Sensex, Nifty climb over 1%; ICICI Bank leads, Cipla tanks 7%

Moneycontrol Bureau10:59 am Market Update: Equity benchmarks maintained gains with the Sensex rising 348.30 points or 1.38 percent to 25653.77 and the Nifty climbing 118.50 points or 1.53 percent to 7864.15.About 1387 shares advanced against 615 declining shares on BSE.10:40 am Oil at $50/bbl: Oil prices edged towards USD 50 a barrel in Asia today after a larger-than-expected dip in US stockpiles resulting from wildfires that have disrupted oil production in Canada.

The American Petroleum Institute yesterday reported that crude inventories dropped by 5.14 million barrels last week, Bloomberg News reported. Data from the Energy Information Administration due later today are likely to confirm the fall in supplies.

There have been high expectations of a decline in stockpiles because of wildfires in western provinces of Canada, the biggest supplier of crude to the US market.

Brent crude futures rose 1 percent to USD 49.11 a barrel and US futures climbed 1.2 percent to USD 49.2 a barrel.10:20 am Earnings estimates: State-run natural gas processing and distribution company GAIL is expected to show earnings revival in Q4 but that may somewhat offset by lower domestic gas availability (due to lower production from ONGC).

The company is likely to benefit from lower petchem losses and healthy transmission volumes post successful re-negotiation of contract with RasGas, a Qatar-based liquefied natural gas producing company.

Key thing to watch out for would be GAIL's commentary on transmission tariff revision order by PNGRB (Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board); petchem volume ramp-up/price recovery, any domestic gas price cut and any likely increases in tariffs.

According to average of estimates of analysts polled by CNBC-TV18, profit in Q4 is likely to fall 6.8 percent to Rs 619 crore and revenue may decline 6 percent to Rs 12,613 crore compared to preceding quarter.Also read - L&T Q4 profit seen down 2%; FY17 guidance, order inflow key10:00 am Market Check

Equity benchmarks extended rally in morning trade, rising more than 1 percent driven by positive global cues after strong US housing data. Banking & financials, technology, auto and FMCG stocks lead.

The 30-share BSE Sensex surged 318.23 points or 1.26 percent to 25623.70 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rallied 104.55 points or 1.35 percent to 7853.40 while the broader markets underperformed, rising over 0.7 percent.

The market breadth remained strong as about three shares advanced for every share rising on Bombay Stock Exchange.

Cipla plunged 7 percent after disappointing set of earnings. Net profit in Q4 dropped 68.8 percent to Rs 80.9 crore while revenue increased only 5.6 percent to Rs 3,266.5 crore compared to year-ago period.

ICICI Bank surged 2.5 percent followed by Infosys, HDFC Bank, HDFC, TCS, Asian Paints, Tata Motors, Axis Bank and L&T with 1-2 percent upside.Asia markets traded higher, with several major indexes advancing more than 1 percent each, after encouraging reports on the housing market stateside propelled gains in US stocks.