Markets resilient; defensives lose sheen

Benchmark indices continue to maintain the upbeat trend with capital goods and bank shares leading the gains on better-than-expected GDP growth in the first quarter. At 1422 hrs, the Sensex was up 207 points at 26,845 and the Nifty advanced 66 points to trade at 8,020.

For the quarter ended June this year, India's gross domestic product (GDP) grew at a nine-quarter high of 5.7 per cent, compared with 4.6 per cent in the previous quarter, driven largely by industry, official data showed on Friday.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court is likely to decide on Monday the fate of the 194 coal blocks whose allocations it had termed illegal last week.

In the broader markets, the mid and smallcap indices gained over 1% each outperforming the BSE benchmark index.

Sectors & Stocks

FMCG and Health Care indices down 0.4% and 0.1% were the only sectoral indices in red.

The ones leading the gains were Realty, Power, Oil & Gas, Capital Goods, Consumer Durables, Bankex and Auto indices up1-2.5%.

Capital goods shares have gained on hopes that order inflows would improve after upbeat first quarter GDP. L&T spurted by nearly 3%.

Auto stocks were in focus amid release of monthly sales figures from today. Maruti Suzuki up 4.5% was the top Sensex gainer, after hitting a record high of Rs 2,868, amid better-than-expected sales growth in August led by the compact car segment. Hero Moto was up over 4%.

GAIL, Cipla, ICICI Bank, Tata Power, RIL, Axis Bank and Bharti Airtel up 2-3% were the major gainers of the hour.

Sun Pharma, ITC, Tata Motors down 1-2% were the top losers. HDFC, HUL and BHEL down 0.2-0.3% rounded off the losers list.

The market breadth was positive on BSE. 1,843 stocks advanced while 992 stocks declined.

Rupee

Rupee is trading at 60.46/47 versus Thursday close of 60.49/50. Gains in domestic share market aided the rupee, but sentiment remains cautious. Traders are awaiting the Supreme Court's hearing on Monday on whether to cancel coal blocks.

Global Markets

Asian shares edged higher on Monday, with investors wary of a deepening crisis in Ukraine and a downbeat China manufacturing survey, while the euro touched a fresh one-year low ahead of this week's European Central Bank meeting.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan shrugged off early losses and was up about 0.3%, moving back toward last Thursday's six-and-a-half-year peak.

Japan's Nikkei stock average ended up about 0.3%, taking back some of the ground lost in August, when it shed 1.3%.

The European markets were in red with the CAC, DAX and FTSE down 0.3-0.4%.