Sensex, Nifty open in green; Bharti Airtel up 10% on Telenor merger plan

Domestic markets on Thursday maintained yesterday's gain. The markets are likely to remain volatile amid the F&O expiry for the month of February. 

At 0918 hours Sensex was trading at 28,962.76, up 98.05 points or 0.34%, while, Nifty was at 8,943.75, up 16.85 points or Rs 0.19%.

On 30-share benchmark, among top gainers were Bharti Airtel (10.26%), Gail (1.60%0, TCS (1.04%), HDFC Bank (0.78%) and Reliance Industries (0.65%). Among top losers were Axis Bank (-1.10%), ICICI Bank (-0.94%), NTPC (-0.57%), Maruti Suzuki (-0.54%) and Hero MotoCorp (-0.47%).

Stocks in focus:

Bharti Airtel: The company today morning announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement with Telenor South Asia Investments Pte Ltd (“Telenor”) to acquire Telenor (India) Communications Private Limited (“Telenor India”).

However, the cost of the acquisition or the price at which the shares are acquired are yet to be finalised. 

At 0921 hours the shares of the company were trading at Rs 390.55 per piece, up 10% or Rs 36.10 on BSE. 

Reliance Industries: Shares of Reliance Industries on Wednesday hit eight-year high after the company's CMD Mukesh Ambani announced his plans to monetise Reliance Jio.

Tata Motors: Bank of America Merrill Lynch maintained 'Buy' on Tata Motors. The investment bank expects New Range Rover launch will strengthen product pipeline and outlook for next fiscal. 

Bharat Electronics: Bharat Electronics offer for sale which opened on Wednesday got oversubscribed by 2.5 times on the first day of issue. The shares of the company closed at Rs 1510.25 per piece, down 3.19% or Rs 49.70 on BSE.

On the global front, Asian stocks eased from a 19-month high, while the dollar made an uneven recovery from losses suffered after Federal Reserve minutes indicated a cautious approach to raising US interest rates, a Reuters report said.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan edged down almost 0.1% having jumped to its highest level on Wednesday since July 2015.

Japan's Nikkei slipped 0.35%, while Australian shares retreated 0.2%, the report said.