Nifty still above 7950; ITC, Tata Steel & Infosys down

Moneycontrol Bureau10:55 am Interview: The National Highway Authority in India (NHAI), on Wednesday, raised its road construction target for FY17, which seems achievable with the amount of Budget allocated to the sector this year, said K Ramchand, MD of IL&FS Transportation Networks.While the construction target has been set at 15,000 km for the new fiscal year, about 25,000 km has been pegged as a target for awarding national highways projects. Speaking to CNBC-TV18, Ramchand said the target of 6,000 km was a huge improvement last year. The constructions sector, particularly the road players, will be in a position to participate in the big boom going forward, he said.10:30 am Political parties income: Total income of five national parties, including BJP and BSP, touched Rs 1,275.79 crore in 2014-15 period, with most of the amount coming from grants and donations, says a report. Out of the total donations, around 55 percent or Rs 582.72 crore came from "donors whose details are not available in the public domain," as per the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). The figures have been compiled from the annual audited accounts submitted by five political parties -- BJP, BSP, NCP, CPM and CPI. "The five national parties (BJP, BSP, NCP, CPM and CPI) have declared a total income of Rs 1,275.79 crore, collected from all over India," it said in a release.

The market continues to rally supported by banks and oil stocks. The Sensex is up 210 points or 0.8 percent at 26054.18, and the Nifty is up 55.65 points or 0.7 percent at 7970.40. About 1223 shares have advanced, 589 shares declined, and 79 shares are unchanged.

ICICI Bank, SBI, Tata Motors, Axis Bank and GAIL are top gainers while wipro is still down 6 percent. Other losers in the Sensex are ITC, Bharti Airtel, Tata Steel and Infosys.Equitas Holdings debuted at the exchanges at Rs 146.53 per share, up 33 percent from issue price of Rs 110. The IPO was opened from April 5-7, at a price band of Rs 109-110 per share.

CNBC-TV18 Consulting Editor Udayan Mukherjee, who has been circumspect for a while now, says he is surprised by the momentum.

"There are two reasons for the global bounceback. Till a few months ago, investors were starting to price in a doomsday scenario [which hasn't played out]. Further, central bank actions seem to have unleashed carry trades," he told CNBC-TV18.

On the domestic front, he said there have indeed been green shoots that point to improvement in the economy going forward: auto and cement sales, macro data, monetary policy moves and prospects of an above-average monsoon. But he said investors should not attribute the Indian market rally to these factors as virtually all markets have rallied globally.