Firm trades continue, led by telecom

Realty and metal shares gain while autos lag

Markets have continued to trade firm this morning on buying interest in realty and metal shares. The Sensex, after opening at 20,055 is now up 51 points at 20,032. Nifty is up 10 points at 6,059.

In Asia, markets followed Japan in a slide amid lingering disappointment over the Bank of Japan’s latest plan to end deflation. Hang Seng, Shanghai Composite and Nikkei dropped 0.5-1.5% each in late morning trades.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 1046.40 crore on Tuesday, 22 January 2013, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges. Meanwhile, the rupee today rose by 15 paise to 53.66 against the dollar in early trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market today on selling of the US currency by exporters and banks.

BSE realty index is up 1% at 2,257. Metal, consumer durables, capital goods and bankex are up marginally in trades. However, BSE auto index has slipped 0.3% at 11,165. Oil & gas, PSU and IT indices were down as well.

Bharti Airtel is the top gainer among Sensex stocks - up 4% at Rs 366. India's biggest mobile carrier has moved higher by almost 5% at Rs 368 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE). Idea Cellular has surged 4% to Rs 122 and Reliance Communications is up 3% at Rs 90.25.

According to Reuters report, Bharti Airtel, said on Wednesday it has raised voice call prices to account for rising costs, sending its shares up more than 3%.

Capital goods stocks gained on renewed buying. L&T rose 0.83% ahead of its Q3 results tomorrow. Hero MotoCorp, HDFC Bank and Cipla are also in the green.

FMCG major Hindustan Unilever tumbled 5%, with the stock extending Tuesday's 2.88% losses triggered by the company's announcement that it has decided to increase the rate of royalty payment to parent Unilever Plc in a phased manner until the year ending 31 March 2018.

Morgan Stanley downgraded Hindustan Unilever Ltd to 'underweight' from 'equal-weight', citing disappointing October-December volume growth and the impact on earnings from its hike in royalty payments.

Tata Motors, ONGC and Bajaj Auto are down 0.5-1.5% each in trades.

BSE market breadth is marginally negative. Out of 2,501 stocks traded, 1,263 stocks have declined while 1,103 stocks have advanced.