Sensex gains over 100 pts; broader markets outperform

Benchmark indices continue to remain positive led by auto, capital goods and realty shares.

The market will remain volatile as traders roll over positions in theMi futures & options (F&O) segment from the near month January series to February series. The January F&O contracts expire tomorrow.

By 10:25, the Sensex was higher by 102 points at 20,785 mark and the Nifty gained by 30 points at 6,156 levels.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 1267.35 crore on Tuesday, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.

On the global front, Asian markets rallied on Wednesday after Turkey stunned investors with a huge hike in interest rates, stirring hopes the drastic action would short-circuit a vicious cycle of selling in emerging markets and revive risk appetite generally.

The bold move even managed to overshadow the US Federal Reserve's meeting at which it is widely expected to trim its asset buying program by another $10 billion a month.

S&P 500 e-mini futures climbed 0.5% and Japan's Nikkei jumped 1.7% as safe havens such as the yen and gold all eased. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan bounced 0.5% after three sessions of falls.

Back home, the rupee is higher tracking broad gains in Asian FX versus dollar after Turkey's massive rate hike. The pair is at 62.22/23 versus Tuesday's close of 62.51/52.

Crompton Greaves, Deepak Fertilizer, GAIL (India), Godrej Properties, Havells India, ICICI Bank, Indoco Remedies, Jagran Prakashan, Kalpataru Power, NALCO, Shriram Transport, Tata Global and Titan Company will unveil their third quarter earnings today.  

On the sectoral front, BSE Healthcare index has surged by nearly 2% followed by counters like Capital Goods, Realty, Auto, Consumer Durables and Banks, all gaining by 1% each. Apart from Metal, all the major BSE sectoral indices are trading in positive zone.

From the healthcare space, Sun Pharma and Dr Reddy’s Labs have gained between 1-3%.

Auto major Maruti Suzuki India has surged over 6%, erasing entire yesterday’s fall, on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

On Tuesday, shares of automobiles major had tanked 8.1% after Maruti Suzuki India announced its proposed passenger car facility in Gujarat would not be operated by it but its parent, Japan’s Suzuki Motor Corporation (SMC).

Shares of Bharti Airtel are up over 2% at Rs 310 amid robust earnings growth and higher revenue growth from overseas operations.

Net profit for the quarter ended December 2013 surged 115% to Rs 610 crore compared with Rs 284 crore in the same quarter last fiscal.

Other notable gainers are BHEL, Tata Motors, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, Coal India, Bajaj Auto and L&T.

On the losing side, Tata Steel, GAIL, SBI, Hindalco and Sesa Sterlite have declined by 1% each.

State Bank of India has launched a share sale to raise up to $1.5 billion that will be used to boost its domestic and foreign banking operations, three sources with direct knowledge of the deal said.

Among other shares, Ipca Laboratories has rallied nearly 5% to Rs 834, also its record high on the BSE, after posted a strong 58% year-on-year (yoy) jump in its net profit at Rs 139 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2013 (Q3).

The broader markets are outperforming the benchmark indices- BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices are up by nearly 1%.

The market breadth in BSE remains firm with 1,170 shares advancing and 499 shares declining.