Benchmarks hit day's high

Key indices firmed up and hit fresh intraday high in early afternoon trade. At 12:25 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 97.04 points or 0.25% at 39,220.53. The Nifty 50 index was up 29.5 points or 0.25% at 11,729.15.

The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.31%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.06%.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was negative. On the BSE, 1037 shares rose and 1165 shares fell. A total of 139 shares were unchanged.

Tyre stocks were in demand after the government imposed anti-subsidy countervailing duty on imports of Chinese radial tyres with rim above 16 inch. This is in addition to the anti-dumping duty prevalent already on Chinese truck and bus radial imports. The government notification spells out names of Chinese tyre firms that are entitled to such subsidies.

JK Tyres & Industries (up 4.33%), Ceat (up 3.08%), MRF (up 2.52%) and Apollo Tyres (up 1.13%) edged higher.

Bharat Heavy Electricals (Bhel) declined 1.29% to Rs 72.75. Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) sold 6.96 crore, or 2.001% stake in Bhel. Post transaction, LIC's stake in Bhel decreased to 11.701% from 13.702%. The transaction took place between 4 April 2019 and 20 June 2019.

Axis Bank was up 0.73% to Rs 768.40. LIC sold 5.25 crore, or 2.004% stake, in Axis Bank. Post transaction, LIC's stake in Axis Bank decreased to 10.209% from 12.213% stake. The transaction took place between 21 March 2019 and 20 June 2019.

Metal stocks gained. Jindal Steel & Power (up 1.40%), Steel Authority of India (up 1.32%), Tata Steel (up 1.03%), Hindalco Industries (up 0.66%), Vedanta (up 0.53%), National Aluminium Company (up 0.51%) and NMDC (up 0.46%) edged higher. Hindustan Copper (down 0.51%) and Hindustan Zinc (down 0.22%) declined.

Pharma stocks were trading higher. Wockhardt (up 3.81%), Dr Reddy's Laboratories (up 1.04%), Lupin (up 0.96%), Divi's Laboratories (up 0.71%), Cipla (up 0.41%), Cadila Healthcare (up 0.15%), GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals (up 0.13%) and Aurobindo Pharma (up 0.13%) edged higher. Meanwhile, Piramal Enterprises (down 2.92%), Glenmark Pharmaceuticals (down 1.53%), IPCA Laboratories (down 0.86%) and Alkem Laboratories (down 0.20%) edged lower.

The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of market's expectation of volatility over the near term, rose 0.32% at 15.2725.

On the options front, Nifty option chain for 27 June 2019 expiry showed maximum call open interest (OI) of 40.76 lakh contracts at the 12,000 strike price. Maximum put OI of 37.39 lakh contracts was seen at 11,800 strike price. Options data suggested a trading range between 11,700 and 18,000 levels for the Nifty.

Powered by Capital Market - Live News