Markets marginally in green as select heavyweighs gain

Tata Motors, Tata Steel and Sun Pharma up 2-3% constitute the top gainers

After a brief negative tick in the opening hour, the benchmark indices moving into the positive territory on the back of gains in some heavyweights like Tata Motors, Tata Steel and Sun Pharma.

The Sensex was up 22 points at 20,303 and the Nifty was up two points at 6,020.

Meanwhile, the broader markets were flat. The midcap index was up 0.1% and the smallcap index was flat with a negative bias.

The Rupee, meanwhile, managed to regain some lost ground and was quoting at 63.71 to a Dollar. In the opening deals the Indian currency had lost 17 paise to trade at a fresh two-month low of 63.88 on strong dollar demand from importers amid weak local equities.

Stocks in Asia too were weak tracking losses on Wall Street amid uncertainty when the US Fed might start pruning its monetary stimulus measures. Stocks in Japan witnessed profit after sharp gains yesterday. The Nikkei was down 0.5% while the Straits Times was down 0.1%. China's Shanghai Composite was down 0.8% while Hang Seng was down 1.3%.

Back home, on the sectoral front, Bankex, Capital Goods and PSU were the only indices in the red, down 0.1-0.3%.

Meanwhile, Health Care, Consumer Durables and Auto indices advanced 1% each.

Power, Teck, Oil & Gas, IT and Metal indices added 0.2-0.5%.

FMCG and Realty indices were flat with a positive bias.

Sun Pharma up 3.3% was the top gainers among Sensex-30 followed by Tata Steel, Tata Motors, BHEL, Mahindra & Mahindra, Hindalco and HUL up 1-2%.

Wipro, RIL, Bajaj Auto and HDFC up 0.5-1% were the other notable gainers.

Sesa Sterlite, Cipla, Hero MotoCorp and L&T down 1-2% were the prominent losers followed by Tata Power, SBI, Gail India, HDFC Bank and ITC down 0.44-0.8%.

Among other stocks, Jet Airways surged 5% to Rs 348 after the fair trade regulator, Competition of Commission of India, cleared the proposed 24% stake sale of the company to Abu-Dhabi-based Etihad Airways.

Gillette India fell over 4% in early trade after the company set the floor price for its share sale at 15% below its market price.

Tata Global Beverages has dipped 6% at Rs 146 after reporting a 51% year-on-year growth in consolidated profit to Rs 180 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2013 due to exceptional gains of Rs 92 crore. The company had profit of Rs 119 crore in the corresponding year-ago period.

The market breadth was positive on the BSE. 906 stocks advanced while 821 stocks declined.