Market Live: Sensex, Nifty, Midcap hold early gains; GAIL, HUL top losers

11:27 am Buzzing: Shares prices of dairy products makers Prabhat Dairy, Parag Milk Foods and Vadilal Industries gained as much as 4-9 percent in morning trade after the ban on milk products from the world’s second largest economy.

The Government of India today has banned milk, milk products and confectionary from China for one year, reports CNBC-TV18 quoting Cogencis.

11.08 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks extended rally in morning trade, with the Sensex and Bank Nifty hitting fresh record highs of 31,500 and 23,895.35, respectively.

The 30-share BSE Sensex gained 210.59 points at 31,494.23 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 52.60 points to 9,686.20.

Infosys, HDFC and Reliance Industries were top three contributors to Sensex’ gains, up 1-2 percent but HUL, Lupin and ONGC remained under pressure, down 1.5 percent.

About two shares advanced for every share falling on the BSE.

10:45 am Buzzing: Hindustan Unilever declined as much as 2 percent in morning trade Thursday as the share price adjusted for dividend.

The FMCG major, on May 17, has recommended a final dividend of Rs 10 for the financial year ended March 31, 2017 on equity shares of Re 1 each.

Hence, the register of members & share transfer books of the company will remain closed from June 24, 2017 to June 30, 2017 (both days inclusive) for the purpose of payment of final dividend & 84th annual general meeting (AGM) of the company to be held on June 30, 2017.

The final dividend will be paid to the shareholders on or after July 05, 2017.

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10.24 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks as well as broader markets held early gains, with the Sensex rising more than 100 points, supported by index heavyweights Reliance Industries, Infosys and HDFC Group stocks.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 125.81 points at 31,409.45 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 32.65 points to 9,666.25.

The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices gained around half a percent as about two shares advanced for every share falling on the BSE.
9:50 am Technical Outlook: Going forward, Dharmesh Shah

of ICICI Direct.com Research expects the Nifty to continue the consolidation between the broad range of 9500 and 9750 amid stock specific action while digesting the impact of GST in the short-term.

The key support base for the index is placed around 9500 region as it is the confluence of lower band of rising channel in place since February 2017 which also coincides with the 50 percent retracement of the last rising segment, he said.

9:35 am RBI on IDFC: The Reserve Bank of India has today notified that the foreign shareholding by foreign institutional investors (FIIs)/ foreign portfolios investors (FPIs) in IDFC have gone below the prescribed FII/FPI investment limit.

Hence, the restrictions placed on the purchase of shares by FII/FPI of the above company, are withdrawn with immediate effect, it added.

9:15 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks rebounded in opening trade Thursday, with the Nifty reclaiming 9650 level following positive Asian cues.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 109.69 points at 31,393.33 and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 30.25 points at 9,663.85, backed by Reliance Industries.

Reliance Industries, Tata Motors, Tata Motors DVR, HDFC, Asian Paints, Ambuja Cements and Aurobindo Pharma gained 1-1.5 percent while HUL, ONGC, Wipro, Lupin, HDFC Bank, GAIL and Tata Power were under pressure.

Among midcaps, Amtek Auto, Metalyst Forging, Prism Cement, Jaiprakash Assoicates, IDFC, Jaypee Infra, Punj Lloyd, Bhushan Steel, Federal Bank, JM Financial, Geojit Financial and Fortis Healthcare gained 2-9 percent while Videocon Industries was locked at 5 percent lower circuit.

The Indian rupee opened flat at 64.53 per dollar against previous close of 64.52.

Mohan Shenoi of Kotak Mahindra Bank feels the next trigger for rupee appears to be the pace and quality of GST implementation.

He expects the USD-INR pair to trade in a range of 64.40-64.70/dollar for the day.

The minutes of the MPC June policy meeting has raised expectations of monetary easing in subsequent policy reviews.
Asian markets were cautiously higher as oil prices rose slightly after hitting a ten-month low overnight.