Nifty strengthens on support from financials

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At 14:16 hours IST - the 50-share NSE Nifty strengthened further but there was still a bit of volatility in trade. Financials were the leading stars in today's trade followed by capital goods, select auto, metal and realty companies' shares. NTPC, HUL, Infosys and Reliance Industries were other gainers.

However, private power, cement, healthcare and PSU oil & gas companies' shares along with Tata Motors, ITC, Sterlite Industries, HDFC and Reliance Communications were witnessing selling pressure, which capped the gains.

The Sensex was trading at 18788, up 121 points and the Nifty was at 5637, up 30 points. However, the Nifty September futures were trading at 11 points discount.

The BSE Bankex went up 1.8%. SBI and HDFC Bank surged 2.5% each. ICICI Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank rose 1.8% each. IDFC and PNB gained 0.4% each.

BHEL and L&T from capital goods space were up 0.9-1.2%. NTPC rose 1.7%. In auto space, M&M and Hero Honda moved up 1.6-2%; Maruti Suzuki was up 0.5% while Tata Motors lost 1.7%.

In midcap space, BASF, Whirlpool, Coromandel Intl, KEC Intl and Infotech Enterprise gained 6-11% while MVL plunged 15.23%. Indraprastha Gas, Shree Global, Binani Cement and Radico Khaitan slipped 2.5-3.4%.

In smallcap space, Parekh Aluminex, Karuturi Global, Vindhya Telelink, Shasun Chemical and Ashiana Housing shot up 8-14%. However, Shristi Infra, EIH Associated Hotel, Kothari Product, Indo Rama Synthetic and Andhra Cement lost 4-6%.

About 1815 shares advanced while 1407 shares declined on BSE. Nearly 165 shares were unchanged.