Markets firm; heavyweights lead the rally

RIL, ITC and Tata Motors among lead gainers

Markets extended gains with the benchmark indices advancing a percent each in the first hour of trade. At 1030 hrs, the Sensex was up 178 points at 22,644 and the Nifty advanced 51 points to trade at 6,765.

RIL, ITC, HDFC twins and Tata Motors were the major movers and contributed to nearly 110 point gain seen on the Sensex.

The mid and smallcap indices gained 0.7% each, almost in line with the BSE benchmark index.

Ranbaxy Laboratories and Sun Pharmaceutical Industries slipped nearly 2% each after Andhra Pradesh High Court asked stock exchanges as well as Securities and Exchange Board of India to maintain an interim status-quo on the merger or an arrangement or an amalgamation of Sun Pharma and Ranbaxy Laboratories.

TVS Motors Company surged 5% to Rs 97, extending its previous day’s 6% rally, after reporting an adjusted standalone net profit of Rs 82 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2014 (Q4). The two-wheeler maker had a loss of Rs 32.72 crore during the same period last year.
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(Updated at 1030 hrs)
Markets edged higher in opening trades with the Sensex up 178 points at 22,645 and the Nifty added 52 points to trade at 6,764, at 0935 hrs. The ones leading gains were RIL, ITC and Tata Motors.

The mid and smallcap indices gained 0.2% each.

Meanwhile, Asian markets were trading firm tracking overnight gains on Wall Street. Japanese market resumed for trading after a holiday on Tuesday. However, Hong Kong shares retreated amid profit taking after recent gains.

The Nikkei was up 0.2%, Shanghai Composite was up 0.2% and Straits Times was up 0.7%.

US shares ended higher on Tuesday on the back of encouraging earnings from large corporates that beat street estimates and gains in Facebook and Twitter shares.

The Dow Jones ended gained 0.5% at 16,535, the broader S&P 500 gained 0.5% at 1,878 and the tech laden Nasdaq ended up 0.7% at 4,104.

Sectors & Stocks

All the sectoral indices were up, except metal index which was flat with a negative bias.

Oil & Gas, Auto and FMCG indices were up 1% each in opening trades.

Sun Pharma, Coal India and Baja Auto down 0.4-1% were the only names in red.

Gail India, Tata Motors, Dr Reddys Lab up nearly 2% each were the top gainers.

Oil & Gas majors, Reliance Industries and ONGC added 1.3% each.

ITC, SBI, Bharti Airtel added 1% each.

The market breadth was very positive. 855  stocks advanced while 323 stocks declined on BSE.