The Sensex rose over 200 points while the broader Nifty was firm above its crucial psychological level of 9,400 led by gains in bluechip stocks such as Infosys, TCS, Larsen & Toubro, ICICI Bank, HDFC, and Reliance Industries. Analysts say the Sensex and Nifty are witnessing buying interest after a brief phase of consolidation. Meanwhile, futures and options (derivative) contracts for the month of May are set to expire later in the day. In the last six trading sessions, the Indian markets have faced selling pressure wherein the broader markets underperformed the Nifty. The mid-cap index has plunged over 8 per cent and the small-cap index has tanked over 7 per cent in last six sessions.
Here are the live market updates:
11:12 am: The overall market breadth was positive as 1,537 stocks were advancing while 710 were declining on the BSE.
10:43 am: Real estate shares were witnessing good buying interest. The BSE Realty index was up 1.57 per cent; Sobha Ltd was the top gainer from this space, up 3.77 per cent at Rs. 389. HDIL Prestige Estates, Godrej Properties, Oberoi Realty, DLF and Indiabulls Real Estate were also among the gainers.
10:34 am: Shares of sugar companies like Ponni Sugars Erode, Sakthi Sugars, Shree Renuka Sugars, KM Sugar Mills, Bajaj Hindusthan, Dalmia Bharat Sugar and Dwarikesh Sugar were up between 1.5 and 5.6 per cent each after the government on Wednesday hiked the fair price for sugarcane by Rs. 25 per quintal to benefit five crore farmers across cane producing states.
The fair and remunerative price (FRP), which is the minimum price sugar mills have to pay to farmers, has been increased from Rs. 230 per quintal to Rs. 255 for 2017-18 seasons that kicks-in from October.
10:17 am: The broader markets were trading in-line with the benchmark indices. The BSE mid-cap index was up 0.5 per cent and the small-cap index was up 0.8 per cent; MRPL was the top gainer from the mid-cap space, up 3.6 per cent at Rs. 128. GMR Infra, JSW Energy, Indiabulls Housing Finance, Biocon, Oberoi Realty and Adani Enterprises were also among the gainers.
9:42 am: Pharma shares were witnessing selling pressure for seventh day in a row. BSE healthcare index was down 1.5 per cent; Lupin was the top loser from this space, down 6 per cent. Sun Pharma, Dr Reddy’s Labs, Piramal Enterprises, Cadila Healthcare, Cipla and Glenmark Pharma were also among the losers.
9:20 am: From the Nifty basket of shares, 32 were advancing while 19 were declining. Bosch Ltd was the top Nifty gainer, up over 1 per cent at Rs. 23,080 ahead of its March quarter earnings. GAIL India, Larsen & Toubro, IndusInd Bank, Infosys, HDFC, ITC and Asian Paints were also among the gainers. On the other hand, Lupin was the top loser down 7.7 per cent at Rs. 1,133 after the company reported weak set of earnings yesterday.
8:56 am: Analysts expect Britannia Industries to report net profit of Rs. 192 crore on sales of Rs. 2,260 crore.
Ashok Leyland is likely to report net profit of Rs. 424 crore on sales of Rs. 6,515 crore. EBITDA is seen coming at Rs. 720 crore.
Indian Oil is expected to report net profit of Rs. 3,714 crore on sales of Rs. 98,958 crore. Its operating profit is likely to go up to Rs. 7,244 crore from Rs. 4,749 crore during the same period last year. Analysts would watch out for an update on Paradip refinery, capex plans and forex/inventory changes.
Analysts expect Cipla to report net profit of Rs. 333 crore on sales of Rs. 3,769 crore. Its operating profit (EBITDA) is expected to come in at Rs. 687 crore.
Cipla, Indian Oil, Ashok Leyland, NMDC, Britannia Industries and Bosch will be in focus today as theses companies will declare their March quarter earnings later in the day.
Foreign institutional investors bought shares worth Rs. 82 crore on Wednesday and domestic institutional investors bought shares worth Rs. 197 crore.
[“source-ndtv”]
