Nifty holds 8,550; rate-sensitives rise ahead of RBI policy

Benchmark indices continue to trade higher led by rate-sensitive sectors like banks, auto and realty ahead of the RBI's third bi-monthly monetary policy review scheduled tomorrow.

Most bankers and experts believe the possibility of an interest rate cut by the Reserve Bank on August 4 is very low as retail inflation remains high. The central bank had cut its benchmark lending rate viz. the repo rate by 25 basis points to 7.25% at its monetary policy review on June 2, 2015.

By 13:00pm, the Sensex was at 28,235, higher by 121 points or 0.1% and Nifty was at 8,560, up 27 points.

The broader markers are however, outperforming the benchmark indices- BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices are up 0.9-1.2%. The market breadth is strong, with 1,244 advancing stocks as against 522 declines.

Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 277.77 crore on Friday as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges.

In the currency front, the rupee recovered 17 paise at 63.96 against the dollar, snapping its two-day losing run, on fresh selling of the US currency by exporters amid fall in global crude prices.

Further, manufacturing activities rose to a six-month high in July as orders from both domestic and overseas markets shot up, showed widely-tracked Nikkei purchasing managers' index (PMI) on Monday.

SECTORS & STOCKS

BSE Consumer Durables index has surged by almost 2% followed by counters like Auto, Banks, Realty, Power and FMCG, all gaining by 1% each. However, BSE Oil & Gas, Metal, Capital Goods and IT indices are down between 0.1-1%.

The top gainers from the Sensex pack are SBI, ICICI Bank, Tata Motors, Maruti Suzuki, ITC, Axis Bank and Hindalco.

ICICI Bank's first quarter net profit grew by 12% year-on-year to Rs 2,976 crore and net interest income rose by 13.9% to Rs 5,115 crore. Asset quality improved on sequential basis.

On the losing side, L&T has dipped 1.5% after it reported 37.3% fall in consolidated net profit to Rs 606.19 crore on 6.53% increase in total income to Rs 20509.53 crore in Q1 June 2015 over Q1 June 2014.

Other notable losers are Coal India, Lupin, HDFC Bank, Bajaj Auto and HUL.

Bajaj Auto announced a rise of 3% in sales to 3,30,231 units in July compared to 3,19,292 units sold in last year period.

Among other shares, Punj Lloyd has moved higher by 8% to Rs 29.15 on the BSE after the company announced that it has secured Rs 477 tankage order from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan.