Market closes at record highs; RIL up 1.5%

Market ended at record closing highs on Monday after data showed that trade deficit narrowed in October compared to the previous month.

The 30-share Sensex provisionally ended up 98 points at 28,145 and the 50-share Nifty ended up 35 points at 8,425.

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(Updated at 14:35hrs)

Markets edged higher in noon trades with the Sensex registering a record high of 28,185 and the Nifty scaled a high of 8,427 after data showed that trade deficit narrowed to $13.35 billion in October.

The October trade deficit stood at $13.36 bn Vs $14.25 bn (MoM) with the exports at $26.09 bn Vs $28.90 bn (MoM).

Gains in SBI, Tata Motors and oil and gas heavyweights like Reliance Industries, ONGC aided the upmove.

At 1435 hrs, the Sensex was up 120 points at 28,166 and the Nifty advanced 32 points to trade at 8,421.

In the broader markets, the mid and smallcap indices gained 0.7-1%, outperforming the BSE benchmark index.

Earlier in the day, tracking weak Asian cues, the markets opened in the red and thereafter profit booking kept the indices under pressure. The Sensex and the Nifty had touched a low of 27,921 and 8,349 respectively.

The Indian rupee was trading at Rs 61.65 to the US dollar. Meanwhile, Asian currencies were trading higher to mixed against the US dollar.

On the sectoral front, Auto, Consumer Durables and Power indices were the top gainers, up 1-2%.

Meanwhile, Capital Goods, IT, Metal and Realty indices were the only sectors in red, down 0.1-0.5%.

SBI was the top Sensex gainer up 4% after the bank posted 30.5% rise in net profit at Rs 3,100 crore for the second quarter ended September 2014 as compared to Rs 2,375 crore in the same period of the previous year, due to robust growth in income from interest, fees and control over costs.

Meanwhile, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank declined 0.3-1.2%.

Mortgage lender HDFC was down nearly 1.5%. On Friday, Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) enhanced the foreign investment limit in HDFC Bank to 74%. However, the board decision to treat parent HDFC as a foreign holding will leave little headroom for any new foreign investors to buy stakes in the bank. Earlier, the bank was also excluded from the MSCI-Asia index.

Tata Motors was up over 3.5%. The company posted lower-than-expected earnings for the second quarter dragged by weak domestic sales. However, the revenues from company's prized possession Jaguar-Land Rover were in line with market estimates. Hero MotoCorp was another notable gainer from this space with gains of 2.4%.

Oil and gas shares also firmed up with Reliance Industries and ONGC up 1% each.

Bharti Airtel, NTPC, Cipla and ITC up 0.6-1.5% were the other notable gainers.

The market breadth was positive on BSE. 1,530 stocks advanced while 1,420 stock declined.