equities worth Rs 391 crore on Tuesday, as per provisional stock exchange data.

On Tuesday, benchmark stock indices surged in late trades to end at fresh 52-week closing highs, amid firm European cues, led by banks while IT majors witnessed renewed buying interest amid attractive valuations.  In the broader market, the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices ended up nearly 1% each. Further, BSE500 touched a fresh lifetime high of 11,795 and the Nifty Midcap index also ended at a record closing high.

"Index has given a breakout after the consolidation of last five weeks and now holding above 8700 zones might take it towards 8844 zones in next coming sessions while on the downside 8665 would act as an immediate support going forwards for traders," Anand Rathi Securities said in a technical note.

Among the private banks, Kotak Mahindra Bank was up 2.4%, ICICI Bank was up nearly 1%, IndusInd Bank gained 1.1 while Yes Bank was up nearly 1%.

UltraTech Cement was up 3% after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) allowed foreign investors to invest up to 30% in the cement major.

Other gainers include, HDFC, Asian Paints, Reliance Industries and ITC among others.

GLOBAL MARKETS

Asian markets were trading mixed with Japanese shares gaining the most amid a weaker yen. The benchmark Nikkei was up 0.8% while Straits Times was trading flat. Shares in China were trading flat with negative bias while Hang Seng was trading with marginal gains.

US stocks ended lower on Tuesday with Apple shares emerging as the top loser amid reports that the European Commission has directed the company to pay Ireland unpaid taxes of up to 13 billion euros. The Dow Jones industrial average ended down 0.3% at 18,454, S&P 500 eased 0.2% to 2,176 and the Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.2% to settle at 5,223.