Sensex up over 300 points led by financials; Nifty eyes 8,400

Benchmark indices are trading higher led by the robust gains in financials and capital goods stocks with the Nifty hitting its highest level in more than three weeks.  
 
At 11:30AM, the 30-share Sensex was up 311 points at 27,818 and the 50-share Nifty was up 91 points at 8,375.
 
In the broader market, both the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices are moving largely in-line with the front-liners with gains of around 1% each.  Market breadth in BSE is positive with 1,703 advances against 708 declines.
 

The widely-tracked HSBC purchasing managers' index rose to a two-year high in December after 21-month peak in November due to pick-up in output and  order  flows  from  both domestic and overseas markets.

 
The rupee fell by 14 paise to 63.49 a dollar in early trade today at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market as the US currency strengthened overseas. Dealers said besides dollar's gains against other currencies overseas, increased demand for the American unit from importers also put pressure on the rupee while gains in the domestic equity markets capped the losses.
 
Yesterday, the rupee suffered the worst single-day drop in over two weeks by falling 32 paise to end at 63.35 against the US dollar.
 
Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors were net buyers in Indian equities worth Rs 18.20 crore on Thursday, as per provisional stock exchange data.

 
Buzzing Stocks
 
All the 12 sectoral indices in BSE are trading higher. BSE Bankex, up 1.5% is the lead gainer followed by BSE Consumer Durables and Power indices which have gained around 1.3% each.
 
Among financials, mortgage lender HDFC has gained over 3% and ICICI Bank has gained around 2%. ICICI Bank has hiked interest rates on wholesale term deposits by 15 basis points (bps) on Thursday, according to media reports.
 
Axis Bank has gained around 2%. In 2014, in the Nifty 50 universe, the stock was the top performer and grew almost 100% in the calendar year.

 
SBI and HDFC Bank have gained over 1% each.
 
IT majors are trading firm. TCS, Infosys and Wipro have gained around 0.5% to 0.7% each.
 
Metal stocks are edging higher with Sesa Sterlite, Tata Steel and Hindalco gaining close to 1% each.
 
Capital Goods shares are trading higher between 0.1-3.5%  after Indian manufacturing activity expanded at its fastest pace in two years in December as new orders flooded in and factories kept price increases to a minimum, a business survey showed on Friday.
 
BHEL, L&T, Thermax, Crompton Greaves, Siemens, ABB and BEML have gained between 1-3%.