Nifty facing resistance above 8,200; RIL down 1%

Benchmark indices continue to trade strong on firm Asian cues which surged on the back of upbeat US employment data. Also, a halt to a slide in oil boosted the sentiments of the market participants.

At 10.45 AM, the Sensex is up 234 points at 27,143 and the Nifty has climbed 81 points to trade at 8,138.The midcap index is up 1.5% and the smallcap index has gained 1.8%.

Rupee:

The rupee opened flat at 63.18 against the greenback at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market today amid a higher opening in the domestic equity market.

Crude Oil:

Oil closed up on Wednesday for the first time in five days as traders took stock of the market's rout after crude prices lost nearly 10 percent over two days and benchmark Brent fell to below $50 a barrel.

Buzzing Stocks:

On the sectoral front, all 12 sectoral indices are trading in the positive territory with BSE Realty, Power, Metal, Consumer Durables, Capital Goods indices and Bankex trading higher by over 1%. However, BSE Oil & Gas index is trading flat with marginal losses.

ONGC share are down over 0.6% on concerns over falling crude oil prices and a continued ad hoc subsidy sharing between the government and upstream companies. Also its peer and Index heavyweight RIL has shed nearly 1% in today’s trade.

From the auto pack, CLSA downgrades Hero MotoCorp to "sell" from "buy" and Bajaj Auto to "underperform" from "outperform"; cites weakening demand in rural India. Both the stocks are trading flat.

Tata Motors is up 2.4% as the Mumbai-based Tata Motors, which has finally found its footing in the car market after the launch of a compact sedan few months ago, is eager to unleash its second model Bolt (a hatchback). Bolt will be launched on January 22.

Coal India has gained nearly 2% amid reports that the five unions have called off their strike.

The technology pack is trading firm with Infosys up 0.5% ahead of the Quarterly results due tomorrow. Wipro has gained 1.5% after it won a $400 million, multi-year IT infrastructure management contract from Swiss engineering giant ABB, making it the largest deal for the technology company since the $1.2-billion contract it received from Canadian utility ATCO last July. TCS is up 0.9%.

HDFC Bank has appointed Bank of America-Merrill Lynch as the lead banker for its sale of shares to raise as much as Rs 10,000 crore from domestic and foreign investors, according to media reports. The stock is up 1.5%.

Shares of Ashok Leyland were trading higher by 3% to Rs 62, its new high on BSE, on back of heavy volumes.

HUL is up nearly 2% on foreign brokerage upgrade on the back of declining crude oil prices.

The market breadth is firm on the BSE with 1,777 shares advancing and 4242 shares declining. 

Global Markets:

Asian markets are trading higher buoyed by the upbeat US jobs data and the release of the minutes of Us Federal Reserve's meetings which suggested that the proposed hike in key interest rates may not happen in near future. Expectations of bolder stimulus measures from the European Central Bank also boosted sentiments. Japanese Nikkei has gained close to 2% while the Hang Seng index is trading higher by 0.4%.

Wall Street rebounded on Wednesday from five straight sessions of losses after strong U.S. private sector jobs data underscored strength in the world's largest economy and fanned hopes for a strong reading of the all-important non-farm payrolls due on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial average rose 1.23%, the S&P 500 1.16% and the Nasdaq Composite added 1.26%. Minutes of the December meeting of Federal Reserve gave only few indications about the timing of the proposed hike in key interest rates, though it may not happen in near future.