The market further extended gains in mid-morning trade. At 11:17 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 368.54 points or 0.96% at 38,620.34. The Nifty 50 index was up 107.65 points or 0.93% at 11,664.75. Both Sensex and Nifty hit fresh all-time highs in mid-morning trade. The gains were supported by favourable global cues.
After opening higher, key indices firmed up further in mid-morning trade. The Sensex rose 370.69 points, or 0.97% at the day's high of 38,622.49 in mid-morning trade. The index rose 164.93 points, or 0.43% at the day's low of 38,416.73 in early trade. The Nifty rose 109.10 points, or 0.94% at the day's high of 11,666.20 in mid-morning trade. The index rose 38.50 points, or 0.33% at the day's low of 11,595.60 in early trade.
Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.84%. The BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.73%. Both these indices underperformed the Sensex.
The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was strong. On BSE, 1491 shares rose and 846 shares fell. A total of 137 shares were unchanged.
Engineering and construction major Larsen & Toubro (L&T) was up 0.93%. The water & effluent treatment business of L&T Construction has won an EPC order worth Rs 1394 crore from the Water Resources Department, Government of Madhya Pradesh for the execution of the Kundalia Irrigation Project - Right Bank. The announcement was made during trading hours today, 27 August 2018.
Most IT stocks rose. MindTree (up 1.67%), Tech Mahindra (up 1.64%), Infosys (up 1.30%), MphasiS (up 0.95%), HCL Technologies (up 0.49%), TCS (up 0.31%), Oracle Financial Services Software (up 0.07%) and Hexaware Technologies (up 0.06%), edged higher. Wipro (down 0.27%) and Persistent Systems (down 1.12%), edged lower.
Most pharmaceutical shares declined. Aurobindo Pharma (down 1.17%), IPCA Laboratories (down 1.08%), Strides Shasun (down 0.68%), Glenmark Pharmaceuticals (down 0.65%), Alkem Laboratories (down 0.63%), Dr Reddy's Laboratories (down 0.47%), Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (down 0.22%), Wockhardt (down 0.09%), Divi's Laboratories (down 0.05%) and Cadila Healthcare (down 0.01%), edged lower. Cipla (up 0.16%), Lupin (up 0.23%), GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals (up 2.01%) and Piramal Enterprises (up 2.38%), edged higher.
Overseas, Asian shares were trading higher after US stocks jumped on Friday following comments by the US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. This also follows an announcement by China's central bank regarding the yuan's daily midpoint the same day.
In US, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite reached all-time highs on Friday as Netflix shares rose. Sentiment was also boosted by strong earnings and solid economic data being reported earlier last week.
Last Friday, Powell delivered a speech at the Jackson Hole Symposium in Wyoming, where leading central bankers met to discuss the future of monetary policy. He said "further, gradual" rate hikes were likely in the future, noting the economy is "strong" and able to withstand tighter monetary policy.
Powell's comments came hours after the People's Bank of China announced that it was tweaking its methodology for the fixing of the yuan's daily midpoint in an effort to stabilize the currency market.
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