Sensex opens in green; Kotak Bank, ING Vysya rally

MUMBAI: The S&P BSE Sensex has opened in the green led by gains in banks, auto and healthcare sectors.
Shares of Kotak Mahindra Bank rallied following announcement of big-bang merger with ING Vysya. The all-stock deal has been structured in a way that ING shareholders will get one share of the merged entity for every 1.3 shares held.

Kotak Mahindra Bank surged 8.9 per cent and ING Vysya gained 3.78 per cent in early trade.

“If mastering the art of deal making is what transforms a company into a leading business empire, Uday Kotak seems to be doing just that. After the 2008 meltdown, the biggest deal in the banking space took place after Kotak Mahindra Bank's acquisition of ING Vysya Bank,” said IIFL report.

“Stock-specific activity will continue on counters that are in the news. The acquisition of US-based Lightbridge Communications Corporation will also boost the Tech Mahindra counter which had run up a bit on Thursday,” the report added.



At 09:16 a.m.; the 30-share index was at 28,072.56, up 5 points or 0.02 per cent. It touched a high of 28,128.18 and a low of 28,059.55 in early trade.

The Nifty was at 8,409.80, up 7.90 points or 0.09 per cent. It hit intraday of 8,415.65 and a low of 8,399.05 in trade today.

The S&P BSE Midcap Index was up 0.37 per cent and the S&P BSE Smallcap Index gained 0.35 per cent.



Among the sectoral indices, the S&P BSE Bankex was 0.59 per cent higher, the S&P BSE Healthcare Index moved up 0.48 per cent and the S&P BSE Auto Index advanced 0.42 per cent.

Cipla (up 2.32 per cent), Tata Motors (up 0.83 per cent), Tata Steel (up 0.39 per cent), Hero MotoCorp (up 0.39 per cent) and ITC (up 0.38 per cent) were among the major Sensex gainers.

Infosys (1.67 per cent), L&T (0.50 per cent), ICICI Bank (0.45 per cent), Tata Power (0.45 per cent) and Hindustan Unilever (0.38 per cent) were among the major losers.

The market breadth was positive on the BSE with gainers 741 against 437 losers.