Markets make modest gains; Sensex above 20,380

Benchmark indices made modest gains in afternoon trades, and at 14:30 hours, the Sensex was up 10.67 points at 20,387 and the Nifty was at 6,066.75, gaining 4.35 points to stay above the crucial 6,050 mark.

The BSE midcap and small-cap indices continued to outperform the Sensex, and were up 0.25-0.34% each.

Across the various sectors, Consumer Durables and Realty were the biggest winner, up 1.4-1.9% each, while Capital Goods, Auto, and Healthcare were also in the green, gaining less than 1% each. Bankex, Metal, IT, and FMCG were the major losers, declining by 0.1-0.70%.

Gains of 1-2% in Reliance Industries & L&T were dragged by the losses of more than 2% in companies like TCS and HUL.

Tata Motors continued to trade higher on expectations of strong Q3 results, and was up by about 1.5%. Sun Pharma, ONGC, Dr. Reddy's Labs, and Maruti Suzuki were the other gainers, up by 1.3-2.0%.

Bharti Airtel remained in the red due to the on-going spectrum auction, and was down by almost 2%. HDFC Bank, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Steel, NTPC and Axis Bank, each declining by 0.3-1.5%, were the other notable losers.

The market breadth was positive on the BSE, with 1,293 stocks advancing, 1,139 scrips declining, and 155 remaining unchanged.


Global markets
Japan's Nikkei share average rose to a one-week high, as a softer yen underpinned sentiment, with index-heavyweight stocks as SoftBank Corp leading the gains. The Nikkei ended 1.8% higher at 14,718.34 points, a sharp recovery from the four-month low of 13,995.86 that it had hit earlier last week.

Singapore's Strait Times, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng, however, closed marginally lower, declining by 0.15% and 0.27% respectively.

European markets opened marginally in the green, with CAC, DAX and FTSE adding gains of 0.05-0.20%.