Markets continue to trade firm, financials lead

Markets continue to trade firm with select financials and IT majors leading the gains

Markets continued to trade firm, amid firm global cues, with financials and telecom shares leading the gains.

At 10:35AM, the 30-share Sensex was up 55 points at 20,284 and the 50-share Nifty was up 16 points at 6,015.

Foreign institutional investors snapped their 32-day buying streak and sold shares worth nearly Rs 60 crore on Thursday. They had bought shares worth Rs 23,884 crore, as per data on Bombay Stock Exchange website.

Asian markets pared most of their early gains. Japan's Nikkei pared most of the early gains and was trading marginally higher. The Nikkei was up 0.1%. Among other indices in the region, Shanghai Composite was down 0.2% and Hang Seng was up 0.5%. Straits Times was down 0.2%

The Indian rupee breached the 63 mark against the US dollar in early trades and was at 63.03 against Thursday's close of 62.94. On Thursday the rupee weakened after minutes from the US Federal Reserve's October meeting showed policymakers were considering cutting its stimulus programme in the coming months. The rupee ended at 62.94, compared with Wednesday's close of 62.58 a dollar.

Consumer Durables index was the top gainer among the sectoral indices on the BSE up 1% followed by Oil and Gas, Capital Goods,Bankex and Realty indices.

Select financial shares firmed up on short covering at lower levels. HDFC was up 1% and ICICI Bank gained 0.6%.

Bharti Airtel was up 1.8% as the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on telecom, headed by Finance minister P Chidambaram, scheduled to meet today, is likely to discuss the next course of action of the upcoming spectrum auction that is expected next year.

IT majors gained on the back of weakening rupee which breached the 63 mark. Infosys and Wipro were up 0.3-0.6% each.

ONGC was up 1.4% on reports that its overseas arm ONGC Videsh signed a memorandum of understanding PetroVietnam (PVN) to promote the joint cooperation in hydrocarbon sector in Vietnam, India and other countries.

Among other shares, Cairn India has rallied nearly 4% to Rs 329 after the oil exploration and production firm announced buyback of its own equity shares from the public shareholders.

In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap index was up 0.3% and Small-cap index was up 0.6%.

Market breadth was positive with 1131 gainers and 575 losers on the BSE.