Markets pare early gains as HUL ,HDFC slips

However, IT and Auto stocks gain in an otherwise lacklustre market; Lanco Infratech up over 9%

Markets pared some of its early gains in the late morning trades on account of weakness in names like HDFC and Hindustan Unilever. At 1130 hrs, the Sensex was up 29 points at 19,316 and the Nifty inched higher by seven points at 5,878.

In the broader markets, the midcap index gained 0.5%, outperforming the smallcap and the BSE benchmark indices which added 0.2%

Meanwhile, Asian shares inched ahead while the dollar lost ground as investors counted on easy money from central banks in the euro zone and United States to offset the risk of further disappointment from global economic data.

Activity was sporadic with Japanese markets closed for a holiday and China off until Thursday. The MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.3%, but off a six-week high touched on Friday.

Back home, among the sectoral indices, Power, IT and Realty indices gained 1% each. Consumer Durables, Oil & Gas, PSU and Auto indices added 0.4-0.8%.

On the losing side were Metal and FMCG indices, down 0.3% and 0.03% respectively.

The top gainers among the Sensex-30 were Hero MotoCorp up 3.6% after the company's January-March profit beat street estimates for the first quarter in six.

Wipro, Sterlite, ONGC, HDFC Bank, BHEL, Maruti Suzuki and Mahindra & Mahindra up 1-2% were the other notable gainers.

On the other hand, Jindal Steel, Hindustan Unilever, Hindalco, Tata Motors, Coal India, SBI, HDFC, Sun Pharma and L&T down 0.5-3% were the major losers.

Among individual stocks, Lanco Infratech gained over 9% on news that the Company has ended a litigation initiated by Perdaman Chemicals seeking Australian $3.5 billion for breach of a coal supply agreement.

Transformers and Rectifiers (India) rallied 12% to Rs 114 after the company announced a maiden bonus issue plan to other than promoters to meet a minimum public shareholding requirement.

Denso India has hit the upper circuit of 5% of Rs 55.50 on the BSE, after its board approved the delisting of equity shares of the company from the stock exchanges.

Hexaware Technologies was trading higher by 3% at Rs 85.30 after reporting a 20% quarter-on-quarter jump in its consolidated net profit at Rs 79.28 crore for the quarter ended March due to lower operating expenses and foreign exchange gain of Rs 2.25 crore.

The market breadth was positive. 1,098 stocks advanced while 821 stocks declined.