Indices nudge higher in early trade; breadth strong

Key indices were trading firm in early trade. The Nifty opened above the 17,900 mark. At 9:27 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 238.55 points or 0.4% at 60,287.73. The Nifty 50 index was up 55 points or 0.31% at 17,908.05. The Sensex hit record high of 60,339.28 in early trade.

In broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.01% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.5%.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was strong. On the BSE, 1651 shares rose and 819 shares fell. A total of 150 shares were unchanged.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Biocon fell 1.67% after the USFDA has issued six observations after the inspection of the manufacturing facility of its Malaysian subsidiary Biocon Sdn Bhd. The US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) conducted an on-site pre-approval inspection of the company's Malaysian subsidiary Biocon Sdn Bhd's manufacturing facility for Insulin Aspart between 13 September and 24 September, Biocon said in a statement.

Balkrishna Industries was up 0.69%. The tyre maker's board approved raising up to Rs 1,000 crore through long-term borrowings. In a regulatory filing, the company said its board at a meeting held on Saturday decided to raise funds up to Rs 1,000 crore which can be in the form of foreign currency bonds, Non-Convertible Debentures (NCD), external commercial borrowings and term loans in various currencies. The long term borrowings may be secured or unsecured, rated or unrated, in one or more tranches.

Nucleus Software rose 0.27%. The IT company's board on Friday approved a proposal to buyback equity shares worth upto Rs 158.71 crore. The company proposes to buyback upto 22,67,400 equity shares, comprising of 7.81% of the total paid-up equity capital of the company, at Rs 700 per share, for an aggregate amount not exceeding Rs 158.71 crore.

NBCC (India) gained 3.13%. after the EPC company said that it has secured a work order for the construction of 2000 social housing at Hulhumale, Male, Maldives on engineering procurement and construction (EPC) basis. The total cost of the project is $130 million, which is approximately Rs 968.50 crore.

Global Markets:

Asian stocks were trading higher on Monday, with investors monitoring stocks related to embattled developer China Evergrande Group.

US stocks closed mixed Friday as the market fell back under pressure amid concerns relating to China, COVID-19 and U.S. politics.

Eyes will also be on U.S. fiscal policy with the House of Representatives due to vote on a $1 trillion infrastructure bill this week, while a September 30 deadline on funding federal agencies could force the second partial government shutdown in three years.

Elsewhere, early projections on Sunday pointed to a knife-edge result in Germany federal elections as the country looks for a successor to Angela Merkel, who is preparing to leave office after 16 years in power.

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