 "Strong global cues boost markets; Nifty tops 8,700")
Benchmark shares indices remained rangebound after the first hour of trade with index heavyweight Reliance Industries leading the gains.
At 10:35am, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 86 points at 28,164 and the Nifty50 was up 23 points at 8,706. In the broader market, the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices were up 0.5%-0.7% each. Market breadth was strong with 1370 gainers and 764 losers on the BSE.
Index heavtweight Reliance Industries was the top gainer up 1.3%. The company's subsidiary Reliance Jio Infocomm is shortly going to launch mobile and data services.
Among other Sensex stocks, HDFC, Infosys and ITC were up 0.3%-1% each.
Auto shares continued to trade firm after trimming early gains. Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto and Maruti Suzuki were up 0.6%-1.2% each.
Pharma majors Lupin, Cipla and Dr Reddy's Labs were up 1%-1.5% each. Cipla was up over 1% ahead of its June quarter earnings on Friday, August 12, 2016.
Among other shares, Wockhardt has slumped over 9% amid reports that the US Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) has issued an import alert on the company’s Ankleshwar facility for alleged violation of good manufacturing practices.
Shares of midcap cement companies have rallied with most of them hitting their respective 52-week highs on the BSE in intra-day trade after reporting robust earnings for the quarter ended June 30, 2016 (Q1FY17) because of lower operational costs.
Mangalam Cement, JK Cement, JK Lakshmi Cement, Sagar Cements, OCL India, Saurashtra Cement and Prism Cement were up 2%-8% each.
Mangalam Cement surged 8%. The company posted net profit of Rs 22.59 crore in Q1FY17 against a net loss of Rs 18.91 crore in a year-ago quarter.
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(Updated at 9:35am)
Markets continued to trade firm, amid strong global cues on the back of encouraging US jobs data, with index heavyweights leading the gains.
At 9:35am, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 122 points at 28,201 and the Nifty50 was up 30 points at 8,713.
"First day of the week, GST bill to be taken up in lower house today. RBI's monetary policy meeting will be the key event to watch which is scheduled tomorrow. IIP and CPI data will be released on 12 August," Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services said in a note.
Index heavyweights were among the top gainers in early trades led by HDFC and ITC along with Reliance Industries and Infosys.
Bank shares also firmed up ahead of the RBI policy review on Tuesday. Axis Bank, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank were up 0.3%-1% each.
Auto shares extended gains as the sector is likely to benefit the most post the implementation of the GST Bill on the back of a lower effective tax rate. Hero MotoCorp, Maruti Suzuki and Bajaj Auto were up over 1% each.
GLOBAL MARKETS
Most Asian stock markets were trading higher amid encouraging US jobs data with shares in Japan and Australia rising the most while Chinese shares were trading flat after drop in forex reserves in July. As per the data released by the central bank, China's foreign exchange reserves declined to $3.2 trillion in July 2016. Nikkei, Straits Times and Hang Seng were up over 1.2% each while Shanghai Composite was up 0.2%.
US stocks ended higher on Friday after better-than-expected US jobs data signalled that the world's largest economy is picking up pace. The non-farm payrolls registered addition of 2,55,000 jobs compared with forecasts of around 80,000-100,000 jobs. The Dow Jones industrial average ended up 1% at 18,544, the S&P 500 rose 0.9% at 2,183 and the Nasdaq settled 1.1% higher at 5,221.
