Side counters firm up

Key benchmark indices were trading in a narrow range in early afternoon trade. At 12:15 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 29.87 points or 0.12% at 24,646.84. The 50-unit Nifty 50 index was up 5.90 points or 0.08% at 7,495. Side counter stocks edged higher.

The market breadth indicating the overall health of the market was strong. On BSE, 1,436 shares rose and 856 shares fell. A total of 126 shares were unchanged. The BSE Mid-Cap index was currently up 1.02%. The BSE Small-Cap index was currently up 0.99%. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.

Earlier, the Sensex and the Nifty, both, hit their highest levels in almost one week. The Sensex rose 74.92 points, or 0.30% at the day's high of 24,691.89 in mid-morning trade, its highest level since 2 February 2016. The index fell 86.54 points, or 0.35% at the day's low of 24.530.43 in morning trade. The Nifty 50 index rose 21.85 points, or 0.29% at the day's high of 7,510.95 in mid-morning trade, its highest level since 2 February 2016. The index fell 25.15 points, or 0.34% at the day's low of 7,463.95 in morning trade.

In the overseas market, Japan's Nikkei 225 index edged higher today, 8 February 2016, as most major Asian markets remain closed for the Lunar New Year holidays. Markets in mainland China and Taiwan are closed all week. Other markets closed today include Hong Kong, South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Singapore. Meanwhile, a rout in tech stockshighlighted by LinkedIn Corp.'s massive drop after the business-oriented social network delivered a poor outlookdrove US equities to their largest weekly drop in a month on Friday, 5 February 2016. Adding to negative sentiment was a jobs report that showed weaker-than-forecast growth in January. The US generated 151,000 nonfarm jobs in the first month of 2016, the Labor Department said. The unemployment rate fell a tick to 4.9% the lowest reading in eight years.

IT shares were mixed. MphasiS (up 0.92%), Persistent Systems (up 0.78%), MindTree (up 0.76%), Tech Mahindra (up 0.45%) and Oracle Financial Services Software (up 0.07%), edged higher. Hexaware Technologies (down 0.12%), HCL Technologies (down 1.13%), Infosys (down 1.3%) and TCS (down 1.46%), edged lower.

Wipro was down 0.08%. The company announced before trading hours today, 8 February 2016, that it has won an IT infrastructure transformation contract from the ASSA ABLOY Group, headquartered in Sweden. ASSA ABLOY is the global leader in door opening solutions. As part of the five-year agreement, Wipro will consolidate ASSA ABLOY's existing data centers in the EMEA region and implement a cloud-based service model, which will include IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) and PaaS (Platform as a Service). The deployment will leverage Wipro's BoundaryLess Data Center offering and will provide a full suite of IT infrastructure management services to ASSA ABLOY's global organisation. This solution will bring in a high level of agility, and a consumption-based IT service model powered by an user-friendly service catalog, Wipro said.

Most power generation stocks edged higher. GMR Infrastructure (up 3.58%), Torrent Power (up 2.78%), NHPC (up 2.45%), Reliance Power (up 2.13%), JSW Energy (up 2.05%), Adani Power (up 1.72%), Jaiprakash Power Ventures (up 1.05%), CESC (up 0.90%) and Reliance Infrastructure (up 0.43%), edged higher.

Tata Power Company dropped 0.50% to Rs 60.10 after consolidated net profit fell 87.63% to Rs 24.46 crore on 2.98% rise in total income to Rs 9313.19 crore in Q3 December 2015 over Q3 December 2014. The result was announced after market hours on Friday, 5 February 2016.

Tata Power also said that the listed redeemable non-convertible debentures of the company aggregating Rs 1605 crore are secured by way of charge on the company's various assets and the asset cover thereof exceeds hundred percent of the principal amount of the debentures. The listed redeemable non-convertible debentures of Maithon Power, the company's subsidiary, aggregating Rs 500 crore, are secured by way of charge on its various assets and the asset cover thereof exceeds hundred percent of the principal amount of the debentures.

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