Cement shares in demand

Key benchmarks extended gains and hit fresh intraday high in early afternoon trade. At 12:19 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 414.06 points or 1.08% at 38,665.86. The Nifty 50 index was up 117.75 points or 1.02% at 11,674.85. Both Sensex and Nifty hit fresh all-time highs in early afternoon trade. The gains were supported by favourable global cues. Cement shares rose across the board.

Overseas, Asian shares were trading higher after US stocks jumped on Friday following comments by the US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. This also follows an announcement by China's central bank regarding the yuan's daily midpoint the same day.

In US, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite reached all-time highs on Friday as Netflix shares rose. Sentiment was also boosted by strong earnings and solid economic data being reported earlier last week.

Last Friday, Powell delivered a speech at the Jackson Hole Symposium in Wyoming, where leading central bankers met to discuss the future of monetary policy. He said "further, gradual" rate hikes were likely in the future, noting the economy is "strong" and able to withstand tighter monetary policy.

Powell's comments came hours after the People's Bank of China announced that it was tweaking its methodology for the fixing of the yuan's daily midpoint in an effort to stabilize the currency market.

Back home, after opening higher, key indices firmed up further in early afternoon trade. The Sensex rose 415.24 points, or 1.09% at the day's high of 38,667.04 in early afternoon trade. The index rose 164.93 points, or 0.43% at the day's low of 38,416.73 in early trade. The Nifty rose 118.65 points, or 1.03% at the day's high of 11,675.75 in early afternoon trade. The index rose 38.50 points, or 0.33% at the day's low of 11,595.60 in early trade.

Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.85%. The BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.79%. Both these indices underperformed the Sensex.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was positive. On BSE, 1494 shares rose and 1000 shares fell. A total of 153 shares were unchanged.

Cement shares were in demand. UltraTech Cement (up 0.64%), Ambuja Cements (up 0.57%) and ACC (up 0.34%), edged higher.

Grasim Industries was up 2.05%. Grasim has exposure to cement sector through its holding in UltraTech Cement.

Most telecom shares rose. Bharti Airtel (up 1.98%), Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) (up 0.40%) and Idea Cellular (up 0.29%), edged higher. Reliance Communications was down 0.21%.

Telecom tower infrastructure provider Bharti Infratel was down 0.73%.

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