Sensex stays on solid footing, Nifty above 5600

Markets extended gains in the late-afternoon session this Monday after the central bank announced more measures to support the domestic currency.      

The Reserve Bank on Friday announced that it will sell government bonds worth Rs 22,000 crore every Monday to check volatility in the forex market.       

At 2:40PM, the 30-share Sensex rose 188 point at 18,977 and the 50-share Nifty gained 55 points at 5,621 levels.

Indian Rupee, the worst currency of Asia this year, inched up in early trades but gains were modest on back of dollar buying by the banks. The currency traded at 60.74 a dollar from Friday's close of 60.88 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange Market.

Investors are keeping a close tab on the industrial output data scheduled later in the day. Economists expected industrial production to be subdued in June which would drag down factory output growth in the first quarter of the current financial year.

Moody's Analytics, research and analysis arm of Moody's Corportion, has forecast the IIP to grow by 1% in June. Industrial production contracted 1.6% in May, which resulted in just 0.1% growth in IIP in the first two months of the current financial year.

Globally, Asian shares traded firm as Chinese stocks surged to a 3-1/2 week high as investors took heart from last week's encouraging data from the world's second-biggest economy, helping offset a slightly disappointing second quarter Japanese GDP report.  .

Japan’s Nikkei declined 0.7% to 13,519, Singapore’s Straits Times added 0.04 % to 3,231, China’s Shanghai Composite index was up 2.3%  at 2,101 while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 2% to 22,201 today.

European markets opened lower. France’s CAC declined 0.2% to 4,067, Germany’s DAX dropped 0.6% to 8,288 while UK’s FTSE shed 0.2% to 6,570 today.

Domestically, among the key sectoral indices,  capital goods, metal, healthcare, FMCG, consumer durables, auto  sectors gained while bank sector declined on the BSE.

The gainers included counters such as Sun Pharma gaining 7%, Tata Steel and Jindal Steel rose 7% and 9% respectively, Sterlite Industries added 3.5% while HDFC gained 4.6% on the BSE.

The laggards were SBI declining 2.7%, TCS dropped 1.6%, Dr Reddy’s fell 1.7% while Reliance Industries dropped over 1%  on the BSE.

The key notable movers included counters such as State Bank of India (SBI) which is trading lower by nearly 3% at Rs 1,619 in otherwise firm market after the state-owned bank said its gross non performing assets (NPA) ratio rose to 5.56% in the June quarter from 4.75% in the preceding quarter and 4.99% in the year-ago period.

Britannia Industries has rallied 9% to Rs 758 after reporting a robust 93% year-on-year (yoy) jump in consolidated net profit at Rs 89.49 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2013 (Q1). The packaged foods company had profit of Rs 46.48 crore in a year ago quarter.

The broader markets traded firm with mid-caps and small-caps gaining 1.5-1.6 per cent on the BSE.

The market breadth was positive. Out of 2,256 stocks traded, 1,366 stocks advanced while 763 stocks declined on the BSE.