Sensex eyes 25000; Nifty strong; ICICI Bank, Tata Motors jump 3%

Moneycontrol Bureau10:58 am Market Update: Equity benchmarks continued to rally. The Sensex rose 161.42 points to 24879.41 and the Nifty advanced 47.50 points to 7557.70. About two shares advanced for every share declining on the BSE.

ICICI Bank (3.8 percent), Tata Motors (3.4 percent), GAIL (2.0 percent) and Adani Ports (1.8 percent) are the top gainers in Nifty. Among the losers are Coal India (-6.6 percent), Bharti Airtel (-0.7 percent), Bajaj Auto (-0.4 percent) and Dr Reddys Labs (-0.2 percent).In sectoral performance as reflected by the respective indices, auto (1.2 percent), FMCG (1.0 percent), oil & gas (0.8 percent) and capital goods (0.6 percent) gained, while metals (-1.6 percent) were under pressure.

10:45 am Pfizer in News: US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc's India unit said on Monday it had stopped selling its popular Corex cough syrup, after regulators banned it saying it was likely to pose a risk to humans.

Corex is a combination of chlopheniramine maleate and codeine syrup -- one of 344 drug combinations India banned over the weekend after a government panel of experts found they had "no therapeutic justification."

All these medicines have entered the market over the years based on approval from regulators of individual states, rather the central government, as legally required.

The decision on Corex is likely to hit Pfizer's revenue and profit. The brand brought in sales of about 1.76 billion rupees (USD 26.30 million) to Pfizer in the nine months ended December 2015, the company said in a statement.10:30 am Market Expert: Despite recent rally in the market, fortunes have not turned in favour of the bulls, though fears about global recession have abated a bit, says Andrew Holland, CEO of Ambit Investment Advisors. "At the moment, we are seeing a rebound as we had corrected sharply earlier," he explains. He feels earnings can grow by 5-10 percent in FY17.

According to him, markets will keep an eye on how the European economy will pick up, going ahead. "We are underestimating the cost of migrants in Europe. We will continue to be a little bit more cautious about Europe for now."10:15 am Buzzing: Cupid shares climbed more than 9 percent intraday on getting contract to manufacture female condoms.

"A non-exclusive long term agreement has been awarded to Cupid for manufacture and supply of female condoms to UNFPA for a period of 3 years," says the Maharashtra-based condoms manufacturer in its filing to exchange.

UNFPA is United Nations Population Fund, formerly the United Nations Fund for Population Activities.

Also read - Central banks will create global socialism: Marc Faber10:00 am Market Check

Equity benchmarks remained strong in morning trade following positive global cues. Banking & financials, FMCG, auto and oil stocks gained while Coal India topped selling list on Sensex, down 6.5 percent after adjustment for interim dividend.

The 30-share BSE Sensex rose 188.15 points to 24906.14 and the 50-share NSE Nifty climbed 55.90 points to 7566.10. The broader markets marginally outperformed benchmarks, up more than 0.8 percent.

The market breadth was strong as about three shares advanced for every share declining on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

ICICI Bank and Tata Motors were leading contributors to Sensex's gains, rising more than 3 percent followed by ITC, HDFC, L&T, Axis Bank, Adani Ports, SBI and ONGC with 1-2 percent upside while Bharti Airtel fell over a percent.

Asia markets traded higher across the board, as traders began to take a more positive view of the European Central Bank's (ECB) monetary policy decision last week. The Japanese Nikkei 225 was up 1.8 percent, extending Friday's 0.51 percent increase, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was up 1.32 percent. Shanghai surged 2.6 percent.