Key indices extend intraday gains

The Sensex and the Nifty hit fresh intraday high in early afternoon trade. At 12:17 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 161.17 points or 0.49% at 33,084.29. The Nifty 50 index was up 56.60 points or 0.56% at 10,150.85. The Sensex was trading above the psychologically important 33,000 mark. Most cement and telecom shares declined.

After opening lower, key benchmarks bounced back in morning trade and hit fresh intraday high in early afternoon trade. The Sensex rose 179.62 points, or 0.55% at the day's high of 33,102.74 in early afternoon trade. The index fell 112.26 points, or 0.34% at the day's low of 32,810.86 in early trade, in lowest level since 18 December 2017. The Nifty rose 61.40 points, or 0.61% at the day's high of 10,155.65 in early afternoon trade. The index fell 45.15 points, or 0.45% at the day's low of 10,049.10 in early trade, in lowest level since 18 December 2017.

Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.52%, outperforming the Sensex. The BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.27%, underperforming the Sensex.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was negative. On BSE, 1,208 shares fell, 1,207 shares rose and 147 shares were unchanged.

Most cement shares declined. ACC (down 0.61%) and Ambuja Cements (down 0.13%), edged lower. UltraTech Cement was up 0.17%.

Grasim Industries was down 0.15%. Grasim has exposure to cement sector through its holding in UltraTech Cement.

Most telecom shares declined. MTNL (down 1.78%), Idea Cellular (down 0.9%), Reliance Communications (down 0.43%) and Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) (down 0.16%), edged lower.

Bharti Airtel was up 0.36%. Telecom tower infrastructure provider Bharti Infratel was up 4.19%.

Overseas, Asian shares were mixed as investors braced for new Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's first policy meeting starting later in the day. Investors also have been worrying this month about a potential global trade war, triggered by the Trump administration moving ahead with tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum.

US stocks finished sharply lower Monday as concerns about Facebook Inc.'s management of user data sparked a selloff in technology shares. Investors also lightened their positions ahead of the Fed's policy meeting.

The US Federal Reserve's two-day monetary policy meeting is scheduled on March 20-21. Strengthening labor market and a steady increase in price pressures could pave the way for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates in upcoming meeting. The US central bank has forecast three rate increases for this year, but there are also expectations that it will raise its projection to four hikes at the meeting.

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