Markets remain in good nick

The markets have notched gains of more than a percent as we embark on the last leg of the current trading session. The Sensex is quoting at 18244, higher by 244 points and the Nifty is at 547, up 60 points. The midcap index is at 6809, higher by 54 points and the smallcap index is at 8426, up 70 points.

This could well be considered the day of the underdogs. DLF, which has been spiralling downwards in the past couple of sessions on the back of interest rate concerns, is seeing value buying in this session; the realty major has soared by 5.4% at R s 232 to emerge as the leading gainer on the BSE. Tata Motors, which was hammered by more than 7% in the previous session on the back of weak Q3 numbers, is also back in the reckoning, zooming by 4.5% at Rs 1117. And RIL, which has been out of favour for quiet sometime now and broke the 900 levels on Monday, has bounced back smartly to add 3.4% at Rs 926. TCS, Jaiprakash Associates and Hindalco are the other significant gainers.

On the other hand, Hero Honda has slid by 3.1% at Rs 1557 to top the loser's list on the BSE after reporting a decline in net profit for the December quarter. The company posted a net profit of Rs 429 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2010, down 19.92% compared to Rs 535.77 crore in the corresponding quarter a year ago. NTPC and Maruti shed 1.7% each at Rs 182 and Rs 1219 respectively.

The market breadth is positive. Out of 2910 stocks traded on the BSE, ther are 1719 advancing stocks as against 1085 declines.