Sensex, Nifty hold morning gains; Ambuja Cements, ACC rally

Moneycontrol Bureau12:43 pm Tata Sons plan: Tata Sons has started off the process of charting priorities for the group as N Chandrasekaran takes charge as the Chairman on February 21.

Sources tell CNBC-TV18 Tata sons’ top priority is to deploy capital mindfully across group companies by March-end.

The company will also work on deleveraging of some of the businesses and is actively charting out a resolution on the telecom (Docomo) and steel (Tata Steel) businesses.

Tata group is keen to resolve the UK pension issue at Tata Steel urgently, sources say, adding, talks with Thyssenkrupp are in the advanced stages and the company is hopeful of a closure soon.12:25 pm FMCG growth rebound in FY18?: After enduring a tough year due to headwinds such as impact of demonetisation particularly in rural markets, the FMCG industry expects growth to return in 2017-18, said homegrown major Godrej Consumer Products.

"Our expectation is that the fiscal year 2017-18 should see the return of growth in the FMCG sector," Godrej Consumer Products Ltd (GCPL) Managing Director Vivek Gambhir told PTI.

He further said: "We are hopeful that consumer demand will increase gradually, supported by a pro-growth budget with adequate government stimuli and additional investments that lead to more job creation."Also read - Buy, sell, hold: 7 stocks to watch out for your portfolio12:00 am Market Check

Equity benchmarks retained morning gains, with the Nifty trading above 8800 led by banking & financials, pharma, FMCG and cement stocks. Investors awaited RBI policy due on Wednesday and corporate earnings.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 215.23 points at 28455.75 and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 61.10 points at 8802.05.

The market breadth remained strong as more than two shares advanced for every share falling on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Ambuja Cements gained 4.6 percent and ACC was up 3.6 percent after sources told CNBC-TV18 that LafargeHolcim, the parent company of both enterprises, is mulling a merger of the two cement majors.

LafargeHolcim owns 63 percent in Ambuja Cements. In November last year, the parent company had increased its stake in ACC and Ambuja Cements by 4 percent and 2 percent respectively. The parent company took a stake in Ambuja Cements, which in turn owns a 50.05 percent stake in ACC. BSE shares saw some profit booking after listing day rally, down 1.27 percent at Rs 1,055.65.

Asian markets were mostly higher on Monday, as investors try to make sense of US President Donald Trump's policy noise. Since Trump's inauguration on January 20, there has been a flurry of actions that run the gamut from immigration to financial deregulation to tighter border control.

Oil prices edged up on fears that new US sanctions against Iran could be extended to affect crude supplies, but markets were capped by further signs of growing US production. Brent crude futures, the international benchmark for oil prices, were trading at USD 57.01 per barrel, up 0.35 percent from their last close.