Sensex, & Nifty flat, Modi's Cabinet reshuffled; BHEL gains 2%

Moneycontrol Bureau11:55 am Market check: The Sensex is down 14.10 points at 27264.66, and the Nifty is down 9.10 points at 8361.60. About 1259 shares have advanced, 1128 shares declined, and 112 shares are unchanged. BHEL, Reliance, Adani Ports, Tata Steel and ONGC are top gainers. GAIL, Bajaj Auto, NTPC, Tata Motors and Hero MotoCorp are losers in the Sensex.11:45 am Cabinet expansion: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today carried out a major expansion of his Council of Ministers, inducting 19 new faces, including several dalit and OBC leaders as well as from poll-bound states like UP.

Prakash Javadekar, who held the independent charge of environment, was the lone minister promoted to the cabinet rank while all new inductees took oath as ministers of state.

Today's exercise underlines BJP's attempts at wooing dalits and OBCs, whose votes would be crucial to its fortunes in key states like UP and Gujarat. All barring Vijay Goel and Faggan Kulaste are new faces while a few have been ministers in BJP-ruled state governments.

11:30 am FII view: HSBC has raised its rating on India to ‘overweight’ from the earlier ‘neutral’ and upped its Sensex target to 28,500 from 26,000 for this year-end.Domestic market is picking up in India and earnings expectations of 12 percent are more realistic, says Herald Van Der Linde of HSBC. “India is a more defensive market,” he says, adding that earnings growth is expected in certain sectors like IT, private banks and rural-related companies.A 4-5 percent upside is seen in the market from current levels. However, the domestic market still faces key risks like monsoon, to-be-appointed Reserve Bank governor, China and global events.Don't miss: Kotak downgrades Ashok Leyland to sell on MHCV sale decline risk

The market is struggling in red as auto stocks are dragging. The Sensex is down 73.34 points or 0.3 percent at 27205.42, and the Nifty down 24.90 points or 0.3 percent at 8345.80. About 1137 shares have advanced, 1144 shares declined, and 115 shares are unchanged.

BHEL, Tata Steel, Adani Ports, Coal India and SBI are top gainers while GAIL, NTPC, Tata Motors, Bharti Airtel and Bajaj Auto are losers in the Sensex.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's mid-term expansion is taking place with 19 new ministers taking the oath in Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Prakash Javadekar, who currently serves as MoS Environment, has been elevated to the Cabinet rank. Senior Ministers Arun Jaitley, Rajnath Singh, Manohar Parrikar and Sushma Swaraj will retain their Cabinet posts.

The first expansion had occurred in November 2014. There are currently 64 Union ministers, including the Prime Minister, and there can be a maximum of 82 of them under a constitutional bar.