Nifty ends above 8,600; RIL, L&T gain nearly 2%

Benchmark indices have ended higher for the second consecutive session led by the gains in index heavyweight stocks like RIL and ICICI Bank along with other private banks and select capital goods shares.
 
The 30-share Sensex ended 234 points higher at 28,534 and the 50-share Nifty closed 62 points up at 8,627.  
 
In the broader market, both the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices, up around 1.5% each performed better than the front-liners. Market breadth in BSE ended positive with 1,732 advances against 1,068 declines.     
 

On the global front, issues related to the Greece debt crisis are set to be discussed by the Euro Zone finance ministers who will meet later today for an extraordinary meeting in Brussels.

 
Back home, the Union Budget is keenly awaited for the launch of further reforms though market analysts expect the Modi government to accelerate the pace of economic reforms following the rout BJP suffered in the Delhi Assembly elections.
 
Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors continued to remain sellers in Indian shares with net sale of Rs 1261.19 crore on Tuesday, as per provisional data.
 
Buzzing Stocks
 
All the 12 sectoral indices of BSE ended in green. BSE Capital Goods index, up 2%, was the top gainer followed by BSE Metal and Healthcare indices, up 1.7% and 1.2% each and BSE Bankex up 1%.  

 
ICICI Bank gained over 1%. ICICI Bank, has launched an e-wallet called ‘Pockets’ which is a mobile application, and can be used to send money, pay utility bills, book movie tickets, send gifts and share expenses. With Pockets, the bank plans to target the youth segment and first-time banking customers.  
 
L&T gained 2.2%. A consortium between L&T and Tata Power has been selected for a defence project worth Rs Rs 40,000-50-000 crore in which the Ministry of Defence (MoD) will fund two Indian consortia. The other selected consortium is between Rolta and Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL). Tata Power ended up 0.8%.

 
Reliance Industries gained around 2%. The company has slapped an arbitration notice challenging oil ministry's decision to take away 814 square kilometre of its eastern offshore KG-D6 area that contained five gas discoveries.
 
Sun Pharma gained 1.1% after its unit Taro reported strong Q3 results. Sun Pharma will release its quarterly results on February, 14 2015.  Other major pharma stocks like Dr Reddys Lab, up 1% and Cipla, down 1% ended mixed.
 
IT shares ended mixed. TCS gained 0.8%. Singapore Airlines and Tata Consultancy Services today announced the launch of TCS CrewCollab Solution, a tablet-based mobile application for cabin crew to deliver more personalised customer service and streamline in-flight processes for cabin crew. Infosys gained 0.5% while Wipro ended down 0.4%.

 
ONGC declined 2.7%.  The release of third-quarter results of ONGC has been re-scheduled to February 14, 2015 from February, 12 2015.  
 
Among other shares, NCC surged 20% after reporting an over five-fold jump in its consolidated net profit at Rs 25.57 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2014 (Q3) on back of higher operational revenues.