Markets consolidated gains in early morning trades on Wednesday as investor's traded cautious on concerns over looming US 'fiscal-cliff' issue coupled with Futures and Option's expiry for December derivative contracts tomorrow.
At 10:15AM, the Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensex index rose 46.21 points and traded at 19,302.94 while the National Stock Exchange's Nifty-50 index gained 10 points at 5,865.95.
Asian markets traded with a positive bias on optimism of further monetary policy by Japanese central bank to support flagging growth in the world's third-biggest economy.
Japan’s new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, whose Liberal Democratic Party won a landslide victory in the December 16 election, is scheduled to appoint a cabinet today after the lower house names him premier. The new government has promised economic policies to boost growth.
China's Shanghai Composite fell 0.2% to 2,208, Singapore's Straits Times rose 0.3% to 3,179, Japan's Nikkei gained 0.3% to 12,115 while Taiwan Weighted traded up 0.1% to 7,641. Financial markets in Hong Kong and Australia are closed on Wednesday for public holiday.
The MSCI Asia Pacific index outside Japan rose 0.3% to 893.79.
Back home,.consumer goods, pharmaceuticals, metal, real-estate, banks indexes lead the gain while fast moving consumer goods and IT declined on BSE.
Among key Sensex stocks, Sterlite Industries and Jindal Steel gained nearly 1.5% while Hindalco Industries rose 0.3% in metal space. Among banks, SBI and ICICI rose 0.2 and 0.5% respectively. On the other hand, Tata Motors and Hero MotoCorp fell 0.3% and 1% while Wipro, Infosys declined 1% and 0.5% on BSE.
The other notable movers include, Credit Analysis and Research Limited (CARE) which is trading at Rs 925, a 23% premium against its issue price of Rs 750 per share in the pre-open bidding on the National Stock Exchange (NSE).
Binani Industries has surged 10% to Rs 144 in opening deals after its Board gave an in-principle approval to divest its holding in subsidiary firm Binani Cement by up to 40%.
Essar Ports is trading higher by 4% at Rs 98.30, extending its Monday’s over 2% gain after the company announced the commissioning of its 16 million metric tonnes per annum (MMTPA) dry bulk terminal at Paradip in Odisha, taking the aggregate handling capacity of the company to 104 MMTPA.
The BSE mid-cap and small-cap gained nearly 0.5%.
The overall breadth is strong as 1,136 stocks advanced while 700 stocks declined on the BSE.
