Market breadth turns positive

After trading lower in early trade, the market bounced back and hit fresh intraday high in morning trade. At 10:25 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 97.96 points or 0.27% at 35,948.12. The Nifty 50 index was up 23.25 points or 0.22% at 10,795.05.

Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.02%. The BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.31%.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, turned positive from negative in morning trade. On BSE, 1068 shares rose and 712 shares fell. A total of 123 shares were unchanged.

Most metal shares advanced. JSW Steel (up 1.10%), Steel Authority of India (up 0.94%), Tata Steel (up 0.81%), Vedanta (up 0.70%), Jindal Steel & Power (up 0.66%), NMDC (up 0.63%), Hindalco Industries (up 0.26%) and Hindustan Copper (up 0.20%), edged higher. National Aluminium Company (down 0.08%) and Hindustan Zinc (down 0.11%), edged lower.

Most IT shares declined. MindTree (down 1.3%), Persistent Systems (down 0.66%), HCL Technologies (down 0.29%), Hexaware Technologies (down 0.23%) and MphasiS (down 0.23%), edged lower. Oracle Financial Services Software (up 0.01%), Tech Mahindra (up 0.12%) and Wipro (up 0.12%), edged higher.

Infosys rose 0.37%. Infosys will announce Q3 December 2018 results on Friday, 11 January 2019.

TCS was down 0.35%. TCS will announce Q3 December 2018 results on Thursday, 10 January 2019.

Prabhat Dairy rose 2.86% after the company announced that it has entered in comprehensive animal nutrition business. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 7 January 2019.

Prabhat Dairy said that while the company was already in the cattle-feed business, it has entered in comprehensive animal nutrition business. It has increased the focus on this by expanding the farmer base buying cattlefeed for its animals. Further to this, the company has also taken preliminary steps in the area of mineral premixes by executing a joint development agreement with DLG, Denmark based world leader in high-quality vitamin-mineral feeds for the development of two products in Denmark for the improvement of health and to increase milk productivity and quality of the cattle. These two products, one for "Milking Cow" and another for "Dry Cow", will be given to 150 selected farms to administer on 1000 cows. This pilot phase will be for 4-6 months. Post successful pilot, commercial launch will be planned by the company. With this the company shall strengthen its production chain but also further build their current strong association with the farmers.

On economic front, the Central Statistics Office (CSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation released the First Advance Estimates of National Income at Constant (2011-12) and Current Prices, for the financial year 2018-19. The advance estimates shows India's GDP would grow 7.2% in 2018-2019, showing acceleration from 6.7% growth in 2017-18. Real gross value added (GVA), i.e, GVA at Basic Constant Prices (2011-12) is anticipated to increase 7.0% in 2018-19 up from 6.5% growth in 2017-18.

Overseas, stocks in Asia traded mixed on Tuesday as investors wait for the second day of US-China trade talks to kick off later in the day. China is reportedly willing to resolve its trade disputes with the US on an equal footing.

US stocks on Monday closed higher, building on Friday's powerful rally, as investors watched for further signs of a thaw in the protracted trade dispute between the US and China.

On the data front, the US services sector expanded at the slowest pace in five months in December, according to the latest reading of the Institute for Supply Management's nonmanufacturing index, released Monday. The index fell to 57.6% in December, from 60.7%.

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