The pharma and financial stocks led the gains on the indices in mid-morning trading.
Domestic stock markets gained strength in mid-morning trading on Tuesday, amid bouts of choppiness, a day after benchmark index Nifty 50 settled at a three-month peak. The S&P BSE Sensex index rose as much as 1 per cent to touch 35,134.50 on the upside, having started the day up 104.41 points at 35,015.73. The broader Nifty benchmark moved to a high of 10,388.25, after opening at 10,347.95 compared to its previous close of 10,311.20. At 11:40 am, the BSE Sensex was at 35.96.50, higher by 182.95 points or 0.5 per cent and the Nifty was at 10,375.50, up 64 points or 0.6 per cent.
All the Nifty sectoral indices were trading in the green, with pharma and financial stocks leading the gains.
Meanwhile, India's unemployment rate declined to "a pre-lockdown level of 8.5 per cent" in the week ended June 21, think-tank Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) said. Earlier, the rate had spiked to 27.1 per cent in the week ended May 3, compared to 8.75 per cent in March.
Financial and pharma stocks were going srong in mid-morning trading. Among the financial names, PNB, SBI, Indusind Bank, Bandhan Bank and Axis Bank had gained up to 4 per cent each. In the pharma space, Aurobindo Pharma, Dr Reddy's, Biocon and Cadilla Healthcare had added 1-3 per cent each.
IT bounced back into the green from intra-day lows despite the news that the US President Donald Trump had extended the existing ban on H-1B visas, which has been in force since the beginning of the year, till December 2,020. Infossys, Wipro and Tech Mahindra have gained around a per cent each on the NSE; TCS is, however, trading flat.
The NSE market breadth was strong. Out of 2,114 stocks traded on the NSE, there were 1,240 advancing stocks as against 491 declines.
