Mid-day Mood | Broad-based gains lift indices to the day's high; Nifty tops 19,850

Stock Market Today

The Indian benchmark indices opened on a positive note on October 17, mirroring the upbeat trend across global counterparts. Broad-based gains across sectors helped the benchmarks sustain the uptrend and rise to the day's high, with the Nifty topping the 19,850 level.

All sectors traded in the green, which also reflected in the market strength. Advances sharply outnumbered declines, as about 2,099 shares rose, 1,048 fell, and 123 remained unchanged. More than two stocks gained for each stock that traded lower.

Around noon, the Sensex was up 372.55 points or 0.56 percent at 66,539.48, and the Nifty was up 112.20 points or 0.57 percent at 19,844.00.

"Going ahead, with the results season gaining momentum, this week will see significant earnings reports from heavyweight companies, which are likely to set the tone for the market," Siddhartha Khemka, Head - Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services, said.

The crude oil price movement, macroeconomic data releases and FII flows would also have a bearing on the market.

"Overall, we expect positive biasness to continue led by the expectation of healthy demand during the festive season and robust earnings delivery from the majority of the corporates," he added.

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Analysts pegged immediate resistance for the Nifty at 19,800, which the headline index managed to cross in the morning session and is expected to move higher towards 19,850-19,880.

Stocks and sectors

Earnings triggered stock-specific action. Index heavyweight HDFC Bank, ICICI Securities, CEAT and Cyient DLM were some of the stocks that reacted positively to their strong quarterly results.

While some concerns over net interest income (NII  and net interest margin (NIM) growth limited HDFC Bank shares uptick to just a percent, those of ICICI Bank, CEAT, and Cyient DLM soared 6-8 percent.

Reports of the income-tax department searches at multiple locations of the Trident Group weighed on the stock, pulling it over 2 percent lower.

In the broader market, the Nifty smallcap 100 index rose around a percent and the Nifty midcap 100 was up 0.4 percent.

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