Nifty holds above 8,000; auto and IT shares up

Markets have extended gains after the first hour of trade boosted by strong rally in auto and index heavyweights ITC and Infosys.

At 10:35 AM, the 30-share Sensex was up 115 points at 26,996 and the 50-share Nifty was up 32 points at 8,059.

In the broader market, BSE Mid cap and Small cap have gained around 0.5-0.7% each.

Market breadth continues to remain strong with 1,432 advances against 679 decilnes.

The rupee is trading marginally higher at 61.27 per US Dollar against  its previous close of 61.32 ahead of Fed meet outcome.

Asian Markets

Asian markets were trading higher tracking overnight gains in US stocks on the back of robust corporate earnings. Japanese were the top gainers in the region with the Nikkei up 1.6%. Shares in China were also trading firm with Shanghai Composite was up 0.3% while Straits Times was up 0.3% and the Hang Seng surged 1.3%.

 
Sectors and stocks

BSE Auto, Consumer Durables and FMCG indices are the biggest gainers with  1% gains followed by BSE Healthcare, IT, Metal and Oil & Gas indices.

Among auto shares, Tata Motors is among the biggest gainer with advance of above 2% followed by M&M with gain of around 1.4%. Hero MotoCorp has gained above 2% after the RBI allowed hike in FII shareholding in the company upto 49% Maruti Suzuki has gained around 0.4% on launching the new version of its bestseller Swift which is 10% more fuel efficient.

Cipla has gained around 1.4% followed by Dr Reddy’s Lab which has gained close to 1% ahead of its quarter earnings to be released later today. Sun Pharma has pared its early gains and is down around 0.1%.

Tata Steel is among the biggest gainer with an advance of around 1.6% followed by Hindalco with gain of around 1.3% while Sesa Sterlite is under pressure ahead of the release of its quarter earnings later today and is down around 0.3%.

Among financials, HDFC twins have gained around 0.4-0.7% each while Axis Bank has gained above 1% followed by SBI with around 0.3% gain and ICICI Bank has gained around 0.1%.

In the IT pack, Infosys has gained above 1% followed by TCS and Wipro with around 0.6% of gains each.

Oil & gas shares were also trading firm. ONGC gained close to 0.7% followed by Reliance with a gain of around 0.3%.

Among other shares, SRF has rallied 9% after reporting a strong 61% year-on-year (yoy) jump in net profit at Rs 76.85 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, 2014 (Q2), aided by better sales realisations.

Jubilant Life Sciences slumped nearly 12% after the company reported a higher loss for the second quarter on account of USFDA warning on Spokane facility and regulatory changes in China.

PI Industries has dipped 7% after reporting 11.4% year-on-year decline in net profit at Rs 48.97 crore for the second quarter ended September 2014 (Q2), due to lower sales. The agrochemicals company had profit of Rs 55.29 crore in the same quarter last fiscal