Markets hold on to gains, Sensex up 90pts

The markets continued to trade in the positive tracking firm Asian peers.The Sensex is at 16,968, up 91 points and the Nifty is at 5,108, up 33 points.

After opening on an up-beat note, the BSE Sensex is hovering aroung 17,000, even as cautiousness prevails ahead of a possible rate hike by the RBI.

The Asian markets trade firm with the Shanghai Composite, Hang Seng and the Nikkei indices are up nealy 1-2% each.

Among the sectoral indices, BSE PSU, Oil & Gas and Auto indices are leading the gains, up nearly a percent each. ONGC, IOC, Petronet LNG and Gain India, up 1-6% each, are the major gainers among the Oil & Gas stocks.

Tata Motors, Maruti Suzuki and Hero MotoCorp are the major gainers from the Auto sector.

ONGC has moved up 6% at Rs 275 after the state-run explorer said, on Friday, that it has deferred its follow on share sale, but did not disclose any reason for the delay.  Tata Motors, Sterlite Industries, NTPC and Tata Power, up 3-5% each, are the other prominent gainers among the Sensex 30 stocks. On the other hand of the spectrum are JP Associates, Bharti Airtel, Hindustan Unilever, Infosys and Bajaj Auto, down nearly a percent each.

Among indivudual stocks, Tata Motors has rallied 5% to Rs 159, extending its previous day’s almost 6% rally, after reporting a 3% year-on-year growth in its global sales at 87,459 units during the month of August.

The overall market breadth is positive as 1,273 stocks have advanced against 1,084 declining ones, on the BSE.