Markets end marginally higher

Capital Goods, metal shares among top gainers

Key share indices ended marginally up on Wednesday, amid a volatile trading session, led by capital goods and metal shares.

The 30-share Sensex provisionally ended up 61 points at 16,920 and the 50-share Nifty ended up 23 points at 5,127.

_____________________________________________

(Updated at 14:22hrs)

Key share indices continue to hover around the tight range with positive bias led by buying among capital goods and power shares.

At 1425 hrs, the Sensex was up 51 points at 16,911 and they Nifty gained 23 points at 5,126 levels. The Sensex had touched an intra-high of 16,944 and the Nifty touched an intra-day high of 5,135 so far.

On the global front, Japan's Nikkei share average rose on Wednesday as investors bet on a new round of stimulus from the U.S. Federal Reserve to pep up a flagging U.S. recovery and offset the impact of a deepening euro zone debt crisis.

The Nikkei climbed 1.1 percent to 8,752.31, its highest closing level since May 17, as risk sentiment picked up and spurred gains for insurance and real estate companies.

European shares and the euro steadied on Wednesday, pausing after strong gains, as investors waited to see if the U.S. Federal Reserve will adopt further monetary stimulus to help counter faltering economic growth.

Back home, BSE Healthcare, Power, Capital Goods, Auto, Oil & Gas, Metal and PSU indices have gained between 0.5-1%. However, BSE Technology and Realty indices are trading marginally in red zone.

Capital Goods major L&T and BHEL have spurted between 1-3% on after  the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) called for a meeting today Wednesday to revive the contentious issue of imposing duty on foreign power equipment in the country.

From the Auto segment, Tata Motors is the top Sensex gainer, up over 3%. Hero Moto and M&M have gained between 0.2-2%.

Power stocks like Tata Power and NTPC have surged between 1-2% on hopes that correction in global coal prices could boost profitability of power producers.

ONGC has gained nearly 1.5% on reports that its overseas arm, ONGC Videsh, is planning to sell 50% stake in its Cuban offshore blocks.

Other notable gainers include JSPL, Dr Reddys Lab, Tata Steel, HUL, Sun Pharma, Sterlite and GAIL India.

On the losing side, Coal India is the top Sensex loser, down over 2%. The government has allocated 116 mines to CIL for expansion to help it boost production capacity.

Other frontline losers include Hindalco, HDFC Bank, TCS, Bharti Airtel, ITC and Maruti Suzuki.

Among the individual stocks, cement stocks lost ground today, falling by up to 4% amid reports that competition watchdog CCI may soon impose penalty on them over alleged price cartelisation.

Shares of ACC fell 3.82% to Rs 1,180.80, while Ambuja Cements lost 3% to Rs 165.55 and UltraTech Cement plunged 3.31% to Rs 1,396.70 on the BSE.

Shares in Indian airlines surged on TV reports the civil aviation ministry will meet with finance ministry counterparts to discuss lowering aviation turbine fuel taxes, raising hopes of an announcement, traders said.

Kingfisher Airlines surged 6.6%, while Jet Airways surged 4.6%. SpiceJet rose 3.8%.

HCL Technologies is trading higher by 4% to Rs 490 on reports that information technology (IT) consulting and software firm has signed an IT outsourcing contract worth of over $200 million (Rs 1,100 crore) with Walt Disney.

The broader markets continue to outperform the benchmark indices, both climbing up by nearly 0.7% each.

The market breadth in BSE remains positive with 1,513 shares advancing and 1,055 shares declining.