The Indian stock market is slightly higher Thursday morning after a sluggish start, amid lackluster global cues.
With no big economic data coming up during the day, activity is likely to be stock-specific once again.
The BSE benchmark Sensex is up 35 points or 0.1 percent at 33,946.81, after advancing to 33,975.05 earlier. The Nifty50 of the National Stock Exchange is up 16.75 points or 0.16 percent at 10,507.50.
Tata Steel is up 1.3 percent on reports that the company is ramping up production at its Khondbond iron ore mine in Odisha to fuel expansion of the Kalinganagar Plant.
State Bank of India is up by about 0.5 percent. The bank announced that its central board has given its nod to raise additional tier 1 capital through issue of debt instrument in dollars and/or in rupees to the tune of Rs.8000 crore from domestic and international market.
Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, Hindustan Unilever, ITC, Coal India, Larsen & Toubro, HDFC, and Infosys are up marginally.
Hindalco is gaining about 3.7 percent. Vedanta is up 2.1 percent. The group has announced the acquisition of a controlling stake in Japanese glass substrate manufacturer AvanStrate Inc. from global private equity firm Carlyle Group for $158 million.
Wipro, Yes Bank, Axis Bank, Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Auto, Hero Motocorp, Kotak Bank and Bajaj Finance are down 0.3 - 1 percent.
Reliance Communications is up 14 percent at Rs 32.70, extending recent upmove. On NSE, the RCom counter has clocked a volume of nearly 158 million shares so far in the session.
Kolte-Patil Developers spurted 5 percent after joint venture company Kolte-Patil I-Ven Townships (Pune) entered into an agreement to raise Rs.193 crore from global investment firm KKR.
In the currency market, the rupee is trading at 64.26 against the U.S. dollar, down 11 paise from its previous close of 64.15 a dollar.
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