Key benchmark indices regained strength in afternoon trade led by gains in index heavyweights Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank and Infosys. At 13:25 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 106.70 points or 0.34% at 31,953.59. The Nifty 50 index was up 34.10 points or 0.34% at 10,022.85. Telecom stocks declined. Cement stocks rose.
The Sensex and the Nifty, both, hit their highest intraday levels in more than two weeks in mid-morning trade. The Nifty was trading above the psychologically important 10,000 mark in early trade after breaching that level in opening trade.
The Sensex rose 147.88 points, or 0.46% at the day's high of 31,994.77 in mid-morning trade, its highest level since 25 September 2017. The index rose 51.31 points, or 0.16% at the day's low of 31,898.20 in morning trade. The Nifty rose 45.25 points, or 0.45% at the day's high of 10,034 in mid-morning trade, its highest level since 22 September 2017. The index rose 13.80 points, or 0.14% at the day's low of 10,002.55 in morning trade.
Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.66%. The BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.89%. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.
The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was strong. On BSE, 1,568 shares rose and 1,001 shares fell. A total of 113 shares were unchanged.
Telecom stocks declined. Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) (down 14%), Reliance Communications (down 1.48%), Bharti Airtel (down 0.65%) and Idea Cellular (down 0.74%) declined. MTNL was unchanged at Rs 20.
Shares of Bharti Infratel rose 0.73%. Bharti Infratel is a provider of tower and related infrastructure and is a unit of Bharti Airtel.
Cement stocks rose. ACC (up 0.99%), UltraTech Cement (up 0.4%) and Shree Cement (up 0.57%) gained. Ambuja Cements (down 0.23%) fell.
Grasim Industries was up 1.33%. Grasim has exposure to the cement sector through its holding in UltraTech Cement.
Prakash Industries rose 4.23% after the company announced the expansion of sponge iron capacity by 0.2 million tonnes per annum. The announcement was made during market hours today, 10 October 2017.
Prakash Industries said that the company has sponge iron capacity of 1 million tonnes per annum at its integrated steel plant in Chattisgarh. In order to become self reliant with respect to the requirement of sponge iron in its steel melting shop, the company has implemented its fifth sponge iron rotary kiln having capacity of 0.2 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) in April 2017. Subsequent to this, the company has now taken up further expansion of 0.2 mtpa in the sponge iron capacity which will take the integrated steel plant capacity to 1.2 mtpa.
Overseas, European shares dipped following a slightly weaker session on Wall Street as stocks tired from a streak of record highs. Most Asian stocks were trading higher as Japan and South Korea reopened for trading after holiday. Taiwan was shut for public holiday.
US equities were lower at the close on Monday, as losses in the healthcare, consumer services and consumer goods sectors dragged shares lower. The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.06%, while the S&P 500 index declined 0.18%, and the Nasdaq Composite index lost 0.16%.
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