Stable session of trade

The markets have been quiet this morning. The domestic bourses had opened around the previous session's levels, in line with their Asian counterparts, and have just been hovering around those levels in the past one hour. The Sensex is quoting at 16919, higher by 56 points and the Nifty is at 5071, up four points. The mid-cap and smallcap indices are up 0.3% each at 6778 and 8527 respectively.

Autos are continuing their good run. The auto sector has improved its tally by nearly a per cent. M&M has strengthened by 2.6% at Rs 559 after net profit rose 36.40% to Rs 570.26 crore on 45.80% surge in net sales to Rs 5278.86 crore in Q4 March 2010 over Q4 March 2009. Among the other auto heavyweights, Tata Motors has raced ahead by 2.5% at Rs 759 and Maruti has gained 0.9% at Rs 1235. 

ONGC, Jaiprakash Associates and Hindustan Unilever have strengthened between 1% and 3% each. Index heavyweight RIL has recovered from its day's lows of Rs 1030 and is now flat, with a positive bias, at Rs 1038. And JM Financial has soared by 17% at Rs 38 on the buzz that Mukesh Ambani is in talks to buy a majority stake in the financial fiirm.

The top losers are Hindalco (has weakened by 1.7% at Rs 148), Reliance Communications (has lost 1.4% at Rs 145) and DLF (has shed 1.4% at Rs 276).

The market breadth is positive. Out of 2290 stocks traded on the BSE, there are 1232 advancing stocks as against 978 declines.