Sensex above 26,700; Tata Motors and L&T up 2%

Benchmark indices continued to trade firm after a gap up opening led by L&T and Tata Motors while index heavyweight Reliance industries rebounded after the recent correction post the gas price hike.

At 10.40AM, the 30-share Sensex is up 179 points at 26,754 and the 50-share Nifty is up 54 points at 7,982.

In the broader market, both the BSE Mid Cap and Small Cap indices have outperformed the Sensex with gains between 0.8-1%.

Market breadth is positive with 1,369 advance against 592 declines.

Asian Market

Asian markets are trading higher tracking overnight gains on Wall Street after encouraging earnings from US technology majors. Stocks in Japan gained the most after trade data released earlier today showed that exports in September increased 6.9% compared to the same month last year. The benchmark Nikkei has gained around 2%.  Shanghai Composite and Strait Times are  trading with a gain of 0.6%  while Hang Seng is  up 1.2%.

Sectors and Stocks

Festive buying has led to a surge in Auto and Consumer Durables stocks with both the sectoral indices rising the most along with Capital Goods and Healthcare indices.

Ahead of festive buying and anticipation of  greater sales due to cuts in diesel prices have pushed up auto stocks. Tata motors has gained more than  2% while Bajaj Auto and Maruti Suzuki have gained close to 2% and M&M has gained 0.6%

Hero Motocorp has gained more than 3% on heavy festive season sales. It sold 150,000 two-wheelers on the occassion of Dhanteras on October, 21.

Among banking stocks, HDFC and ICIC have trimmed some of their early gains and are trading flat while SBI has gained around 0.2% while Axis Bank has gained around 0.4%

Punjab National Bank has declined around 1% on disappointing performance as its net profit increased merely by 13.8% YoY (despite a low base), led by a reversal of the interest income, increase in the employee related provisions and higher tax rate.

Among pharma stocks, Cipla has gained around 2% and  Dr Reddys has gained around 2% while Sun Pharma has gained around 0.7%.

Coal India has lost around 0.5% as the company is not seen to be benefitting from coal reforms.

Among other stocks, Financial Technologies India (FTIL) has tanked 13% extending its previous day’s 20% fall on BSE, after the government on Tuesday proposed a merger of the National Spot Exchange (NSEL) with the company.

 Biocon has declined around 2.5% on the back of muted Q2 performance mainly on account of capacity constraints and geo-political challenges in the Middle East.

Gujarat Fluoro. Ltd has gained around 3.5% on strong Q2 performance. The company reported a net profit of Rs 38 crore compared with Rs 25.57 crore in the same quarter last year.

KPIT Technologies has surged 8% in early morning deals after reporting a 128 basis points expansions in EBITDA or operating margins to 13.34% in September quarter from 12.06% in last quarter.

Dewan Housing Finance has gained around 7.5% after it  reported 18% rise in net profit to Rs 152.19 crore for the quarter ended September 2014 compared to Rs 129.14 crore in the same quarter last fiscal. Net Interest Income was up 45% during the September quarter.

Mcleod Russel has declined around 0.4% as its  net profit for the September quarter declined to Rs 221.50 crore from Rs 245.49 crore in the September quarter last year on the back of higher depreciation.