Markets edge higher in noon deals as heavyweights gains

HDFC, L&T, Mahindra & Mahindra and Hindustan Unilever among the top index gainers along with realty names

Markets recovered from the day lows in early noon trades on account of gains in names like HDFC, L&T, Mahindra & Mahindra and Hindustan Unilever. At 1300 hrs, the Senex was marginally up 17 points at19,701 and the Nifty gained eight points to trade at 5,953.

Meanwhile, the broader markets outperformed the benchmark indices with both the midcap and the smallcap indices, up 0.3% each.

In Asian, markets were steady but demand for riskier assets was curbed by a mixed bag of Chinese data which pointed to a patchy recovery in the world's second-largest economy. The MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan held steady but was weighed down by a 0.1 percent drop each in South Korean shares and Shanghai shares.

On the other hand, the yen's slide bolstered Japanese equities, with the Nikkei stock average closing up 0.5 percent after hitting a fresh 4-1/2-year high.

Among the sectoral indices, BSE Realty Index continued to lead gains on hopes of revival of new home sales post the Budget proposal for additional tax deduction for new home loan borrowers up to Rs 25 lakhs. Further, hopes of a rate cut by the central bank at its policy meet next week has also boosted sentiment.

Unitech was the top gainer up 3.1%, DLF gained 2.4%, Indiabulls Real Estate rose 1.3%, Oberoi Realty was up 1.2% and Godrej Properties was up nearly 1%.

The other sectoral gainers included Capital Goods, Health care and Power indices up 0.4-0.6%. However, IT, Consumer Durables, Metal and Auto down 0.1-0.7% were in the negative.

The top Sensex gainers were Sun Pharma up 2% after after Barclays Research upped its price target from Rs 760 earlier to Rs 936 and upgraded the stock to “Overweight” from “Equal Weight”.

HDFC, Tata Power, Mahindra & Mahindra, Coal India and Hindustan Unilever up 1% each were the other notable gainers.

The losers were Hero MotoCorp, Jindal Steel, Infosys, Bajaj Auto and TCS down 1-2%.

The market breadth was negative. 1300 stocks declined while 1286 stocks advanced.