Nifty nears 6,150 mark; Axis Bank up over 3%

Benchmark indices have edged higher led by financials and capital goods shares. Banking shares are leading gains on the back of higher GDP growth forecast for the last two quarters of the current fiscal and the proposed capital infusion in public sector banks.

At 13:00 PM, the 30-share Sensex was up 183 points at 20,647 and the Nifty was up 57 points at 6,131.

Adds Devangshu Datta, Technical Analyst and market expert, “Resistances are at roughly 50-pt intervals. If you are long, stop loss the Nifty at 6100 and add to the position if it crosses 6150. Most likely, there will be a lot of last hour volatility when the index could either surge or see a sell off.”

On the global front, Japanese shares surged and the yen sagged on Tuesday after the Bank of Japan doubled loan programs aimed at stimulating bank lending and economic growth, while most other Asian shares were softer after solid gains in recent sessions.

Japan's Nikkei rose as much as 3.5% after the BOJ extended and expanded special loan facilities aimed at driving more funds through the banking sector to borrowers.

S&P stock futures pointed to a slightly firmer tone on Wall Street as U.S. markets were set to reopen after a three-day weekend.

Back home, the rupee is trading lower at 62.03/04 vs previous close of 61.84/85, tracking negative regional stocks and FX cues.

US markets were closed on Monday, so pent-up dollar demand will come up, say dealers.

On the sectoral front, BSE Bankex has surged by over 2% followed by counters like Capital Goods, Power, Metal, Realty and Auto, all gaining between 1-1.4%. Infact, all the major BSE sectoral indices are trading in green zone.

Financial and bank shares have gained across the board. The Finance Minister in the interim budget yesterday made a provision of Rs 11,200 crore for infusing capital in public sector banks and also forecasted GDP growth rate of atleast 5.2% in the last two quarters of the current fiscal. Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, SBI and HDFC have surged between 2-3%.

Other prominent gainers are BHEL, Tata Steel, Maruti Suzuki, Hindalco, L&T and Tata Motors.

Bharti Airtel is trading lower by 1% after the company and Loop Mobile announced a strategic agreement for their operations in Mumbai service area.

Among other shares, ABB India surged 6.94% to Rs 632 after consolidated net profit rose 30.49% to Rs 179.31 crore on 2.07% rise in total income to Rs 7572.04 crore in Q4 December 2013 over Q4 December 2012.

Financial Technologies (India) was locked at 5% upper circuit at Rs 310.70 with the stock extending recent upmove.

The broader markets are under performing the benchmark indices but are trading positive- BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices are up by 0.7%.

The market breadth in BSE remains firm with 1,300 shares advancing and 983 shares declining.