Market extends gains

Market extended intraday gains in mid-morning trade buoyed by encouraging manufacturing data in March. At 11:16 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 162.70 points or 0.56% at 29,783.20. The Nifty 50 index was up 30.90 points or 0.34% at 9,204.65. Positive sentiment in Asian equities also helped domestic market upmove.

The BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.53%, underperforming the Sensex. The BSE Small-Cap index rose 1.04%, outperforming the Sensex.

The breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was strong. On the BSE, 1,802 shares rose and 668 shares declined. A total of 97 shares were unchanged.

IT stocks declined. Wipro (down 1.34%), Tech Mahindra (down 1%), Infosys (down 0.89%), HCL Technologies (down 0.85%) and TCS (down 0.4%) edged lower.

Key telecom stocks edged lower. Bharti Airtel (down 3.07%), Bharti Infratel (down 1.32%) and Idea Cellular (down 0.47%) declined. Reliance Communications (up 1.44%) edged higher.

Among economic data, Markit data released during market hours today, 3 April 2017 showed that the health of India's manufacturing sector improved for the third straight month in March, and to the greatest extent since October 2016. The seasonally adjusted Nikkei India Manufacturing PMI increased to a five-month high of 52.5 in March, from 50.7 in February.

The output of eight core industries comprising nearly 38% of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) rose at moderated pace of 1% in February 2017, compared with 3.4% growth recorded in January 2017. The data was released by the government after market hours on Friday, 31 March 2017.

Overseas, Asian shares were mostly higher. US stocks closed lower on Friday, 31 March 2017, as investors digested a slew of economic data. In economic news, personal income rose 0.4% in February, while consumer spending rose 0.1%.

Among global developments, US President Donald was quoted as saying that the US will take unilateral action to eliminate nuclear threats from North Korea, unless China, one of the hermit state's closest ally, intensifies pressure on Pyongyang. Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are scheduled to meet in this week for a two-day meeting.

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