Firm trade continues led by heavyweights

Markets continued to trade higher in early noon deals led by gains in  IT, FMCG and oil shares. The Sensex was up 132 points at 19310. Nifty was up 43 points at 5,813.

Buying interest was visible in the FMCG index - up 1.6% at 6,714. Consumer durables, IT, capital goods and oil & gas indices also advanced 1-1.5% each. However, some weakness remained in the metal and auto sectors.

Broader markets were marginally up in green. The indices were up 0.2% each at 5960 anmd 5676, respectively.

ITC was the major mover among Sensex shares - contributing around 45 points to the Sensex's upmove. Reliance, Infosys and Larsen & Toubro were also playing a part. Tata Power continued to shine with 3.4% gains at Rs 85. Bharti Airtel added 2%, followed by Wipro and Sun Pharma.

On the other hand, BHEL slipped 2% at Rs 175. Sterlite, Bajaj Auto, ICICI Bank and ONGC were also in red.
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(Updated at 1032 hrs)

Markets continued to trade firm in late morning deals on the back of bargain hunting and short covering in index heavyweights after the correction in the past two trading sessions.

At 10:30AM, the 30-share Sensex was up 147 points at 19,324 and the 50-share Nifty was up 42 points at 5,813.

The rupee today strengthened by 19 paise to 60.02 against the dollar in early trade, snapping its three-session falling streak at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market on increased selling of the US currency by exporters. The local currency had lost 55 paise to close at 60.21 yesterday due to fresh capital outflows and sustained dollar demand from importers. Dealers said besides increased dollar selling by exporters, a higher opening in domestic equity market and yen's gain against the American currency overseas also helped the rupee to recover.

Asian stocks were trading with gains were capped as investors turned cautious in wake of the political turmoil in Portugal and US jobs data due on Friday. The Nikkei was marginally down while the Shanghai Composite and Straits Times were up 1% and the Hang Seng surged 1.8%.
 
The BSE Consumer Durables index was the top gainer among the sectoral indices up 1.7% followed by IT, Capital Goods, Oil and Gas, FMCG and Healthcare indices up 0.4-1.3% each.

Shares were software exporters shed some of its early gains after the rupee strengthened against the US dollar. Infosys was up 0.9% and TCS gained 0.7%.

Larsen and Toubro is trading higher by 2% at Rs 1,416 on media reports that the company has emerged as a successful bidder to build Batinah road project (package 4) in the northwest of Oman.

Among the index heavyweights, Reliance Ind extended gains and was up 2%, ITC rose 1.5%, mortgage lender HDFC was up 1% and Bharti Airtel was up 1.9%.

Among other shares, Mangalore Chemicals and Fertilisers has dipped 8% at Rs 51.70, extending its previous day’s 10% fall, after Deepak Fertilisers & Petrochemicals has acquired a 24.5% stake the company for Rs 179 crore from open market transaction.

Tech Mahindra is trading higher by nearly 3% at Rs 1,028 after the company has merged Mahindra Satyam within itself. The trading of Mahindra Satyam shares has been suspended from today as the swap ratio of Mahindra Satyam and Tech Mahindra will come into force.

The broader market also witnessed profit taking. The BSE Mid-cap was up 0.2% and the Small-cap index was up 0.3%.

Market breadth was positive with 903 gainers and 591 losers on the BSE.