Sensex ends at record high, Nifty closes above 10K for first time ever

3:30 pm Market at Close: Benchmark indices gained strength in the final hours of trade, with the Nifty closing above 10,000 for the first time ever. The Sensex closed higher by over 150 points.

The Sensex ended up 154.19 points at 32382.46, while the Nifty closed higher by 56.10 points at 10020.65. The market breadth, however, was narrow as 1349 shares advanced against a decline of 1332 shares, while 176 shares are unchanged.

Midcaps too gained in the day's trade, just a touch short of Nifty's overall gain. Metal stocks surged on the back of a global commodity rally.

2:40 PM Results Update : Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC), on Wednesday, reported a fall in the June quarter net profit at Rs 1,556 crore. The number came in lower than what analysts had estimated, which saw this at Rs 1,733.7 crore.

The lender's provisions came in at Rs 85 crore against Rs 148 crore quarter on quarter and Rs 340 crore year on year. Meanwhile, the income from operations came in at Rs 8,129 crore, a rise of 9 percent from its operations.

The net interest margins came in at 4 percent a tad lower than 4.31 percent year on year. On the asset quality front, the company's gross NPA rose to 1.12 percent against 0.79 percent quarter on quarter.

2:05 pm Expert Speak: The market is likely to touch new highs going forward and two themes which will fuel the rally will be private sector banks, NBFCs, and IPOs, Rajat Rajgarhia, MD, Institutional Equities, Motilal Oswal Securities said in an interview with CNBC-TV18.

The next leaders of the rally are private banks and NBFCs. They have led the charge for the past 2-3 years and the second leg of the rally will come from IPOs, he said.

We have seen some crazy momentum seen in IPOs which listed recently and that is typical of any rally. The IPO pipelines is getting rich over the coming months. We are likely to see a great response from many of them in the coming months, suggests Rajgarhia.

1:35 pm Market Check: Benchmark indices were trading strong in the afternoon session, with the Nifty now hovering around 10,000-mark.

The Sensex was up 103.89 points at 32332.16, while the Nifty was up 31.80 points at 9996.35. The market breadth was narrow as 1366 shares advanced against a decline of 1169 shares, while 154 shares were unchanged.

Tata Steel, Sun Pharma and Vedanta gained the most on both indices, while Axis Bank and Asian Paints lost the most.

1:10 pm Results: Private sector lender, Federal Bank, reported 25.5 percent rise in its June quarter net profit at Rs 210 crore against Rs 167.31 crore posted during the same period last year. However, the number was below the Street's expectations, which pegged the figure at Rs 250.5 crore.

Net interest income, the difference between interest earned and interest expended, rose 15.6 percent at Rs 800.7 crore against Rs 692.7 crore in the corresponding quarter of last year. The analysts' poll by CNBC-TV18 saw this at Rs 852.3 crore.

On the asset quality front, its net non-performing assets (NPAs) rose to 1.39 percent quarter on quarter, while its gross NPAs too rose to 1.39 percent from 1.28 percent.

12:30 pm Buzzing Stock: Shares of Bharti Airtel fell by over 1 per cent today after the company reported its smallest profit in 18 quarters as the price war triggered by newcomer

Reliance Jio led to a massive 75 per cent fall in its April-June earnings.

Even after a positive opening, shares of the company failed to hold on to the gains and later dipped 1.39 per cent to Rs 421.65 on BSE. At NSE, shares of the company fell by 1.41 per cent to Rs 421.75.

12: 02 pm Market Check: Benchmark indices were trading higher in the afternoon trade as Nifty has reclaimed the 10000 level.

The Sensex was up 97.71 points at 32325.98, and the Nifty was up 35.95 points at 10000.50. About 1442 shares have advanced, 957 shares declined, and 133 shares are unchanged.

The street will keep eye on HDFC and Yes Bank as companies are going declare their numbers today.

11:15 am Gold check: Gold futures fell Rs 94 to Rs 28,384 per 10 gm today as participants trimmed their positions after a decline in global prices of the precious metal.

The August contract of gold fell by Rs 94 or 0.33 percent lower at Rs 28,384 per 10 gm in a business turnover of 368 lots at the Multi Commodity Exchange.

The far-month October contract of the metal too fell by Rs 80, or 0.28 per cent to Rs 28,631 per 10 gm in 88 lots Market analysts said the fall in gold futures was mostly in tune with a weak trend overseas as equities gained and the markets awaited clues about monetary policy from the US Federal Reserve

11:05 am Market Check: Benchmark indices further extended their gains from the previous hour, with the Nifty inching closer to 10,000-mark.

The Sensex was up 86.29 points at 32314.56, while the Nifty was up 26.35 points at 9990.90. The market breadth was healthy as 1446 shares advanced against a decline of 787 shares, while 121 shares were unchanged.

Mahindra and Mahindra, Tata Steel, GAIL and Vedanta gained the most on both indices, while Asian Paints, Axis Bank and Zee Entertainment continued to be the top losers.

10:45 am Upper circuit: Shares of GE T&D India touched 52-week high of Rs 392.90 and locked at 20 percent upper circuit as the company turned profitable in the quarter ended June 2017.

There were pending buy orders of 52,558 shares, with no sellers available.

The company has reported a net profit of Rs 61.7 crore in the Q1FY18 (April-June) against the loss of Rs 197.4 crore, in the same quarter last fiscal.

Revenue of the company has increased by 39 percent at Rs 1,263.4 crore versus Rs 905.1 crore.

