 "Nifty seen heading towards 8,550; Tata Motors up 1%")
Markets firmed up in late trades with the Nifty topping the 8,550 mark with bank shares emerging as the top gainers led by private lender ICICI Bank.
At 2:35pm, the S&P BSE Sensex rose 87 points to 27,902 and Nifty50 was up 31 points to trade at 8,551.
ICICI Bank was the top Sensex gainer up 2%. The private banking major in a recent release said that S&P Global Ratings affirmed its 'BBB-' long-term issue ratings on the senior unsecured bonds issued by the Bahrain branch of ICICI Bank(foreign currency: BBB-/Stable/A-3).
Shares of real estate company Unitech have hit 52-week high of Rs 8.30, up 7% on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) in intra-day trade today. The stock soared more than 100% in the past 26 trading sessions.
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(Updated at 12:42pm)
Markets firmed up in noon trades on Thursday with auto major Tata Motors leading the gains.
At 12:42pm ,the S&P BSE Sensex rose 72 points to 27,887 and Nifty50 was up 30 points to trade at 8,550. In the broader markets, the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices are up 0.2%-0.7% each. Market breadth was strong with 1435 gainers and 945 losers on the BSE.
Foreign institutional investors were net buyers in equities worth Rs 291 crore on Wednesday, as per provisional stock exchange data.
India's wholesale price index-based inflation rose to 1.62% in June on the back of higher food prices such as vegetables and fruits. Food inflation was up at 8.18% in June from 7.88% in May, according to the official data released on Thursday.
On the global front, the Bank of England meets today and analysts expect it to lower its benchmark lending rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 0.25% to counter the fallout from the Brexit vote.
European shares opened higher ahead of the Bank of England's policy meet later today. FTSE-100, CAC-40 and DAX were up 1%-1.5% each.
TCS, Cyient, Canfin Homes, Vimta Labs among others are scheduled to announce their quarterly results today.
India’s largest automobile company, Tata Motors, has set its eyes on being among the top three global commercial vehicle makers and reclaiming its number three spot in the country’s car and sports utility vehicle market. The stock is up over 1%
IT shares are trading mixed with TCS set to announce its first quarter earnings after market hours today while Infosy will announce its earnings on Friday. TCS was up 0.4%. Infosys eased 0.6%. Samson David, a company veteran who joined Infosys back in 1992 as a trainee engineer and then gradually grew up the ladder to become a senior VP and global head for cloud infrastructure and security, has tendered his resignation.
ONGC was down nearly 2% tracking overnight fall in global crude oil prices.
HDFC was trading flat. The mortgage lender’s masala bonds’ issue has so far seen two-three times subscription for the coupon rate the mortgage lender is perceived to issue the paper at.
Tata Steel was marginally up. The steel major’s Kalinganagar steel project in Odisha targets to sell 1.5 million tonne of hot rolled (HR) coils in FY17, the first year of its commercial operation.
Mahindra & Mahindra was down 1%. The company announced the incorporation of subsidiary company in the name of Merakisan to carry on the business of procuring and marketing agricultural produce including fruits and vegetables.
Bajaj Auto turns ex-dividend today for final dividend of Rs 5 per share for the year ended 31 March 2016. The stock was up 0.6%.
Shares of Dr Reddy’s Labs were down nearly 1% after the pharma major is recalling 9,330 bottles of Sirolimus tablets, used for prevention of organ rejection after kidney transplant, in the US due to presence of impurities.
Bharat Forge was down over 3% on concerns of growth in the first quarter and corporate governance issues. According to the company's annual report, Bharat Forge has sold 49% stake in its defence subsidiary to the promoter group. A CLSA report said that this move hints towards corporate governance issues and is a negative.
Among other shares, SRF has surged 7% to Rs 1,437 on the BSE on back of heavy volumes on reports that the government has imposed anti-dumping duty on imports from China for refrigerant Tetrafluoroethane.
Max India (formerly Taurus Ventures Limited) was locked in lower circuit of 5% at Rs 171, after opening at Rs 180 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE).
