ITC down over 1%; Sensex pare gains marginally

After a robust start, market edged lower in the first hour of trade. Foreign fund inflows continue on hopes of a turnaround in the economy post elections.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought local stocks worth 233.10cr on March 28, 2014, as per provisional data from SEBI.

The partially convertible rupee continued its surge against the greenback on Tuesday tracking robust foreign fund inflows. It was last seen trading at 59.69-a-dollar.    

At 9:45am, the 30-share Sensex opened 133 points higher at 22,582 levels while 50-unit Nifty was up 28 points at 6,749 levels.

Losses in heavyweight salt-to-cigarette conglomerate --ITC which is down 1.3%, pulled the benchmark Sensex 33 points. 

Broader markets outperform the benchmarks at this hour with both BSE small-cap and mid-cap indices trading 0.5-0.6% higher.
 
Top Sensex stocks at this hour include: Bharti Airtel, ICICI Bank, Tata Motors, NTPC and Dr Reddys Labs are trading 1-2.4% higher at this hour.

Among sectors, BSE Auto, which is up almost 1%, is leading the gains in sectors. Healthcare,  consumer durables and realty are the other gainers among sectors. FMCG and metal are the only losers.  

Market breath remains positive with 1077 stocks in the green while 410 stocks lose at this hour.

Globally, Asian share markets added to their recent rally on Wednesday as investors chose to accentuate the positive in a mixed bag of global economic data, pressuring the safe haven yen to a 10-week trough. Even sluggishness in China is now considered favourably since it adds to the case for stimulus, and there are signs Beijing is hastening infrastructure spending in response.

Trading was cautious, however, ahead of Thursday's meeting of the European Central Bank and Friday's US jobs numbers, both of which could move markets in major ways.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan crept up 0.3 percent to a fresh four-month high, while Australia's market added 0.2 percent.

The Nikkei outperformed thanks to the drop in the yen and climbed 1.3 percent.

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 ended Tuesday up 0.70 percent and just off a record intraday high. The Dow rose 0.46 percent, while the Nasdaq bounced 1.64 percent.

The U.S. economic news was generally supportive of risk appetite. The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said its index of national factory activity rose to 53.7 in March, its second straight monthly acceleration. However, the report was below the median forecast of 54.0

Smart moves

Shares of companies that have applied for a banking licence are in focus in early morning deals today and trading higher by up to 4% after the Election Commission allowed the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to issue new bank licences.

IDFC, L&T Finance Holdings, LIC Housing Finance, Reliance Capital and IFCI are up 1-4% on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

In a letter to the RBI governor, the EC said the central bank might take "necessary action as deemed appropriate as permissible under provisions of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, and/or any other relevant law(s)."

Among the individual stocks IDFC and IFCI has rallied 4% each at Rs 128 and Rs 27.35 respectively. LIC Housing Finance up 2.5% at Rs 243 and L&T Finance Holdings by 2.4% at Rs 77.10 on the BSE.