Key benchmarks pare gains

Key benchmark indices came off day's high and were trading with modest gains in mid-morning trade. At 11:21 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 98.48 points or 0.29% at 33,910.74. The Nifty 50 index was up 36.55 points or 0.35% at 10,478.75.

Positive cues from other Asian stocks boosted sentiment. Key indices opened higher and hit fresh intraday high in morning trade. Further gains were capped as profit booking emerged at higher levels. Sensex and Nifty came off day's high and were hovering with modest gains in mid-morning trade.

The Sensex rose 186.11 points, or 0.55% at the day's high of 33,998.37 in morning trade, its highest level since 1 January 2018. The index rose 54.24 points, or 0.16% at the day's low of 33,866.50 in early trade. The Nifty rose 61.40 points, or 0.59% at the day's high of 10,503.60 in morning trade. The index rose 18.35 points, or 0.18% at the day's low of 10,460.55 in early trade.

Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.69%. The BSE Small-Cap index was up 1%. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.

The broad market depicted strength. There were more than two gainers against every loser on BSE. 1874 shares rose and 684 shares fell. A total of 96 shares were unchanged.

FMCG shares were in demand. Dabur India (up 2.42%), Godrej Consumer Products (up 0.97%), Jyothy Laboratories (up 0.90%), Hindustan Unilever (up 0.78%), Nestle India (up 0.62%), Tata Global Beverages (up 0.61%), Britannia Industries (up 0.51%), Marico (up 0.40%), Procter & Gamble Hygiene & Health Care (up 0.13%), Colgate Palmolive (India) (up 0.04%) and Bajaj Corp (up 0.01%), edged higher. GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare was down 0.11%.

IT shares were mixed. Hexaware Technologies (up 2.54%), Tech Mahindra (up 1.69%), HCL Technologies (up 1.59%), Oracle Financial Services Software (up 1.52%), MindTree (up 1.17%) and TCS (up 0.84%), edged higher. Persistent Systems (down 0.1%), Wipro (down 0.16%), Infosys (down 0.44%) and MphasiS (down 0.72%), edged lower.

Aarti Drugs surged 8.63% after the company scheduled a board meeting on 8 January 2018, to consider a proposal for buyback of its equity shares. The announcement was made during market hours today, 3 January 2018.

Ducon Infratechnologies surged 8.84% after the company said that its promoter, Aron Govil is voluntary planning to pledge his 50 lakh shares to raise capital for the company. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 2 January 2018. The raised capital would be channeled into the company thus enabling it to bid for many upcoming FGD projects in India. The promoter holds 60.17% stake in the company as on 30 September 2017.

Overseas, most Asian shares were trading higher, tracking positive cues from US market. Japanese market was shut.

US stocks jumped overnight, with major indexes rallying to record levels in a broad rally. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4%. The S&P 500 rose 0.8%. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 1.5%.

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