Sensex off highs, Nifty holds 7500; top ten stocks in focus

NEW DELHI: The S&P BSE Sensex rose as much as 229 points in trade on Friday following positive trend seen in other Asian markets. The rally in the index was led by gains in Reliance Industries, ONGCBSE 6.85 %, ITCBSE 0.40 % and HDFC BankBSE -0.14 %.

Tracking the momentum, the 50-share Nifty index also managed to reclaim its crucial psychological level of 7500 and was trading very close to its all-time high level of 7563.50, supported by gains in oil & gas, realty, power and capital goods stocks.

At 11.42 a.m.; the BSE Sensex was trading 0.7 per cent higher or 175.35 points at 25,243. It hit a low of 25,153.93 and a high of 25,258.98 in trade today.

The 50-share Nifty index was trading 0.6 per cent higher at 7517.15. It hit a low of 7506.85 and a high of 7535.10 in trade today.

The Nifty has finally broken out of its range on Thursday and managed to close above the downtrend line which is a very positive sign for bulls. The minimum target on the upside comes at 7563 level and at 7700 level if it crosses that.

“On the lower side, 7360 is a very crucial support and till that is not broken the Nifty is not expected to fall back to a range. The Bank Nifty, however, has not confirmed the same as it has not managed to break and close above 15390 levels,” Sharekhan said in a report.

“The hourly momentum indicator has again turned positive which is a bullish sign in the short term. In view of these observations we feel that the bulls have the upper hand in the market,” added the report.

The Nifty took a good support at the 20-day moving average (DMA), ie the mean of the Bollinger Bands, after reversing from the upper Bollinger Band. This is a typical bull market scenario, added the brokerage firm.

Here is a list of ten stocks which are in focus today:

Piramal Enterprises & Shriram City UnionBSE 6.74 % Finance: Piramal has acquired 9.99 per cent stake in Shriram City Union Finance for a total of Rs 790 crore.

The Mumbai-based firm has acquired 65,79,840 equity shares of Shriram City Union Finance LtdBSE 6.74 %, the retail focused non-banking financial company (NBFC) of the Shriram Group, Piramal Enterprises said in a statement today.

At 10:00 a.m.; Piramal Enterprises was trading 1.08 per cent higher at Rs 717 and Shriram City Union Finance was up 1.5 per cent to Rs 1447.

Reliance IndustriesBSE 2.79 % Ltd: : The government will take a decision on revising natural gas prices after the Prime Minister is briefed about various issues of the petroleum sector, but the new rates cannot be implemented before July 1 as per the notified guidelines, government sources said.

At 10:00 a.m.; the stock was trading 4 per cent higher at Rs 1131.

InfosysBSE -2.20 % Ltd: Prasad Thrikutam, the global head for sales and marketing at Infosys quit on Thursday, in what is the latest in a series of senior management exits in the last one year. The exit comes at a time when Infosys is running a evaluation process to appoint its first non-founder CEO.

At 10:00 a.m.; the stock was trading 1.8 per cent lower at Rs 2982.

Idea CellularBSE 1.54 % Ltd: Idea Cellular, India’s third largest wireless services operator, today said it has opened a QIP issue through which it will offer equity shares worth Rs 3,000 crore.

At 10:00 a.m.; the stock was trading 3.4 per cent higher at Rs 141.10.

M&M Ltd: Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) today launched a special edition of its sports utility vehicle XUV500, priced at Rs 13.68 lakh (ex-showroom Mumbai).

At 10:00 a.m.; the stock was trading 0.2 per cent higher at Rs 1205.

WockhardtBSE 0.07 % Ltd: Drug major Wockhardt is recalling over 8,000 bottles of anti-hypertension drug Metoprolol Succinate extended-release tablets in the US market following failure of a dissolution test.

At 10:00 a.m.; the stock was trading 0.6 per cent higher at Rs 577.

Coal India, RCF & GAIL: Coal IndiaBSE 0.46 % is planning Rs 10,000-crore joint venture along with GAIL India, Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers (RCF) and The Fertilizer Corporation of India (FCIL) to set up a urea and ammonium nitrate chemicals complex that will run on gasified coal.

At 10:00 a.m.; Coal India was trading 1.09 per cent higher at Rs 395, RCF was down 1.4 per cent to Rs 57.25 and GAIL IndiaBSE 4.76 % was trading 3.8 per cent higher at Rs 405.95.