Key benchmarks turned range bound in early afternoon trade. At 12:17 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 29.49 points or 0.08% at 36,353.26. The Nifty 50 index was up 25.35 points or 0.23% at 10,962.20.
After opening lower, the indices firmed up as the session proceeded. Indices pared gains in mid-morning trade and hovered in a narrow range with small gains in early afternoon trade.
Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was up 1.05%. The BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.44%. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.
The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was positive. On BSE, 1151 shares rose and 1102 shares fell. A total of 124 shares were unchanged.
Cement shares were in demand. Ambuja Cements (up 1.55%), ACC (up 1.39%) and UltraTech Cement (up 0.81%), edged higher.
Grasim Industries was up 0.56%. Grasim has exposure to cement sector through its holding in UltraTech Cement.
Most telecom shares rose. Reliance Communications (up 6.82%), Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) (up 1.50%), MTNL (up 1.34%) and Idea Cellular (up 0.96%), edged higher. Bharti Airtel was down 1.18%
Telecom tower infrastructure provider Bharti Infratel was up 0.37%.
Engineering and construction major Larsen & Toubro (L&T) was down 0.41%. L&T Hydrocarbon Engineering (LTHE), a wholly owned subsidiary of Larsen & Toubro, has won a significant onshore EPC contract from HPCL-Mittal Energy for setting up 7 Cracker Furnaces of 1200 KTPA Dual Feed Cracker Unit (DFCU) at their Bathinda Refinery in Punjab. This unit is part of their Guru Gobind Singh Polymer Addition Project. The announcement was made during trading hours today, 17 July 2018.
BEML was up 3.20%. L&T and BEML have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to jointly capitalise on the emerging opportunities in the domestic and export markets for defence products and systems. The cooperation between the two organisations is aimed to leverage on 'Make in India' initiative for increased value addition within the country in development/manufacturing and long-term support for defence and export business in identified areas/projects/programs, thus synergising their combined strengths. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 16 July 2018.
On the economic front, the IMF has cut India's growth forecast by 10 basis points to 7.3% for the current year and by 30 basis points to 7.5% for 2019, citing faster-than-anticipated monetary tightening and higher crude prices. The international body had projected 7.4% and 7.8% growth for 2018 and 2019, respectively in its April forecast.
Overseas, most Asian stocks declined as energy stock came under selling pressure amid overnight fall in crude oil prices.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Monday warned that there was an increased risk of "worse outcomes" amid recent international trade tensions, although it kept its forecasts for global growth this year the same at 3.9%.
In US, the Dow industrials bucked the trend of an otherwise downbeat session on Monday as upbeat economic data and a fresh round of quarterly results failed to stoke buying appetite. Investors also watched President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin convene for a summit in Helsinki, Finland but reaction to a joint conference with the two leaders was muted.
On the US data front, US retail sales rose 0.5% in June. Separately, the Empire State Index fell 2.4 points to 22.6 in July. Business inventories in the US rose 0.4% in May, the Commerce Department said. Sales jumped 1.4% in the month.
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