Market hits intraday high

After an initial hiccup in early trade, stocks nudged higher and hit fresh intraday high in morning trade led by index heavyweights Reliance Industries and ITC. At 10:25 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 155.73 points or 0.49% at 31,653.11. The Nifty 50 index was up 44.75 points or 0.45% at 9,904.25. The key event is the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) monetary policy meeting today, 4 October 2017.

Domestic stocks reversed initial gains and were trading with small losses in early trade.

The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.69%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.85%. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.

The broad market depicted strength. There were more than two gainers against every loser on BSE. 1,413 shares rose and 641 shares fell. A total of 92 shares were unchanged.

Overseas, most Asian stocks were trading higher. Markets in China, South Korea and Taiwan were closed for a holiday. In US, the three major stock indices on Wall Street closed at record highs yesterday, 3 October 2017 driven by expectations of strong global growth.

Back home, telecom stocks saw mixed trend. Bharti Airtel (down 1.4%), Idea Cellular (down 0.59%) and Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) (down 3.65%) declined. MTNL (up 0.77%) and Reliance Communications (up 1.46%) rose.

Shares of Bharti Infratel rose 0.29%. Bharti Infratel is a provider of tower and related infrastructure and is a unit of Bharti Airtel.

Realty stocks gained. D B Realty (up 1.56%), Godrej Properties (up 2.58%), Prestige Estates Projects (up 1.52%), Oberoi Realty (up 0.72%), DLF (up 0.48%), Indiabulls Real Estate (up 0.63%) and Housing Development and Infrastructure (up 0.36%) rose. Unitech (down 0.15%) and Sobha (down 0.96%) fell.

Ahluwalia Contracts (India) rose 1.06% after the company said it has bagged construction and re-development orders worth Rs 555.77 crore. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 3 October 2017.

Hatsun Agro Product jumped 13.5% after SBI Mutual Fund bought 10.50 lakh shares, or 0.69% equity, of the company at Rs 700 each on NSE yesterday, 3 October 2017. As on 31 August 2017, SBI Mutual Fund held 4.20 lakh shares in Hatsun Agro Product.

On the macro front, the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) bimonthly monetary policy decision is slated at 14:30 IST today, 4 October 2017. The central bank had cut policy repo rate by 25 basis points to 6% after its last monetary policy meeting in August, reducing the key policy rates for the first time in this fiscal year.

India's annual infrastructure output grew 4.9% in August compared with a revised 2.6% year-on-year growth in July, government data released after market hours yesterday, 3 October 2017 showed. Eight infrastructure sectors include coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, electricity, steel, cement, and fertiliser, comprising 40.27% weight in index of industrial production.

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