Markets trade near day's high

IT shares lead the rally

Markets are trading near the day's high on the back of buying interest in IT and realty stocks. The Sensex is up 42 points at 17,355. Nifty is up 13 points at 5,239.

Elsewhere in Asia,shares rose and the euro edged back towards the previous session's high on reports that the European Central Bank will buy unlimited amounts of short-term sovereign bonds to cap surging borrowing costs in indebted euro zone states. The Shanghai Composite and Hang Seng were up around 0.5% each.

The rupee erased early gains today and fell 11 paise to 56.02 a dollar on fresh demand for the American currency from banks and importers amid capital outflows from foreign funds.

BSE IT index is up 2.3% at 5,856 after the rupee dropped against the dollar. The United States is the biggest market for IT companies. Realty, bankex and healthcare indices are yo 0.4-0.7% each. However, FMCG shares has seen some profit booking and the index is down 1.3% at 5,327.

BHEL is trading lower by 2.7% at Rs 202 after the stock turned ex-dividend today. The board of the company recommended a dividend of Rs 3.68 per share. The annual general meeting of the company will be held on September 19, 2012 where in it will pay the final dividend for the year 2011-12.

Infosys is trading higher by 3% at Rs 2,413 in otherwise subdued market in early noon deals on reports that India's second-biggest software services provider is open to bigger deals given the right opportunity.

In order to clear pending orders of over 65,000 units of the new Dzire, Maruti Suzuki India today said it has started manufacturing the popular new compact sedan at the Gurgaon plant besides rolling it out from the troubled Manesar facility. Shares of Maruti are up 1.4% at Rs 1,191.

ITC has slipped 2.2%, followed by Bharti Airtel, Hero MotoCorp and HUL. On the other hand, Wipro, Jindal Steel, ICICI Bank and ONGC are in the green.

BSE market breadth is marginally positive. Out of 2,571 stocks traded, 1,267 shares have advanced while 1,154 shares have delcined in trades.