Nifty trades above 9,800, Sensex above 31,800; Auto, IT sector leads

Frontline indices extended gains to continue trading near all time highs in the afternoon trade on positive cues from the global markets.Gains were however capped as investors remianed cautious as they waited for Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen;s testimony for clues on when the central bank would tighten the US monetary policy.
 
Sensex rose as much as 170 points to hit the record high of 31,885, surpassing its previous milestone of 31768.39 hit yesterday while Nifty gained as much as 59 points to hit 9,830, surpassing the last high of 9,772 hit yesterday.
 
At 2:44 pm, the S&P BSE Sensex was trading at 31,810, up 95 points while the broader Nifty50 was ruling at 9,809 up 38 points
 
In the broader market, the S&P BSE Midcap was trading in red, down 0.1% while S&P BSE Smallcap index rose 0.2%.

"Low volumes were instrumental in yesterday’s rise. However, the vertical rise is instructive, and suggestive towards potential for similar such sharp moves. Meanwhile pull back below 9,720 sharply reduce the upside prospects," said Geojit Financial Services in a note.

Buzzing Stocks

Infosys, TCS, Tata Motors, M&M and HUL contributed the most on BSE Sensex while Cipla, Bharti Airtel, ONGC, ITC and Dr Reddy's shed the most on the index.
 
State Bank of India gained 1% after said its central board approved dilution of its stake in its life insurance arm through an initial public offer for which it has already secured the sectoral regulatory approval.
 
Bharti Airtel lost 1.3% after the company said it will be investing Rs 2,000 crore over three years in the launch of various digital offerings even as the telco gears up to launch Voice over LTE (VoLTE) across the country by the end of this year.

Shares of sugar companies were trading higher by upto 7% on BSE after the government increased import duty on sugar to 50%, up from 40%, to restrict cheap inward shipments and maintain domestic prices.

Ugar Sugar Works, Sakthi Sugars, Thiru Arooran Sugars, KCP Sugar & Industries, Rajshree Sugars, Simbhaoli Sugar and Shree Renuka Sugars were up between 4% and 7% on the BSE. Dhampur Sugars, Mawana Sugars, Bannari Amman Sugars and Bajaj Hindustan were up 2% to 3%.

SEBI seeks detailed report from NSE

 
A technical glitch shut down the National Stock Exchange (NSE) for three hours on Monday, a first for the exchange, increasing scrutiny ahead of its IPO. Trading resumed fully later, with quotes for individual stocks finally restored. NSE attributed the disruption to an unidentified "software problem" and said it had not been related to any cyber-attack.
 
Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) said that it has sought a detailed report from the bourse  and ordered NSE to review its contingency plans for dealing with trading disruptions.
 
NSE submitted an application for an initial public offering in December but has yet to win regulatory approval for the listing that bankers estimate could raise as much as $1 billion.
 
Global Markets
 
Asian shares and the dollar cautiously edged higher on Tuesday, as investors awaited testimony from Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen to get more details on interest rate hikes.
 
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan edged a few points higher in early trading, with sentiment underpinned by technology-led gains on Wall Street.
 
Japan's Nikkei stock index was up 0.1%, while Australian shares slipped 0.2%.
 
In overnight trade, the US stocks ended mostly higher led by gains in technology stocks as investors were optimistic ahead of earnings. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.03% while the S&P 500 gained 0.09% and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.38%.