Sensex trades 35 points higher; Infosys, Wipro gain

Sensex trades 35 points higher; Infosys, Wipro gain

Mumbai: The 30-share bellwether BSE Sensex on Thursday was trading 35 points higher, led by shares of consumer durables and technology companies.

At 9.41am, Sensex was trading higher by 0.15%, or 38.53 points, at 25,588.25 points, while the National Stock Exchange’s broader barometer 50-share Nifty was trading up 0.19%, or 14.40 points, at 7,638.80 points.

The gainers included Infosys Ltd that was trading up 2.6% to Rs.3,314. Bloomberg has reported that Infosys signed an e-governance project deal with the central government. Wipro Ltd rose 1% to Rs.540.75.

Among the losers, Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd (M&M) fell 3.1% to Rs.1,182 and Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd (ONGC) fell 1% to Rs.411.95. The government is seeking bids from banks to help sell its stake valued at Rs.17,800 crore ($3 billion) in ONGC, Bloomberg reported. The government has asked banks to submit documents by 6 August.

BSE consumer durables index was the top sectoral gainer, up 1.5%. BSE IT and Teck indices were trading up 1% and 0.8%, respectively. BSE power, realty and metal indices were trading up 0.8% each.

BSE auto and Bankex indices were the top sectoral losers, down 0.4% each.

Crompton Greaves Ltd was trading at Rs.203.10 on BSE, up 9.3%, after it reported to BSE that it is planning to de-merge its consumer products business unit into a separate listed company.

Financial Technologies India Ltd (FTIL) was trading at Rs.282, up 5.2%. The company reported that it sold 20,40,901 equity shares of Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd (MCX) in the market. Since 14 July the stock has gained 24.5%. MCX was trading up 3.1% to Rs.773.05.

IDFC Ltd was trading at Rs.158.4, down 2.9% after Reserve Bank of India said that the bank has agreed to prune foreign shareholding limit by 1% to 50.50%, as part of plans to progressively pare foreign investor holding to 49% to run banking services.

Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) was trading at Rs.2,396.50, down 0.2%, ahead of its June quarterly earnings report. A Bloomberg poll of 40 analysts estimates profit of Rs.4,889.7 crore and net sales of Rs.22,028 crore.

Since the beginning of this year, Sensex has gained 20.7%, while foreign institutional investors have bought $11.30 billion from local equity markets.

Agro Tech Foods Ltd, Bajaj Auto Ltd, Bajaj Holdings and Investment Ltd, Bharti Infratel Ltd, Cyient Ltd, DB Corp. Ltd, GRUH Finance Ltd, Mindtree Ltd, Rallis India Ltd, Reliance Industrial Infrastructure Ltd, and Vakrangee Ltd will announce their June quarter earnings later in the day.

US stocks closed at record highs on positive earnings and merger reports. Rupert Murdoch-controlled Twenty-First Century Fox Inc. made a bid to acquire Time Warner Inc. Even though the bid was rebuffed, Murdoch is reportedly willing to offer more for the company. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.45%, to end at 17,138.20. The S&P 500 gained 0.42%, to 1,981.57. Nasdaq Composite added 0.22%, to 4,425.97.

Asian markets were trading lower. China’s Shanghai Composite was trading down 0.75%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 0.22%, while Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average rose 0.2%.