Markets have a stable noon

The markets are having a firm session of trade, sans the volatility of the previous two weeks and the choppiness that marked the trading activity on Monday. The Sensex has regained the 19k mark and is quoting at 19013, higher by 131 points, and the Nifty is at 5699, up 44 points. The broader markets are, however, quiet; the midcap index is at 7137, up 14 points and the smallcap index is at 8880, up 12 points.

The rally on the European bourses would have been a major sentiment booster. The CAC, DAX and FTSE have rallied in the region of a percent each in mid-day trading. The Asian markets, however, had a mixed session of trade. The Hang Seng reversed earlier gains to trade lower by 0.2%, while Japan's Nikkei received a boost from property and banking shares to edge higher by 16 points at 10,518. Seoul edged down 0.2%, hurt by falls in autos and petrochemical companies and Korea Composite ended down 0.1% at 2,096 points. The Shanghai Composite Index was up 0.1% at 2708. Wall Street was closed on Monday on account of the Martin Luther King holiday.

The IT space is having a cracker of a time in this session, having spurted by around 2% to emerge as the leading gainer on the BSE. TCS is up 5.1% and is trading at an all-time high of Rs 1,197 after its consolidated net profit rose 9.24% to Rs 2,370 crore on back of 4.05% growth in net sales to Rs 9,663 crore on q-o-q basis. The growth was led by the developed markets like the United States and Europe with strong contributions from Asia Pacific and Middle East and Africa. Wipro is trading higher by 3% at Rs 480 ahead of its financial results, scheduled later in the evening, for the third quarter ended December 2010 and Infosys is up 1% at Rs 3300. And HCL Technologies, which declares its Q2 results on January 19, is up 2.9% at Rs 489. Sterlite, ITC and Cipla are the other major gainers.

On the other hand, the ADAG stocks witnessed selling pressure for the second consecutive session despite the damage control exercise over the weekend in response to the Sebi order barring Anil Ambani to invest in the shares of listed cos and prohibiting his two group cos, Reliance Infra and the erstwhile RNRL from investments till 2012. Reliance Infra weaknened by 4.5% at Rs 702 to top the list of losers on the BSE. RCom has edged lower by 0.4% at Rs 131 and Reliance Capital is down 0.6% at Rs 570.

The market breadth is neutral. Out of 2938 stocks traded on the BSE, there are 1391 advancing stocks as against 1417 declines.