Nifty eyes 8700, Sensex firm; BHEL, ICICI, Bharti top gainers

Moneycontrol Bureau12:55 pm European markets: European stocks opened higher as markets digest minutes of the US Federal Reserve's July meeting. Key earnings were in focus for investors on Thursday. Swiss food giant Nestle said first-half organic sales grew 3.5 percent, missing analyst expectations amid continued challenges in China. 12:45 pm IPO: RBL Bank will hit the capital markets on August 19 to raise over Rs 1,200 crore through an initial share-sale programme, the first IPO by a private sector lender in a decade. The plan includes raising up to Rs 832.50 crore through the issue of fresh shares and up to Rs 380.46 crore in an offer for sale by existing shareholders. The share sale, accounting for 10-11 per cent stake, will give the bank a valuation of over Rs 12,000 crore. RBL Bank, formerly known as Ratnakar Bank, has fixed a price band of Rs 224-225 for the share sale. The IPO will be open for public subscription on August 19 and close on August 23.12:30 pm Exclusive: Oracle may seek to delist its Indian arm Oracle Financial Services from the bourses and is open to spending between Rs 7,000-8,000 crore for the delisting process, reports CNBC-TV18. The stock gained 8 percent on back of the news but soon cooled off to around 2 percent. Oracle’s global team was in India last month to oversee details with respect to the likely delisting and will be appointing bankers soon. Currently, Oracle holds 74.2 percent stake in the Indian arm. Delisting will give larger control to Oracle’s global arm on the Indian operations.Don't miss: Fortis Healthcare to announce SRL merger on Aug 19, stock up 4%

The Sensex is up 132.07 points or 0.5 percent at 28137.44, and the Nifty up 49.25 points or 0.6 percent at 8673.30. About 1544 shares have advanced, 770 shares declined, and 150 shares are unchanged.

Adani Ports, Bharti Airtel, ICICI Bank, NTPC and BHEL are top gainers while Coal India, Tata Steel, L&T, GAIL and Asian Paints are losers in the Sensex.

Oil prices eased slightly in Asia today amid reports OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia would further raise output in August.

Prices hit five-week highs this week, supported by hopes that a Russian-Saudi cooperation may reach a pact to freeze output, easing the stubborn supply glut dogging the market since late last year.

OPEC members and their non-OPEC rivals are to meet informally in Algeria next month, and both Saudi and Russia have indicated they could discuss measures to stabilise prices.