Sensex holds 26,800; BSE Midcap index up over 1%

Benchmark indices continue to maintain the upbeat trend with capital goods and bank shares leading the gains on better-than-expected GDP growth in the first quarter.

For the quarter ended June this year, India's gross domestic product (GDP) grew at a nine-quarter high of 5.7 per cent, compared with 4.6 per cent in the previous quarter, driven largely by industry, official data showed on Friday.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court is likely to decide on Monday the fate of the 194 coal blocks whose allocations it had termed illegal last week

By 12:55, the Sensex was higher by 180 points at 26,819 mark and the Nifty gained 56 points at 8,011 levels.

The broader markets are outperforming the benchmark indices- BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices have surged by over 1% each.

The market breadth in BSE remains healthy with 1,732 shares advancing and 930 shares declining.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 710.63 crore on Thursday, 28 August 2014, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.

The rupee is trading flat at 60.48 compared to its Thursday's close of 60.49 as investors remained cautious ahead of the Supreme Court's hearing today on the coal block allocations later today.

GLOBAL MARKETS

Asian shares edged higher on Monday, with investors wary of a deepening crisis in Ukraine and a downbeat China manufacturing survey, while the euro touched a fresh one-year low ahead of this week's European Central Bank meeting.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko warned a "full-scale war" was imminent if Russian troops continued to advance in support of pro-Moscow rebels, while U.S. and European leaders threatened Moscow with further sanctions.

But Friday's Wall Street cheer managed to offset the geopolitical concerns and the China survey. U.S. shares climbed ahead of a three-day weekend for Monday's U.S. Labor Day holiday.

SECTORS & STOCKS

BSE Capital Goods and Realty indices have zoomed over 2% followed by counters like Banks, Consumer Durables, Metal, Power, Oil & Gas, Auto and IT, all gaining between 1-2%. Apart from FMCG, all the major BSE sectoral indices are trading in positive zone.

Capital goods shares have gained on hopes that order inflows would improve after upbeat first quarter GDP. L&T has spurted by nearly 3%. BHEL is marginally down.

Auto stocks are in focus amid release of monthly sales figures from today. Shares of Maruti Suzuki are up over 3%, after hitting a record high of Rs 2,868, amid better-than-expected sales growth in August led by the compact car segment.  Hero Moto is the top Sensex gainer, up over 4%.

Other notable gainers from the Sensex-30 pack are Cipla, GAIL, ICICI Bank, Tata Power,  Coal India and Axis Bank.

On the losing side, Sun Pharma, Tata Motors, BHEL, ITC and HUL have declined between 0.4-1.4%.

Shares of automobiles, pharmaceuticals, information technology (IT), metal and realty sectors have rallied the most in the Nifty’s 1,000-point journey during past 78 trading sessions.

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) 50-share index CNX Nifty crossed the psychologically key level of 8,000 for the first time on Monday after investor sentiment was boosted following upbeat GDP data in the first quarter ended June 30, 2014.