Nifty nears 8,600; Bharti Airtel up 2%

Benchmark indices are trading higher after the Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Tuesday projected India's growth rate to surpass China and improve to 7.8% in next fiscal and further to 8.2% in 2016-17. A smart rally in consumer durables and healthcare shares is evident on the bourses.

At 11.45 AM, the 30-share Sensex is up 146 points at 28,338 and the 50-share Nifty is up 43 points at 8,594.

Foreign Institutional Investors were net buyers in equities worth Rs 417 crore on Monday, as per provisional stock exchange data.

The Indian rupee firmed up against the US dollar and was trading higher at 62.19 compared to the previous close of 62.27 because of dollar sales by exporters.

KEY STOCKS

On the sectoral front, BSE Consumer Durables, Healthcare indices are trading higher up to 1.5% followed by Oil & Gas, Power and Teck indices trading higher by 0.4% each. However, BSE Auto and Realty indices are trading lower by 0.2%.

HDFC Bank Managing Director Aditya Puri has been featured on the list of 30 best chief executive officers (CEOs), published by America's financial magazine Barron's. The stock is up 0.5%.

Sun Pharma is up 2% after the Competition Commission of India (CCI) has given its approval to divest seven brands by Sun Pharmaceutical Industries and Ranbaxy Laboratories to Pune-based Emcure Pharmaceuticals paving the way for the proposed $4-billion merger deal.

Dr Reddy's Labs is up over 1% after the company said it has entered into a licencing agreement with Hyderabd-based Hetero Drugs Limited to distribute and market chronic Hepatitis C medicine Sofosbuvir 400 mg under the brand name Resof in India.

Jindal Steel & Power is up 2% after the Delhi High Court ordered status quo on the Tara block and asked the government to file a reply in the case of the Gare Palma IV/2 and IV/3 blocks. The stock had slumped over 6% in the previous session after the government decided to reject three bids of the company.

Metal shares are trading mixed after a private survey showed that China's factory sector declined to 11-month low to 49.2 in March. Hindalco is down 1.4% and Tata Steel lost 0.4% while Sesa Sterlite has gained 2%.

Vodafone and Bharti Airtel have come together to establish Firefly Networks, a joint venture to tap the India’s Wi-Fi space. Bharti Airtel is up 2%.

Oil prices also edged lower in early Asian trade after China’s factory PMI. Brent crude oil futures were trading down 11 cents at $55.81 a barrel at 0215 GMT. U.S. WTI crude dropped 20 cents to $47.25 a barrel. ONGC has lost 0.4%.

The technology stocks are trading higher in today’s trade. Wipro, TCS, Infosys have gained up to 1.5%.

Other prominent gainers include NTPC, BHEL, Coal India , Maruti Suzuki trading higher up to 1.5%.

In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices are trading with gains and are up by 0.2%.

Market breadth is nearly neutral with 1,159 gainers and 1,138 losers on the BSE.