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Markets have extended gains and are trading near day’s high led by strong buying among IT and financial shares.
At, 1:25 PM, the 30-share Sensex was up 285 points at 29,168 and the 50-share Nifty was up 86 points at 8,809.
The top gainers on the Sensex are Wipro, HDFC, TCS, Axis Bank and Infosys, all gaining between 2-4%.
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Updated at 13:10
Benchmark indices are trading firm led by the fresh buying in information technology and select financials while the losses in metals and stocks like ONGC and ICICI Bank have limited the gains at higher levels.
At, 1:10 PM, the 30-share Sensex was up 107 points at 28,990 and the 50-share Nifty was up 31 points at 8,754.
In the broader market, both the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices are trading flat and have underperformed than the front-liners. Market breadth in BSE is negative with 1,343 declines against 1,259 advances.
Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors continue to remain net sellers to the tune of Rs 83.80 crore on Wednesday, as per provisional stock exchange data.
Buzzing Stocks
8 out of the 12 sectoral indices of BSE are in red. On the gaining side, BSE IT index, up 1.9%, is the top gainer followed by BSE Bankex, up 0.5% and BSE FMCG index up 0.4%. On the losing side, BSE Consumer Durables index has emerged as the top loser and is down 1.5% followed by BSE Power and Realty indices which have lost around 1% each.
Select financials have gained in today’s session led by housing finance major HDFC which has gained around 2.5%, followed by Axis Bank, up 2.3%, HDFC Bank, up 1.2% and SBI, up 0.5%. However, ICICI Bank is a laggard from the pack and has declined over 1%.
IT shares are gaining tracking better-than-expected numbers in the fourth quarter as well as the accounting year ended December 31 by IT Services Company Cognizant posted on Wednesday. It gave a robust growth forecast for the next year. Further, a depreciating rupee bolstered the technology pack. Wipro has gained around 3% and Infosys and TCS have gained around 2%.
ONGC is down around 3% after yesterday’s rally. Tata Power has declined over 4%.
Metal stocks have declined. Sesa Sterlite and Hindaloc have lost more than 2% and Tata Steel has declined around 1%.
Among other shares, Godrej Consumer Products has gained around 3.4% after its net profit increased by 34.6% to Rs 263.57 crore in the quarter ended, December 2014 compared to the net profit of Rs 195.77 crore in the quarter ended December, 2013.
