Markets open cautiously higher; Rupee drags

Markets opened on a positive note this Wednesday continuing their 3-day winning streak amid hopes that the government may soon unveil fresh measures to curb rupee’s slide.

The rupee today fell and traded at 61.36 against the dollar in early trade against the previous close of 61.28 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market.

At 9:30AM, 30-share Sensex rose 55 points at 19,285 and the 50-share Nifty gained 14 points at 5,714 levels.

Foreign institutional investors bought Rs 2.27 billion of cash shares on Tuesday, exchange data showed, while domestic institutions were net buyers of Rs 1.15 billion of shares.

Globally, Asian stocks swung between gains and losses. Bonds fell in Asia after the 30-year Treasury yield approached a two-year high on signs of faster U.S. growth.  

Japan’s Nikkei was down 02 3% to 13,833, Singapore’s Straits Times added 0.04 % to 3,245, China’s Shanghai Composite index was up 0.04%  at 2,105 . Trading on Hong Kong bourses were delayed on account of storm.

Overnight, US stocks ended higher after retail sales climbed in July for the fourth month in a row, a report showed yesterday.

Domestically, among the key sectoral indices, realty, consumer durable, power, healthcare and auto sectors gained while FMCG, oil & gas and IT sectors declined on the BSE.

The gainers included counters such as Tata Steel surging 7%, Tata Motors gained 3%, Jindal Steel rose 1.4%, Bajaj Auto added 1.4% while Hindalco Industries was up 1.3% on the BSE.

The laggards were Dr Reddy’s falling 1%, HUL was down 0.7%, Bharti Airtel 0.8%, ITC dropped 0.8% while Hero MotoCorp dropped 0.5% on the BSE.

The key notable movers included counters such as Tata Steel that has rallied 7% at Rs 257 in opening deals after reporting a strong 87.5% year-on-year (yoy) surge in its consolidated net profit at Rs 1,121 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2013 (Q1) on account of better-than-expected cost performance at its European operations.

The broader markets traded firm with mid-caps and small-caps gaining 0.3 per cent on the BSE.

The market breadth was positive. Out of 743 stocks traded, 480 stocks advanced while 239 stocks declined on the BSE.