Metal and mining stocks gain

Stocks hovered near day's high in early afternoon trade on sustained buying demand in index pivotals. At 12:20 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 347.81 points or 0.97% at 36,201.37. The Nifty 50 index was up 108.60 points or 1.01% at 10,846.20. Metal and mining stocks gained. Gains were triggered on hopes of interest rate cut by RBI after latest data revealed that retail inflation as dropped sharply in December. Positive Asian stocks also boosted sentiment.

The Sensex was trading above the psychological 36,000 level after regaining that level in early trade. Domestic stocks opened on a firm note on positive Asian stocks. Key indices were trading firm in morning trade. Strong buying demand in index pivotals pushed the key benchmark indices to intraday high in early afternoon trade.

The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.48%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.6%.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was strong. On the BSE, 1390 shares rose and 842 shares fell. A total of 127 shares were unchanged.

Metal and mining stocks gained. Vedanta (up 1.3%), JSW Steel (up 0.77%), Tata Steel (up 0.17%), Steel Authority of India (Sail) (up 0.59%), National Aluminium Company (up 0.65%), Hindustan Zinc (up 0.66%), Jindal Steel & Power (up 1.15%), Hindalco Industries (up 0.87%), NMDC (up 0.98%) and Hindustan Copper (up 1.12%) edged higher.

Larsen & Toubro (L&T) rose 0.24%. L&T Hydrocarbon Engineering (LTHE), a wholly-owned subsidiary of L&T, in consortium with Subsea 7 has won award for two projects from Saudi Aramco. The award consists of engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) of three oil production deck manifolds and subsea pipelines in Zuluf and Berri Fields of Saudi Aramco. The announcement was made during trading hours today, 15 January 2019.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) advanced 1.79%. TCS has launched the TCS Connected lntelligence Data Lake for Business on AWS Marketplace. The newly launched software captures and manages all types of data in a central Hadoop repository from where business users can pull elements using a simple drag and drop interface to quickly generate analytics and gain insights to solve business challenges. The announcement was made during trading hours today, 15 January 2019.

On the macro front, the all-India general CPI inflation eased to 2.19% in December 2018 (new base 2012=100), compared with 2.33% in November 2018. The corresponding provisional inflation rate for rural area was 1.65% and urban area 2.91% in December 2018 as against 1.71% and 3.12% in November 2018. The core CPI inflation was flat at 5.73% in December 2018 compared with 5.70% in November 2018. The data was announced after market hours yesterday, 14 January 2019.

Overseas, Asian stocks were trading higher as markets recovered from the impact of weak economic data in Europe and China that sparked concerns about slowing global growth.

US stocks closed lower Monday as weaker-than-expected China trade data sparked fresh fears of a global economic slowdown. Corporate results were also in the spotlight as fourth-quarter earnings season got under way.

In Europe, Brexit concerns will rise to the forefront this week as UK lawmakers get ready to vote on Prime Minister Theresa May's separation deal with the European Union Tuesday. UK opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn said Sunday the Labor Party would push for a general election if Parliament rejects May's deal, and that he might force a vote of no-confidence soon.

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