10:30 am Mutual Fund View: The concept of mutual fund (MF) investing and how systematic investment plans (SIPs) works has become much more clear to retail investors probably in the last 5 years, but if somebody would have invested in Reliance Growth Fund back in the year when it was launched is already sitting on huge wealth created over a period of time.

''Reliance Growth Fund started in the October 1995 has grown 105x in the last 22 years. We have outperformed the Nifty by almost 10x. A crore invested in Nifty would have become Rs 10crores and a crore invested in Reliance Growth Fund would have become Rs100 crores,'' Sunil Singhania, CIO - Equity – Investment, Reliance Mutual Fund said in an interview with CNBC-TV18.

Commenting on Nifty hitting record high of 10,000 – Singhania said that we are certainly not at a euphoric top, but some bit of correction cannot be ruled out considering the fact, the Indian market is trading slightly above fair valuations. But, the corrections will be short and swift.

10:15 am Earnings Poll: Nestle India's second quarter profit is seen rising 20 percent year-on-year to Rs 276 crore and revenue may increase 4.4 percent to Rs 2,372.7 crore, according to average of estimates of analysts polled by CNBC-TV18.

Operating profit during the quarter is likely to rise 5.1 percent to Rs 469 crore and margin may expand 10 basis points to 19.8 percent compared with year-ago quarter, impacted by higher milk prices.

Revenue growth is expected to be led by Maggi that accounts for around 18-20 percent of total sales.

Maggi sales is expected to be between Rs 450-475 crore for the quarter. The company doesn't give Maggi numbers.

10:01 am Market Check: Equity benchmark indices extended their gains from the opening tick, with the Nifty inching towards reclaiming the historic 10,000-mark.

The Sensex was up 68.05 points at 32296.32, while the Nifty was up 23.05 points at 9987.60. The market breadth was healthy as 1279 shares advanced against a decline of 622 shares, while 72 shares were unchanged.

Tata Steel, Mahindra and Mahindra, Vedanta and Tata Steel gained the most on both the indices, while Asian Paints, Axis Bank and Bharti Infratel were the top losers.

9:45 am Investors react to NFL offer for sale: Shares of National Fertilizers declined 7 percent in the early trade on Wednesday as the government announced a stake sale through an offer for sale (OFS).

Government of India will sell up to 7,35,86,760 equity shares of the company, representing 15 percent of the total paid up equity share capital of the company in next two days.

The floor price for the offer shall be Rs 72.80 per equity share.

Having said that, the share price has advanced more than 110 percent in the last one year.

9:30 am Buzzing Stock: Shares of Axis Bank fell over 2 percent intraday on Wednesday as investors reacted to the lender's the June quarter performance.

The country's third-largest private sector lender's profit contracted 16 percent year-on-year to Rs 1,306 crore for the quarter ended June 2017, which was slightly ahead of estimates but grew by 7 percent QoQ.

The profitability was impacted by slow growth in net interest income, lower operating income and higher provisions but other income and lower tax cost limited degrowth.

Brokerages highlighted the asset quality issues that were posted by the bank in the June quarter. They added that slippages outside its watchlist was a cause for concern. Having said that, there are expectations of profitability increase going forward.

9:15 am Market Opens: A day after the Nifty hit the historic figure of 10,000, benchmark indices on Wednesday opened marginally in the green.

The Sensex was up 28.89 points at 32257.16, while the Nifty was up 18.35 points at 9982.90. The market breadth was positive as 318 shares advanced against a decline of 110 shares, while 32 shares were unchanged.

Midcap stocks were trading strong, while metal stocks surged on the back of global commodity rally.

Adani Ports, Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Vedanta and Hindalco gained the most, while Asian Paints and Axis Bank were the top losers.

Globally, Asian stocks edged up early after Wall Street indexes notched record highs, while the dollar was steady as investors awaited the Federal Reserve's policy decision later in the day for more clues on its tightening plans.

The Fed concludes a two-day meeting later on Wednesday, and is widely expected to keep interest rates unchanged.

With a rate hike not in the picture this time, the focus will be on the Fed's statement, with markets looking for signs of when the central bank will begin paring its massive bond holdings and next raise rates. A statement is expected at 1800 GMT.

In the US, the S&P 500 climbed to an all-time high on Tuesday on a heavy day of corporate results highlighted by well-received reports from McDonald's and Caterpillar and gains for bank shares.

The Nasdaq also managed to set a record high despite declines in Google parent Alphabet after its results. Alphabet shares ended down 2.9 percent.

Shares of McDonald's rose 4.8 percent after the fast-food chain reported strong global sales. Caterpillar shares surged 5.9 percent after the heavy equipment maker raised its full-year outlook for the second time this year.

Those stocks spurred the Dow industrials, leaving the index close to record territory.

Back home in the currency market, the he Indian rupee opened at 64.42 to the dollar dollar, down from its previous close of 64.38 on Tuesday.

Pramit Brahmbhatt of Veracity said, "We have a neutral stance on the USD-INR pair in absence of any directional cues and expect it to trade in a range of 64.20-64.40 today."

Dhawal Dalal of Edelweiss AMC said, "We expect bond prices to consolidate ahead of the FoMC meeting outcome and keep an eye on the China front. We expect the 10-year benchmark bond yield to trade in the 6.40-6.45 percent range this week."

The dollar languished near a 13-month low against a basket of currencies, with traders skeptical that this week's US Federal Reserve meeting would do much to alter the greenback's recent weak trend.