Positive market breadth

Key equity benchmarks firmed up further and traded near the day's high the afternoon trade. At 13:25 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, rose 181.77 points or 0.50% at 36,662.86. The Nifty 50 index also advanced 46.70 points or 0.43% at 10,864.30.

The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.56%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index rose 0.37%.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was positive. On the BSE, shares 1,207 rose and 1,017 shares fell. A total of 126 shares were unchanged.

Tata Steel (up 3.52%), State Bank of India (up 3.16%), JSW Steel (up 3.03%), Vedanta (up 2.79%) and Bajaj Finserv (up 2.58%) advanced.

Britannia Industries (down 2.82%), ONGC (down 2.39%), Coal India (down 2.13%), UPL (down 1.14%) and ITC (down 0.89%) declined.

Bajaj Finance gained 2.52%. The company's board of directors approved raising of capital through a qualified institutions placement (QIP) for an aggregate amount not exceeding Rs 8,500 crore by issue of equity shares and/or eligible securities. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 17 September 2019.

Reliance Industries (RIL) gained 0.90% after the promoter group hiked stake in the company. On 13 September 2019, Reliance Services and Holdings, a part of promoter group, acquired 17.18 crore equity shares, or 2.71% stake, in RIL. The aggregate shareholding of the promoter and promoter group now stands at 309.80 crore shares, or 48.87% equity.

Overseas, most shares Europe and Asia traded higher as investors await US Federal Reserve's interest rate decision. Investors are looking forward to a meeting of the Federal Reserve's interest-rate setting committee concluding Wednesday, after which Chairman Jerome Powell will announce the central bank's latest policy decision. Expectations are that the Fed will cut interest rates a second time this year.

Meanwhile, in Europe, investors would keenly look forward to the European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker's address on Brexit in the European Parliament on Wednesday, 18 September 2019. British PM Boris Johnson had met Juncker earlier this week, to negotiate regarding Brexit solutions.

US stocks ended higher on Tuesday as the impact of weekend attacks on Saudi Arabia's biggest oil refinery faded.

On the data front, U.S. industrial production rose 0.6% in August, the Fed said Tuesday. Capacity utilization increased by 0.4 percentage point to 77.9%. Separately, the National Association of Home Builders' monthly confidence index increased one point to 68 in September, matching the highest reading in a year, the trade group said Tuesday.

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