Firm trades continue

Oil& gas, realty shares lead

The markets continued to trade on a firm note this morning with the Sensex regaining the 20,000 levels. The BSE benchmark was up 38 points at 20,029. Nifty was up 11 points at 6,061.

Broader markets outperformed the benchmark. Mid-cap index has added 0.3% at 6,961. Small-cap index has added 0.45% at 7,129.

Indian stocks may remain volatile in the near term as traders roll over positions in the futures & options (F&O) segment from the near month January 2013 series to February 2013 series.

Asian stocks edged higher on Wednesday, 30 January 2013, ahead of a policy decision from the US Federal Reserve, while selected Japanese shares benefitted from smartphone exposure. Nikkei has gained 1.2% at 10,998. Hang Seng, Straits and Kospi are also in the green.

BSE oil & gas index is leading the gains and is up 0.6% at 9,428. Realty, consumer durables, metala nd PSU indices are also trading in the green. On the other hand, weakness can be seen in auto and power indices - down 0.2-0.3% each.

HUL has gained 2.5% at Rs 480. Reliance is up 2% at Rs 902. Cipla and ONGC added 1.5% each. ICICI Bank is one of the key movers of the index.

On the other hand, ITC is down 1.3% at Rs 301. HDFC, Tata Motors, Hero MotoCorp and NTPC are also down.