Markets volatile in noon trades

Metal, Bank, realty gain

Markets continued to trade in a volatile fashion on the first day of the December series. The Sensex was up 147 points at 19,317. NSE Nifty went up 38 points at 5,863.

"Nifty is showing good strength as the index has decisively broken above the weekly resistance of 5,745. The medium to short term outlook remain bullish. For the short term Nifty is expected to trade in the range of 5,950 – 6,150. So, any dip in the index till 5,825 should be used as an opportunity to initiate fresh long position," said Puneet Kinra, Sr.Technical Analyst,Bonanza Portfolio.

Elsewhere in Asia, markets went up with Nikkei ending up 0.5%. Asia’s advance followed modest gains for U.S. equity markets on Thursday, with upside there limited by uncertainty that U.S. politicians will succeed in hammering out a deal to prevent more than $600 billion in tax hikes and spending cuts from taking place automatically in January. Hang Seng and Shanghai Composite went up 0.8% each.

BSE metal index has surged 2% to 10,345 as LMEX, a gauge of six metals traded on the London Metal Exchange, gained 1.97% on Thursday. Power, PSU and oil & gas have gone up 1.5% each. However, weakness can be seen in the FMCG space. The index is down half a per cent at 6023.

BHEL has gained 4% at Rs 231. Metal shares - Sterlite and Jindal Steel have added 3.5% each. ONGC, Hindalco, Tata Steel and SBI are the other key gainers. HDFC and ICICI Bank are the top movers - accounting for a 50 points gain on the Sensex. IT stocks rose after positive economic data in the US, the biggest outsourcing market for the Indian IT firms. Wipro was up 0.7% at Rs 388.

On the other hand, Hindustan Unilever is down 1.5% at Rs 539. Bajaj Auto, Coal India and Maruti are down 0.5-1% each. Bharti Airtel traded flat at Rs 333 after the company announced the time schedule and price band for the initial public offer (IPO) of its subsidiary Bharti Infratel.

BSE market breadth was positive. Out of 2870 stocks traded, 1585 shares advanced while 1143 shares declined.