Nifty eyes 8700, Sensex strong; banks, infra stocks up

Moneycontrol Bureau12:50 pm Boosting electric vehicles: With an aim to give electric vehicles a boost the government is believed to be discussing the idea of allowing third-party companies to set up charging infrastructure. Insufficient subsidies from the government and lack of battery charging stations have been the two main reasons why electric vehicles have not gathered much traction so far in India. While the government has become serious about promoting clean technology vehicles such as hybrids and electric variants under the National Electric Mobility Mission Plan which provides subsidies for two and four-wheelers, there has been no word yet on plans to set up a charging infrastructure parallely.12:40 pm: Results: India Cements posts a profit of Rs 35.3 crore, while its revenues stand at Rs 1,271 crore in December quarter.A CNBC-TV18 poll of analysts had predicted a 591 percent increase in the cement firm's net profit at Rs 38 crore. Margins have come mildly below estimates. 12:30 pm: UP CM seeks postponement of Union Budget: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has shot off a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting him to defer presentation of the Union Budget till the completion of poll process in five states. The letter sent to the Prime Minister earlier this week cited the Election Commission directive on January 23 asking the Central government not to announce any specific scheme for the five states going to polls in keeping with the model code of conduct. The Supreme Court had on January 23 rejected a petition that had sought to postpone the Union Budget on the back of elections in five states.Don't Miss: Buy, sell, hold: How to trade 8 key stocks post Q3 results? The market is still holding gains with the Nifty eyeing 8700. The Nifty is up 67.40 points or 0.9 percent at 8670.15 and the Sensex is up 251.96 points or 0.9 percent at 27960.10. About 1523 shares have advanced, 932 shares declined, and 262 shares are unchanged.

BHEL, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, GAIL and HDFC were top gainers while  Wipro, Lupin, HUL, Tata Motors and Cipla are losers in the Sensex.

UBS, the world's biggest wealth manager, on Friday struck a more optimistic tone for 2017 on the back of rising US interest rates as it posted a 47 percent fall in full-year net profit. With its flagship wealth management division struggling amid record-low interest rates and a preference among billionaire and millionaire clients for holding cash, 2016 net profit fell to 3.3 billion Swiss francs (USD 3.3 billion) from 6.2 billion in 2015.

"Although macroeconomic uncertainty, geopolitical tensions and divisive politics continue to affect client sentiment and transaction volumes, we have begun to observe improved investor confidence, primarily in the US, which may benefit our wealth management businesses," Switzerland's biggest bank said in a statement.