Sensex, Nifty hit fresh intraday high

The market extended gains and hit fresh intraday high in mid-afternoon trade. At 14:20 the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 237.97 points or 0.68% at 35,153.35. The Nifty 50 index was up 76.40 points or 0.72% at 10,694.65. The Sensex was currently trading above the psychologically important 35,000 level after moving above that level in early trade. Gains in index pivotals ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries and ITC boosted key indices higher.

After opening higher, market turned range bound. Key indices jumped in afternoon trade on fresh buying momentum. The Sensex rose 240.48 points, or 0.69% at the day's high of 35,155.86 in mid-afternoon trade. The index rose 62.36 points, or 0.18% at the day's low of 34,977.74 in morning trade. The Nifty rose 78.50 points, or 0.74% at the day's high of 10,696.75 in mid-afternoon trade. The index rose 17.40 points, or 0.16% at the day's low of 10,635.65 in morning trade.

Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.33%. The BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.56%. Both these indices underperformed the Sensex.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was positive. On BSE, 1,352 shares rose and 1,233 shares fell. A total of 144 shares were unchanged.

ICICI Bank was up 2.28% at Rs 289.35. The bank will announce Q4 results today, 7 May 2018.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL) rose 1.28% to Rs 966.10.

Index heavyweight and cigarette major ITC rose 1.35% to Rs 281.25.

Auto stocks rose. Eicher Motors (up 1.71%), Mahindra & Mahindra (up 1.62%), Bajaj Auto (up 1.07%), TVS Motor Company (up 0.90%), Tata Motors (up 0.58%), Maruti Suzuki India (up 0.50%), Escorts (up 0.49%) and Ashok Leyland (up 0.43%), edged higher. Hero MotoCorp was down 0.07%.

Most capital goods shares rose. Lakshmi Machine Works (up 2.58%), BEML (up 2.23%), Siemens (up 1.48%), Reliance Defence and Engineering (up 1.40%), Havells India (up 1.20%), GE Power India (up 1.14%), Crompton Greaves (up 0.99%), Bharat Electronics (up 0.89%), GE T&D India (up 0.70%), Praj Industries (up 0.53%), SKF India (up 0.47%) and ABB India (up 0.08%), edged higher. AIA Engineering (down 0.06%), Suzlon Energy (down 0.09%), Thermax (down 0.09%), Jindal Saw (down 0.13%), Punj Lloyd (down 0.3%) and Bharat Heavy Electricals (down 0.53%), edged lower.

Engineering and construction major Larsen & Toubro (L&T) was up 0.81%.

Overseas, most European shares were trading higher supported by some good earning updates and gains in Nestle after the Swiss-based food giant agreed a tie-up with Starbucks. Over the weekend, the French government urged Air France managers and unions to resolve the stand-off. Asian shares were mixed despite the strong closing on Wall Street as investors digested last week's trade talks and US jobs numbers.

US stocks logged sharp gains on Friday, 4 May 2018, as technology stocks rallied, overshadowing uncertainty over tense trade talks between the US and China and a weaker-than-expected rise in April nonfarm payrolls.

The US created 164,000 new jobs in April. Separately, the unemployment rate fell to 3.9% from 4.1%, the first time the jobless rate has dropped below 4% since the end of 2000.

Meanwhile, China and the US ended the second day of trade talks on Friday. Both sides recognise there are still big differences on some issues and that they need to continue to step up their work to make progress. The two sides exchanged views on expanding US exports to China, trade in services, bilateral investment, protection of intellectual property rights, resolution of tariffs and non-tariff measures.

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