As August F&O series rolls in, Sensex jumps 260 pts, nears 28,000-mark

Exhibiting strong optimism on the first trading day of the new month’s (August) F&O series, the benchmark Sensex stretched its gains further from its previous two session upsurge as it inched closer towards the 28,000-mark to touch a high of 27,965.52, up 260 points amid all-round buying support in early trade.

Analysts said some positive earnings announcement from select blue-chip companies on Thursday coupled with steady global markets seemed to keeping the markets in good stead in early trade.

At 10.05 am, the 30-share BSE S&P Sensex was at 27,886.19, up 180.84 points, or 0.6 percent from the previous close. The broader 50-stock CNX Nifty was at 8,457.35, up 35.55 points, or 0.4 percent.

Market breadth was extremely upbeat with gainers outpacing losers by over 2:1. Of the 1,935 stocks traded so far, 1,263 stocks advanced against 593 declines on the BSE.

Among the gainers in the Sensex pack, Dr Reddy’s rose 2.4 percent to Rs 4,002 after the company’s first-quarter earnings beat market estimates. The company’s net profit rose 14 percent to Rs 626 crore from Rs 550.4 crore a year ago quarter, while total income during the quarter increased 7 percent on year to Rs 3,758 crore.

HeroMoto Corp gained 2.1 percent to Rs 2,641, Coal India rose 1.9 percent to Rs 428 and M&M was up 1.8 percent at Rs 1,340.30. Others such as Vedanta, ICICI Bank, SBI, Hindalco and Bharti Airtel also traded higher.

In the mid-cap space, Sun TV shot up 6.3 percent to Rs 328.55 as the haze over the company’s participation in the ongoing FM bids was cleared after it got court approval to participate in the bidding process.

Others such as Godrej Consumer Products shot up 5.4 percent to Rs 1,387.80, Glenmark Pharma jumped 4.7 percent to Rs 1,001, United Breweries rose 3.6 percent to Rs 1,068 and Unitech was up 3.2 percent at Rs 7.63.