Nifty breaches 8,000-mark in steady morning trades; Infosys leads IT pack

Tracking overnight gains in the US markets and subsequent upturn in Chinese indices, local shares rose sharply with the benchmark Nifty breaching the crucial 8,000-mark and the Sensex gaining nearly 150 points amid hectic buying activity in several frontline software counters. At 10.15 a.m, the 30-share BSE S&P Sensex was at 26,255.93, up 62.95 points, or 0.2 percent from the previous close. A short while ago, the index touched a high of 26,339, up 146 points before trimming some gains. Similarly, the broader 50-stock CNX Nifty, after edging past the 8,000-mark, shed some gains and was up 9.65 points, or 0.1 percent at 7,986.75. [caption id=“attachment_2441680” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption] The breadth of the market was firm with 1,162 stocks advancing against 540 declines on the BSE. On Monday, key US indices such as Dow Jones ended 0.8 percent higher and the Nasdaq closed a tad higher at 4,828.96 while S&P 500 was up 0.5 percent at 1,966.97. Similarly, major Chinese gauges Hang Seng rose 0.7 percent and Shanghai Composite was up 0.6 percent in early trade. Even as the US Fed rate hike overhang has been put on the back-burner for some time now, sluggish global economic sentiment and the resultant weakness in commodity prices coupled with absence of fresh triggers on the home turf has been weighing on investors’ mind, said a market expert with a local brokerage. However, investors seem to be working on a sector-specific approach given the rising uncertainty, with domestic IT stocks helping key indices sail in positive territory. Infosys emerged as the lead gainer in the Sensex space and rose nearly 2 percent to Rs 1,126.15 aided by news report that the company has secured a contract to develop and operate the technology platform for the proposed goods and services tax (GST). The order is estimated to be around Rs 1,380 crore. Other IT scrips such as Wipro gained nearly a percent to Rs 598 and TCS was up 0.4 percent at Rs 2,560. Among other blue-chip shares, M&M, Lupin, BHEL, SBI, ITC, Dr Reddy’s and Vedanta were up around 1 percent each.