Nifty nears 8,000; Sensex up over 100 points led by IT

Main gainers on the Sensex are Tata Power, Wipro, M&M, Dr Reddy's Labs & Infosys

Benchmark indices continue to maintain the steady trend led by IT and auto shares along with Asian markets leading the gains.

However, investors remain cautious ahead of the outcome of the US Fed two-day policy meet which ends later today.

At 11:15 AM, the 30-share Sensex was up 126 points at 26,618 and the 50-share Nifty was up 39 points at 7,972.

Among broader markets, BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices are trading mixed. The market breadth in BSE remains positive with 1,330 shares advancing and 1,060 shares declining.

Meanwhile, provisional data released by the stock exchanges after trading hours on Tuesday, showed that foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 828.95 crore on that day.

The rupee is trading at 61.01/02 vs Tuesday's close of 61.0550/0650. Trading is largely range-bound ahead of Fed meeting.

GLOBAL MARKETS

Asian shares were tentatively higher on Wednesday after Wall Street rebounded on speculation the Federal Reserve would maintain a pledge on low rates when a two-day policy meeting ends later in the session.

The Dow hit a fresh record while the U.S. dollar took a knock after the Wall Street Journal's Fed watcher Jon Hilsenrath said the central bank would keep the words “considerable time” in its policy statement, though it might qualify them.

The CSI300 of the leading Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listings rose 0.5%, regaining a little of Tuesday's sharp decline. Tokyo's Nikkei put on 0.1%, while South Korea gained 0.7%.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rallied 0.8% after a run of losses.

SECTORS & STOCKS

BSE IT index has surged by over 1% followed by counters like Healthcare and Realty, both gaining by nearly 1% each. Infact, all the major BSE sectoral indices are trading in positive zone.

The main gainers on the Sensex are Tata Power, Wipro, M&M, Dr Reddy’s Labs, Infosys, TCS, HDFC and Hero Moto, all gaining between 1-2%.

Infosys announced yesterday that Muji, a leading retailer in Japan, has deployed InteractEdge from Infosys which will enable Muji to deliver a superior shopping experience through real time insights into the buying behavior of its customers.  

Wipro early this week said that the company's subsidiary Wipro Arabia has entered into a strategic partnership with Saudi-based Saudi Electricity Company (SEC), the largest power utility company in the Middle East serving approximately 5 million customers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).

Shares of Tata group are witnessing an upsurge and have gained between 1-2% on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

Shares of Tata Power have rebound in today’s trade and is up 2% after showing a sharp declination in the recent past after a massive power failure in Mumbai on September 2 due to technical snags at Tata Power’s 500-Mw Trombay plant occurred.

Concerned over the outage, the state government had asked the committee to look into the causes and recommend short and long-term measures to prevent recurrence.

On the losing side, GAIL, Cipla, Sesa Sterlite, Hindalco and Tata Motors have slipped between 0.4-1.2%.

Among other shares, Ramky Infrastructure has zoomed over 12% to Rs 61 after a media report suggested that the Ajay Piramal group has emerged as the front runner to purchase its three highway projects.

Apollo Tyres has gained nearly 3% at Rs 201 after the company said that it is undertaking an exercise to rescue operations of its South African arm.