Markets have a steady start

The markets have ignored the interest rate hike by China to start the last day of the week on an encouraging note. The mature response by Shanghai and the absence of any knee-jerk response by the other Asian counterparts this morning seem to have aided the sentiment back home. The Sensex is quoting at 20131, higher by 58 points and the Nifty is at 6027, jup 15 points in early trades. The midcap index is at 7670, higher by 0.5% and the smallcap index is at 9408, up 54 points.

China's central bank had raised interest rates by a 25 basis on Christmas Day, moving sooner than many analysts and market participants had expected. The Asian markets had opened in the green; Nikkei was quoting at 10,340, higher by 61 points or 0.5% and the Shanghai was at 2,861, up 26 points.

The impending expiry of the near-month December derivatives contracts on Thursday may, however, cause some volatility. And volumes should remain low as foreign fund managers will be on year-end vacation.

Tata Power has zoomed by 1.2% at Rs 1317 to top the gainers list on the BSE. Giving the power behemoth company are Jaiprakash Associates, which has hardened by 0.9% at Rs 103 and Bhel, which is up 0.8% at Rs 2305. TCS, Hero Honda and L&T are the other major gainers.
 
On the other hand, RCom has given up 1.4% at Rs 139 to emerge as the top loser on the BSE. The shares of the telecom company had soared by more than 10% oin Friday's trades. Sterlite has shed 0.1% at Rs 184 and Hindustan Unilever has lost 0.1% at Rs 295.

The market breadth is positive. Out of 1264 stocks traded on the BSE, there are   933 advancing stocks as against 291 declines.