Markets edge higher on value buying

Recent underperformers like ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel and SBI among the top gainers in early noon deals

Markets continue to trade higher in the early noon deals, capping the four day fall, with ICICI Bank, HDFC, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Industries and SBI leading the gains. At 1245 hrs, the Sensex was up 174 points at 19,058 and the Nifty gained 56 points to trade at 5.750.

However, the broader markets underperformed the BSE benchmark index. The midcap index was up 0.3% and the smallcap index inched ahead by 0.2% as compared to near 1% gain in Sensex.

Meanwhile, Asian shares inched higher and the dollar steadied, as a pick-up in Chinese factory activity and a commitment by the U.S. Federal Reserve to its aggressive stimulus stance soothed sentiment rattled by wrangling over a bailout plan for Cyprus.

The HSBC Purchasing Managers' Index for China revived to 51.7 in March from 50.4 in February, pointing towards solid but not spectacular first-quarter growth in the world's second-largest economy.

The MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.1%. Hong Kong shares gave up earlier gains to trade nearly flat while Shanghai shares .entered positive territory to add 0.4% after the China PMI.

Japan's Nikkei stock average climbed 1.3%, hitting a 4-1/2-year high as exporters gained on the Fed's continued stimulative stance and expectations of further monetary easing by the Bank of Japan.

Back home, among the sectoral indices, Bankex, Consumer Durables, Metal indices gained between 1-2% on the back of buying in several underperforming names in each of these pockets over the last few days. The other in the green included Capital Goods, IT, Oil & Gas and Realty indices which were up 0.1-0.7%.

On the other hand, the recent gainers like Health Care, FMCG indices were in the red, losing 0.2-0.3%along with the Auto index which was down 0.8%.

The top gainers among the Sensex-30 were Bharti Airtel up 7% followed by ICICI Bank, Jindal Steel, HDFC, Sterlite, Mahindra & Mahindra which added 2-5%.

Other prominent gainers were SBI, Tata Steel, BHEL, Wipro and Reliance Industries up 1% each.
On the losing side were auto majors, Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto and Maruti Suzuki down 1-3%. FMCG majors Hindustan Unilever, ITC dipped 1-2% along with ONGC, Sun Pharma and NTPC losing 0.5-0.8%.

Among other stocks, Titan Industries firmed up 4% after Morgan Stanley upgraded Titan to "equal-weight" from "underweight", citing under-performing shares, which the bank attributes to concerns about potential government intervention to curb gold imports and disappointing October-December results.

Owing to the weakness in broader markets, the market breadth was negative. 1,368 stocks declined while 1,180 stocks advanced.