Nifty crosses 7,600; RIL surges over 1.5%

Markets have further gained momentum in the late noon trades led by shares of ICICI Bank, RIL and other Index heavyweights.

 

At 15.00 PM, the S&P BSE Sensex surged over 300 points at 25,536.05 and the CNX Nifty gained over 90 points at 7625.25.

 

The top gainer at the BSE was ICICI Bank up over 4.5%, followed by Hindalco, Axis Bank and SBI, all up between 2-4% each. While RIL surged over 1.5% 

 

The market breadth at the BSE was postive, with 1913 advances and 941 declines.
 

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Updated at 13.52 PM

Markets continued to trade firm in noon trades and the broader markets outperformed the benchmark indices on value buying in fundamentally sound mid-cap and small-cap shares after the recent correction.

At 1:50PM, the 30-share Sensex was up up 115 points at 25,343 and the 50-share Nifty was up 36 points at 7,563.

On the macro front, June trade deficit hit an 11-month high according to government data. India's exports in June rose 10.22 percent from a year earlier, helped by a pick-up in external demand and a weak currency.

The trade deficit jumped to $11.76 billion last month from $11.23 billion in May, government data showed on Wednesday, boosted by a 65% annual rise in gold imports.

The Indian rupee was trading tad lower at Rs 60.13 compared to its previous close of Rs 60.12 because of demand for the US dollar from state-owned banks.

Asian markets were trading mixed with Japan's benchmark index ending down 0.1% amid profit taking after recent gains. China's Shanghai Composite was also down 0.1% while Hang Seng firmed up 0.2%. Singapore's Straits Times was up 0.3% after consolidating in the previous few sessions.

BSE Realty index was the top gainer among the sectoral indices up 3% followed by Bankex, Oil and Gas, Auto, Capital Goods and Healthcare indices.

Bank shares were among the top Sensex gainers on hope of pick up in credit growth after the banking regulator said that banks would not have to maintain cash reserve ratio or statutory liquidity ratio and will not have to meet priority-sector lending targets for funds raised through bonds for extending credit to infrastructure and housing sectors.

In the banking pack. ICICI Bank was up 3.4%, SBI gained 2% and Axis Bank was up 2.6% contributing the most to the Sensex gains.

Auto shares also extended gains today. Tata Motors, Maruti Suzuki, M&M and Hero MotoCorp were up 0.1-1.5% each.

Oil and gas shares were also up with ONGC marginally up on talk that the government may divest partial stake in the state-owned oil exploration firm. Reliance Industries was up 1.7%.

Among other shares, Financial Technologies India (FTIL) has locked in upper circuit for the second day in a row today, up 10% at Rs 268 on back of heavy volumes on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

Shares in IDFC has rallied 7% to Rs 161, its highest level since May 2013 on BSE, after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) permitted to raise long term funds for lending to infrastructure sector with minimum regulatory pre-emption such as cash reserve ratio (CRR) or statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) and Priority Sector Lending (PSL).

The broader market was in action with BSE Mid-cap index up 1% and Small-cap index up 1.6%.

Market breadth was strong with 1,749 gainers and 981 losers on the BSE.