EQUITY BENCHMARKS PARE SOME EARLY GAINS; PSU BANK STOCKS ADVANCE FOR 2ND DAY

The domestic equity barometers pared some of the early gains in mid-morning trade. The Nifty continued to hold above the 21,700 mark. PSU bank shares extended their gains for second day in a row.

At 10:29 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 175.11points or 0.24% to 72,213.54. The Nifty 50 index advanced 59.85 points or 0.28% to 21,714.60.

The Nifty 50 index and the Bank Nifty index have hit record high of 21,759.05 and 48,636.45, respectively.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index added 0.25% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index gained 0.16%.

The market breadth was almost even. On the BSE, 1753 shares rose and 1725 shares fell. A total of 172 shares were unchanged.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty PSU Bank index added 0.69% to 5,730.80. The index has gained 2.76% in two sessions.

Canara Bank (up 2.08%), Punjab National Bank (up 1.91%), Central Bank of India (up 1.43%), Indian Bank (up 0.6%) and UCO Bank (up 0.5%) were the top gainers.

Among the other gainers were Bank of Maharashtra (up 0.44%), Union Bank of India (up 0.38%), Bank of Baroda (up 0.28%), Indian Overseas Bank (up 0.12%).

On the other hand, State Bank of India (down 0.19%), Punjab & Sind Bank (down 0.11%) and Bank of India (down 0.09%) moved lower.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Larsen & Toubro (L&T) shed 0.33%. The company�s subsidiary L&T Construction has bagged `large` orders for power transmission & distribution in Middle East. L&T classifies orders in the range of Rs 2,500-5,000 crore as `large` orders.

Housing & Urban Development Corp (HUDCO) zoomed 16.86%. The company announced that it has executed a MoU with the Gujarat government for an investment up to Rs 14,500 crore to finance housing and urban infrastructure projects in Gujarat.

Exide Industries added 0.27%. The company has made an investment of Rs 40 crore in its arm, Exide Energy Solutions. The total investment in its arm now stands at Rs 1,820.01 crore.

Affle India was down 0.09%. The company has approved to enter a non-binding memorandum of understanding to invest Rs 37.3 crore as cash consideration to acquire minority ownership in the travel social media app Explurger.

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