The market extended gains and hit fresh intraday high in mid-afternoon trade. At 14:20 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 460.92 points or 1.31% at 35,610.93. The Nifty 50 index was up 138.90 points or 1.32% at 10,688.05.
Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was up 2.13%. The BSE Small-Cap index was up 2%.
The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was strong. On BSE, 1772 shares rose and 671 shares fell. A total of 137 shares were unchanged.
Dr. Reddy's Laboratories was down 5.29%. The company will reportedly have to wait a little longer before it can start selling a generic version of Indivior Plc's Suboxone Film opioid addiction treatment, a US appeals court ruled Tuesday. The sales ban will remain in force to give Indivior time to challenge a 20 November 2018 appeals court decision it lost, reports added.
Telecom shares were in demand. Bharti Airtel (up 4.02%), MTNL (up 3.21%), Reliance Communications (up 2.73%), Vodafone Idea (up 1.31%) and Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) (up 1.03%), edged higher.
Cement shares advanced. Ambuja Cements (up 1.69%) and UltraTech Cement (up 0.54%), edged higher.
Grasim Industries was up 0.85%. Grasim has exposure to cement sector through its holding in UltraTech Cement.
ACC was up 3.28%. The company announced during trading hours today, 12 December 2018, that its board has approved setting up a Greenfield Integrated Cement Plant at Ametha, Madhya Pradesh (Clunker capacity of 3 MTPA and Cement capacity of 1 MTPA) along with expansion of the existing grinding unit in Tikaria, Uttar Pradesh (Cement capacity of 1.6 MTPA) and a third grinding unit also in Uttar Pradesh (cement capacity 2.2 MTPA).
The board also approved the setting up of 1.1 MTPA Cement Grinding Facility at the existing location at Sindri, Jharkhand. The above projects are estimated to cost approximately Rs 3000 crore, which is proposed to be funded through internal accruals. The company has an existing capacity of 33.41 MTPA. In 2017, the utilisation rate was 79%. The above projects are proposed to be completed within a period of three years. The projects will allow the company to strengthen its presence in its markets.
Meanwhile, the government on Tuesday appointed Shaktikanta Das, member of the fifteenth finance commission, as the governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), a day after Urjit Patel resigned. Das has been appointed for a term of three years.
On the political front, the Congress party is set to form governments in Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. However, in Mizoram, Congress gave way to the MNF while in Telangana, the TRS retained power.
The Election Commission on Wednesday released the final tally of seats for the Madhya Pradesh assembly elections. The Congress won 114 seats, with the BJP coming in a close second with 109. The Bahujan Samaj Party won two seats and the Samajwadi Party one seat. Four seats went to independents. The Congress is, however, two short of the simple majority mark, 116 seats, in the 230-member Assembly.
Congress leaders in Madhya Pradesh met Governor Anandiben Patel at Raj Bhavan on Wednesday to stake claim to form the government after emerging as the single-largest party in the state. Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee chief Kamal Nath along with senior Congress leaders Jyotiraditya Scindia and Digvijay Singh submitted the claim citing figures showing absolute majority. Madhya Pradesh Congress spokesperson Narendra Saluja told the media that the party has a total support of 121 MLAs.
Overseas, shares in Europe and Asia were trading higher Wednesday, as President Donald Trump said he was upbeat about the chances of securing a trade deal with China.
Meanwhile, sterling was weighed down on news that British Prime Minister Theresa May will face a vote of no-confidence from members of her own Conservative party later in the session.
In a media interview, Trump said talks were taking place with Beijing by phone and he would not raise tariffs on Chinese imports until he was sure about a deal. He also said he would intervene in the Justice Department's case against a top executive at China's Huawei Technologies if it would serve national security interests or help close a trade deal. Canadian court on Tuesday granted bail to the executive in a move that could help placate Chinese officials angered by the arrest.
US stocks closed mostly lower Tuesday in a session that saw the key indexes weave in and out of positive territory as investors weighed mounting political tension in the nation's capital against renewed optimism over US-China trade talks.
The US and China launched formal trade talks with a phone call. In the call, China informed US officials that it had agreed to reduce tariffs on US autos to 15%, down from 40%.
On the data front, the National Federation of Independent Businesses issued its small business optimism index for November, showing it fell to 104.8 from 107.1 in October. Further, the wholesale cost of goods and services rose by 0.1% in November. Year-over-year rises in producer prices, however, fell to 2.5% from 2.9%, according to the Labor Department.
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