)
Both Sensex and Nifty trimmed early gains in mid-morning deals. The market edged higher in early trades and both the bencmark indices hit their highest level in almost one week.
At 11:45am, the 30-share Sensex, was up almost 96 points or 0.4%, up 13 points from the day's low and the broader 50-unit Nifty trading 21 points higher at 6,721 levels, up 4 points from day's lowest levels.
The market sentiment was boosted by data showing that foreign funds remained net buyers of Indian shares on Monday. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 280 crore on Monday, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.
Services, the biggest chunk of India's economy, contracted for the tenth month in a row in April, even as the rate of fall decelerated, showed widely-tracked HSBC purchasing managers' index (PMI).
PMI rose to 48.5 points in April from 47.5 in March. The index, however, remained below 50 points, which shows decline in activities. PMI over 50 points denotes expansion. This somewhat weighed on the sentiment capping upside in mid-morning deals.
In the currency market, the rupee edged higher against the dollar. The partially convertible rupee was hovering at Rs 60.18, compared with its close of 60.22 on Monday.
Broader markets outperformed benchmark indices' performance today with both BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices trading 0.4-0.5% higher against Sensex's 0.4% gains.
Asian share markets edged higher on Tuesday on positive cues from US which helped US market to a firm close yesterday.
Asian stocks rose on Tuesday, with trading volume curbed by holidays in Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea. Key benchmark indices in China, Singapore, Indonesia and Taiwan were up 0.03% to 0.51%.
Australia's central bank left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at a record low as tame consumer prices and anticipated cuts to government spending give policy makers room to spur employment-intensive industries. Governor Glenn Stevens and his board kept the overnight cash-rate target at 2.5% as predicted.
Two-wheeler manufacturers were trading lower; Bajaj Auto and Hero MotoCorp are down 1% and TVS Motor Company was up 1.2%.
City Union Bank is trading higher by 4% to Rs 60.15 on BSE after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) allowed foreign institutional investors to purchase up to 35% of the paid-up capital of the bank.
RBI said that it has removed City Union Bank from its banned list, allowing it to raise the FII investment limit up to 35% cent of its paid up capital as the foreign shareholding limit had gone below threshold level.
FIIs held 21.54% stake in City Union Bank (as per the shareholding patterns as on 31 March 2013).
United Bank of India (UBI) surged almost 6% after its fourth quarter results, released yesterday. Net profit surged manifold to Rs 469.37 crore on 14.38% growth in total income to Rs 3073.78 crore in Q4 March 2014 as compared to same quarter last year.
United Bank of India's ratio of gross non-performing assets (NPAs) to gross advances stood at 10.47% as on 31 March 2014 as against 10.82% as on 31 December 2013 and 4.25% as on 31 March 2013. The ratio of net NPAs to net advances stood at 7.18% as on 31 March 2014 as against 7.44% as on 31 December 2013 and 2.87% as on 31 March 2013.
The banks provisions and contingencies declined 64.85% to Rs 266.70 crore in Q4 March 2014 over last corresponding quarter.
Investors will now watch Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's testimony to lawmakers tomorrow, after the US central bank pressed ahead with reductions to its monthly bond-buying, while holding its short-term interest-rate target at near zero.
In Europe, a monthly meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England's (BoE) for monetary policy review is scheduled on Thursday, 8 May 2014.
The European Central Bank (ECB) will hold monetary policy meeting on Thursday, 8 May 2014, in Brussels, Belgium
