ADVERTISEMENT
Nifty Edges Above 8,850; Hindalco Leads
23 Feb 2015, 09:47 AM IST 
The BSE benchmark Sensex opened higher in trades on Monday ahead of the Budget session which starts later in the day.
The 50-share Nifty also opened on a positive note and was hovering around its important psychological level of 8,850.
Market participants would take cues from the Budget session which will start later in the day today.
Meanwhile, the broader markets were trading in line with the benchmark indices. The BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices were up around 0.4 per cent each.
Metal stocks were in high demand in the morning deals led by Hindalco after the company bagged one more mine in the ongoing coal auction, taking the total number of blocks won by the firm to three that includes two in Chhattisgarh and one in Jharkhand.
Hindalco had on February 15 bagged Kathautia mine in Jharkhand and also won GareIV/5 mine in Chhattisgarh on February 19.
Hindalco was the top gainer on the Nifty, up 2 per cent at Rs 160.
IT stocks were also witnessing buying in the opening trades with HCL Technologies, Infosys, tech Mahindra and TCS advancing after Friday's sell off.
From the Nifty basket, Sesa Sterlite, Larsen & Toubro, Kotak Mahindra Bank, HUL, ICICI Bank and ACC were among the prominent gainers. On the other hand, Jindal Steel was facing selling pressure after two days of upmove. The stock slipped 3.2 per cent to Rs 188. Cairn India, DLF, HDFC, GAIL and NMDC were along the laggards.
At 9:40 AM, the Sensex was up 98 points at 29,329 and the Nifty jumped 29 points to 8,862 levels.