Market Live: Benchmark indices open at record highs; Nifty above 10,600, Sensex up 160 pts

10:17 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks extended their gains from the opening minutes, with the Sensex gaining over 200 points, while the Nifty was up over half a percent.

At 10:17 hrs IST, the Sensex is up 202.87 points or 0.59% at 34356.72, and the Nifty up 56.60 points or 0.54% at 10615.50. The market breadth is positive as 1661 shares have advanced, against a decline of 753 shares, while 373 shares are unchanged.

Sun Pharma, Infosys and Lupin gained the most on both indices, while Bharti Airtel and Asian Paints lost the most.

10:08 am Buzzing Stock: Shares of Hindustan Construction Company gained 5 percent intraday on Monday as investors cheered a recent order win by the company.

The company’s joint venture has been awarded a contract worth Rs 484 crore for the metro rail project in Pune.

HCC is the lead partner in the JV with AL FARA’A and has 51 percent stake in the JV. “The contract is for construction of eight elevated metro rail stations viz. Vanaz, Anand Nagar, Ideal Colony, Nal Stop, Garware College, Deccan, Sambhaji Park and PMC on Line II of Pune Metro Rail Project,” the company said in a filing to the exchanges on Monday morning.

9:55 am Fundraising: Shares of Jindal Steel & Power (JSPL) touched 52-week high of Rs 270.30, surging 13 percent in early trade as company planning to raise Rs 1,000 crore.

The company will raise Rs 1,000 crore through qualified institutional placement (QIP) route in February, said by Chairman Naveen Jindal.

Speaking to CNBC-TV18 Jindal adds the company will also raise equity for Oman operations.

We have always been a standard account, it is just out of some technical issues of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) — because they have very strict guidelines – few banks had become non-performing assets (NPAs). No bank has lost a single rupee with JSPL and no bank will lose a single rupee with JSPL, he said.

Raw material prices have gone up and steel prices have also improved and there is a good demand for all our products. So we are very confident that going forward things are going to be much better, he added.

We are going to be raising only about Rs 1,000 crore and utilising it mostly for some debt repayment and to clear payments of all our suppliers and creditors, said Jindal.

Will require around Rs 1,000-1,500 crore from banks for working capital, he further mentioned.

9:45 am Rupee Trade: The rupee strengthened by 8 paise to trade at 63.28 against the US dollar in opening session today on selling of the greenback by exporters and banks amid gains in stocks which scaled record levels.

Currency dealers said continued foreign fund inflows and weakness in the greenback against other currencies overseas supported the rupee.

Furthermore, a higher opening in the domestic equity market gave the uptrend some momentum, they added.

On Friday, the rupee ended at a 32-month high of 63.37, up 4 paise on steady unwinding of the American currency by exporters.

9:35 am Buzzing: Shares of Larsen and Toubro (L&T) touched 52-week high of Rs 1,330.10, rising more than 1 percent in early trade as it has won orders worth Rs 2,265 crore.

The Transportation Infrastructure and Water & Effluent Treatment businesses of L&T Construction have jointly bagged three EPC orders worth Rs 2,265 crore from Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority (APCRDA).

The scope of work includes investigation, design & construction of roads, drains, culverts, water supply, sewerage, sewerage treatment plants, utility ducts for power & ICT, reuse waterline & avenue plantation for land pooling schemes in zones – 6, 7 and 10 areas of Amaravati Capital City.

9:29 am Pre-sales data: Realty firm Sobha’s sales bookings increased by 92 percent to Rs 750.9 crore during the third quarter this fiscal on higher volumes and better average realisation.

The Bengaluru-based developer had sold properties worth Rs 390.8 crore in the year ago period.

According to an operational update, Sobha sold 9,33,365 sq ft (square feet) area during the third quarter, up 52 per cent from 6,13,652 sq ft in the same period last fiscal.

The average price realisation increased to Rs 8,045 per sq ft from Rs 6,369 per sq ft during the period under review.

9:21 am Asia Update: Asian markets were higher, following the positive lead from Wall Street in last session. Japan’s Nikkei gained 0.9 percent, followed by China’s Shanghai Composite (up 0.35 percent) and South Korea’s Kospi (0.66 percent).

9:15 am Market Check: The market started off second week of the new year at record high levels on Monday as the Nifty crossed 10,600-mark for the first time, tracking positive lead from global peers.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 163.36 points at 34,317.21 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 46.90 points to 10,605.80.

About 1,255 shares advanced against 273 declining shares on the BSE.

Sun Pharma, Yes Bank, GAIL, L&T, Infosys, Lupin, HPCL and BPCL were early gainers, rising 1-2 percent while Bharti Airtel fell nearly 4 percent.

Nifty Midcap index was up 0.6 percent.

Sobha surged 10 percent post strong operational performance in Q3. Prestige Estates also gained 3.5 percent.

Jaypee Infratech, Sagar Cements and Goa Carbon rallied 4-9 percent.