Sensex, Nifty hit record highs after Narendra Modi's cabinet expansion - Livemint

Among the sectoral indices, BSE FMCG was the top sectoral gainer, up 1.8%, while the capital goods index was the top loser, down 0.5%. Photo: Hemant Mishra/Mint

Mumbai: The Sensex and Nifty were trading marginally lower after hitting all-time highs earlier in the day as profit-booking was seen on higher levels.

In the early morning trade, the 30-share bellwether BSE Sensex touched an all-time high of 28,027.96, while the National Stock Exchange’s (NSE’s) broader 50-share Nifty jumped to 8,383.05 points on expectation that Sunday’s Cabinet expansion by the Narendra Modi government will lead to faster decision-making and hence boost economic growth.

At 10.48am, the Sensex was trading lower by 0.07%, or 19.17 points, at 27,849.46, while the Nifty was trading down 0.08%, or 6.65 points, at 8,330.35 points

Prime Minister Narendra Modi appointed 21 ministers, including four cabinet ministers, three minister of state (independent charge) and 14 ministers of state. While former Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar was made defence minister, Suresh Prabhu has been given the railway ministry, which is keenly watched by Modi because of his interest in building rail infrastructure in the country and also to promote his pet project of starting a bullet train in the country.

Surprisingly, finance minister Arun Jaitley has been given the charge of information and broadcasting ministry, which was previously held by Prakash Javadekar .

However, investors are also cautious ahead of key macroeconomic data during the week ahead.

The government will issue consumer and wholesale price inflation data for October on 12 and 14 November, respectively. The Bloomberg poll says that CPI will be 6.46% and WPI will be 2.38% for October. The government will also issue index of industrial production (IIP) data on 12 September. The Bloomberg poll expects that it will be 0.4% for the month of September.

The gainers included Sun Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd that was trading up 4% to Rs.927.60 and ITC Ltd that rose 2.5% to Rs.364.70.

Among the losers, Larsen and Toubro Ltd (L&T) fell 1.3% to Rs.1,631.05 after the company reported weaker then expected result. Consolidated net profit rose 7% to Rs.861.75 crore in July-September from a year earlier and revenue climbed 11% to Rs.21,159.35 crore. Cipla Ltd fell 1.2% to Rs.642.95.

Among the sectoral indices, BSE FMCG was the top sectoral gainer, up 1.8% followed by BSE healthcare index which was up 1.4%. BSE consumer durables and power indices were trading up 0.5% each. BSE metal and oil and gas were up 0.4% and 0.2% respectively. BSE capital goods index was the top sectoral loser, down 0.5%, while the BSE IT and Teck indices were trading down 0.3% and 0.2%, respectively.

Railways stocks were trading higher. Shares of Titagarh Wagons Ltd were trading up 3.6% to Rs.269, Texmaco Rail and Engineering Ltd rose 4.2% to Rs.103.90, Kernex Microsystems India Ltd 4% to Rs.63.90, Stone India Ltd 3.2% to Rs.66, Gateway Distriparks Ltd 0.8%, Container Corp. of India Ltd 0.8% to Rs.1,340 and Kalindee Rail Nirman Engineers Ltd 3.2% to Rs.105.15.

Jet Airways India Ltd rose 4.7% to Rs.263.25 after the company reported first profit in seven quarters on Friday helped by the sale of its frequent flyer programme, but excluding the one-off gain, it remained in the red. It posted a net profit of Rs.69.82 crore for the three months ended September, compared with a net loss of Rs.891.01 crore for the year-ago quarter.

Deepak Fertilisers and Petrochemicals Corp Ltd was trading at Rs.144.40 on BSE, up 3% from previous close while Mangalore Chemicals and Fertilizers Ltd (MCFL) rose 5.3% to Rs.89.30 after Deepak Fertiliser bought an additional about 6% stake in MCFL for Rs.65.93 crore through an open offer, intensifying its takeover battle with Zuari Group.

Jaypee Infratech Ltd rose 6.3% to Rs.24.40 after the company posted a 11.67% increase in its net profit to Rs.115.90 crore as compared to Rs.103.78 crore last year same quarter.

Gujarat State Petronet Ltd rose 4.8% to Rs.102.20 after the company posted a 48.57% increase in its net profit to Rs.169.47 crore in its September quarter.

Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd, Adani Power Ltd, Apollo Tyres Ltd, Bharat Forge Ltd, Dena Bank, Godrej Industries Ltd, Motherson Sumi Systems Ltd, Shree Cement Ltd and Tata Chemicals Ltd are some of the companies that will release their earnings for the September quarter on Monday.

Since the beginning of this year, the Sensex has gained 31.91%, while foreign institutional investors have bought $14.37 billion from local equity markets.

US markets ended little changed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.11%, S&P 500 up 0.03% and Nasdaq Composite was down 0.13%.

Asian markets are trading mixed. Stocks in Japan fell on rising Yen. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up 1.73%, China’s Shanghai Composite gained 1.3%, while Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average down 0.7%.