Markets continue trade with marginal gains

Investors adopt cautious approach ahead of RBI policy

Markets continue to trade with marginal gains in late morning trades on Monday as investors are adopting wait-and-watch stance ahead of the central bank's policy review on Tuesday.

At 11:30PM, the Sensex was up 60 points at 18,685 and the Nifty was up 17 points at 5,681.

Stocks in Asia erased early gains as investors booked profit on concerns of economic growth and poor earnings from global corporations. The Shanghai Composite was down 0.5%, Hang Seng slipped 0.3%, Straits Times was down 0.7% and Nikkei was marginally down.

Among the sectoral indices on the BSE, Oil and gas, realty and auto were the top gainers.

 

In the oil and gas segment Reliance Industries was up 1.9% at Rs 814 while ONGC was up 0.7%.

In the auto segment Mah & Mah was up 1.8% at Rs 895 after the auto major posted better-than-expected second quarter earnings. Other gainers include Hero MotoCorp and Bajaj Auto.

In the financials space, SBI  and HDFC Bank were trading with gains of 0.5-0.7% each.

Among other shares, JSW Steel has moved higher by 2% at Rs 748 after reporting a 547% year-on-year jump in standalone net profit at Rs 822 crore in September 2012 mainly on higher volumes and rupee appreciation impact. The company had a profit of Rs 127 crore in a year ago quarter. Net sales grew by 16% to Rs 8,834 crore during the quarter ended September against Rs 7,625 crore in the year-ago period.

United Breweries has rallied up to 20% at Rs 882, also its record high, on back of heavy volumes. The stock has bounced back more than 27% from intra-day low of Rs 692 touched in opening deals on the National Stock Exchange.

In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices with marginal gains of 0.3% each.

Market breadth was positive with 1,319 gainers and 1,112 losers on the BSE.