Nifty hits 1-month high on Fed stance

Markets edged higher with 50-share Nifty rising to its highest level since June 10 amid hopes that the US Federal Reserve will continue with its cheap money supply as policy makers continued to debate whether to pause bond-buying by the end of this year.

At 10:15AM, the 30-share Sensex was up 347 points at 19,642 and the 50-share Nifty rose 109 points at 5,926 levels.

Central bank’s minutes of the June 18-19 gathering showed that about half of the 19 participants in the Federal Open Market Committee wanted to halt $85 billion in monthly bond purchases by year end.

At the same time, the minutes showed many Fed officials wanted to see more signs employment is improving before backing a trim to bond purchases known as quantitative easing.

In Asia, Nikkei dropped 0.7% to 14,314, Singapore Straits Times rose 1.2% to 3,228, China’s Shanghai Composite index was up 1.8% at 2,045 while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 2.2% to 21,371 today.

Domestically, investors are eyeing for the results of Infosys, the bellwether stock of the IT index, this Friday that will kick-start the first quarter earnings season.

Back home all the key sectoral indices gained with banks, realty, metal, PSU, oil & gas sectors topping the charts on the BSE.

The gainers included counters such Coal India rising 3.4%, Larsen & Toubro gained 3%, Tata Steel added 2%, ONGC rose 2%, Hindalco & Sterlite Industries was up 3.3% and 2.6% respectively on the BSE.

The key notable movers included counters such as Larsen and Toubro (L&T) which is trading higher by 3% at Rs 972 in early morning deals on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). Shares of engineering major have tuned ex-bonus today.

Tata Steel is trading higher by 2% at Rs 261 in opening deals on BSE, after the company said its Indian operations have seen a strong volume growth during the first quarter (April-June) of the current fiscal.

The broader markets traded higher with mid-caps and small-caps gaining nearly 1 per cent on the BSE.

The market breadth was positive. Out of 1,206 stocks traded so far, 938 stocks advanced while 232 declined on the BSE.