Sensex and Nifty trade above 100-DMA

Nifty FMCG touched a high of 21698.80 level gaining 169.25 points or 0.79%. FMCG sector is the top performer in first half of the Thursday’s trading session.

ITC and HINDUSTHAN UNILIVER two heavy weight FMCG stocks are up by 0.94% and 0.82% respectively. These two stocks are pulling up the FMCG index.

Nifty Auto is on the second top position. The Auto index touched a high of 9702.10 level gaining 57.30 points or 0.59%.
 
TATA MOTORS  one of the Heavy weight stock from auto index touched a high of Rs 535.60 per share gaining Rs 13.15 per share or 2.51%. Tata Motor DVR is at day’s high.

At 12:15 PM, the S&P BSE Sensex is trading at 27335.48 up 77.84 points, while NSE Nifty is trading at 8434.5 up 17.50 points. A total of 49 stocks registered a fresh 52-week high in trade today, while 6 stocks touched a new 52-week low on the NSE.
 
There are 898 stocks advancing, 645 stocks declining while 358 stocks remain unchanged on NSE.
 
The BSE Mid-cap Index is trading up 0.48% at 12789.94, whereas BSE Small-cap Index is trading up 0.43% at 12939.01.
 
Auto, PSU Bank, Media and FMCG are trading in green, while all other sectors are trading in red.
 
There is some buying activity seen in Idea, Tata Motors, GAIL and Bharti Airtel there is some selling activity seen in Hindalco, CIPLA, Wipro and Auro pharma on NSE in the morning hours.
 
The INDIA VIX is down 0.54% at 15.09.

Markets to open positive, but profit booking pares gains

Indian equity markets opened with a positive bias on Wednesday following decision of the IT department to soothe foreign investors' nerves by putting in abeyance its December 21 circular that amplified their concerns over a potential rise in tax liability. The positive sentiment got a further boost as an UN report claiming that India was still the fastest growing large developing economy and that the country would grow at 7.7 per cent in the financial year 2017.
 
But the bulls struggled at higher level as profit booking emerged and market ended the session with marginal gains. The market breadth remained positive, as there were 1,506 shares on the gaining side against 1,245 shares on the losing side, while 174 shares remain unchanged. Finally, the BSE Sensex gained 21.98 points to finish at 27,257.64, while the CNX Nifty was up by 19.00 points to close above its psychological level of 8400.
 
The European markets were stuck in a sideways trend throughout Wednesday’s trading session. Investors were in a cautious mood ahead of Thursday’s policy meeting of the European Central Bank. Germany’s DAX gained 0.51 per cent, while CAC 40 of France slipped 0.13 per cent. The FTSE 100 of U.K. increased 0.38 per cent.
 
The U.S. stocks finished mixed on Wednesday. The S&P 500 gaining 4 points to close at 2,271 and the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 16 points to close at 5,555, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average bucked the trend to close at 19,804 with loss of 22 points.
 
Asian markets are trading mixed. Japan’s Nikkei 225 is trading with gains of over 1% at 19,104.09, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng and China’s Shanghai Composite are trading in the red with losses of 0.30% and 0.20%, respectively.
 
The SGX Nifty index was trading lower at 8,431, indicating a quite start for the India markets. Axis Bank and Yes Bank will announce their quarterly results today.