Markets end tad higher led by Infosys

Infosys, Wipro, TCS among top Sensex gainers

Markets ended higher on Thursday, amid a volatile trading session, led by gains in software shares.

The 30-share Sensex provisionally ended up 41 points at 17,355 and the 50-share Nifty ended up 13 points at 5,238.

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(Updated at 14:20hrs)

Benchmark Indices are trading at day highs tracking positive Europe markets, with technology, banking and financial shares leading the upmove.

At 2:20 pm, the 30-share Sensex was up 98 points at 17,411 and the 50-share Nifty gained 30 points at 5,256. The Sensex and the Nifty reached an intra-day high of 17,416 mark and 5,258 levels, respectively.   

On the global front, European stocks edged higher and the euro hovered near an eight-week high on Thursday on expectations the European Central Bank will unveil new tactics to cut high borrowing costs for indebted euro zone states at a policy meeting later in the day. CAC, DAX and FTSE have surged by almost 1% each.

Japan's Nikkei average fell to a near five-week closing low on Wednesday as soft U.S. manufacturing data and construction spending added to concerns about a global economic slowdown.

Back home, surpassing all previous records, gold today hit a new record high of Rs 32,758 per 10 grams in futures trade as participants built up huge speculative positions, tracking a firming trend overseas.

The rupee erased early gains today and fell 11 paise to 56.02 a dollar on fresh demand for the American currency from banks and importers amid capital outflows from foreign funds.

On the sectoral front, BSE IT and TECk indices have surmounted between 2-3% followed by counters like Banks, Metal, Realty, PSU and Auto, all gaining by almost 1% each. However, BSE FMCG index has slipped over 1%.

From the IT space, Wipro, Infosys and TCS have spurted between 1-4%. Infosys is trading higher by over 3% on reports that India's second-biggest software services provider is open to bigger deals given the right opportunity.

“Infosys is looking to ramp up its business in France and Germany, where it would consider buying local operators, and in the healthcare and life sciences industries, where it is a small player,” the Reuters report suggests quoting V Balakrishnan, chief financial officer of Infosys.

Banking and financial shares like ICICI Bank, SBI and HDFC have gained between 0.5-2%.

Metals shares like JSPL, Hindalco, Sterlite, Tata Steel and Coal India have increased between 0.1-3%. Five coal blocks with an estimated reserve of 3,155 million tonnes (MT) out of 25 cancelled so far have been re-allocated to Coal India, JSPL and a consortium of public and private players, the government said today.

Other notable gainers include NTPC, Maruti Suzuki, GAIL, Tata Motors, ONGC and Tata Power.

On the losing side, shares in India's biggest cigarette maker ITC fell as much as 2.7% on concerns that anti-tobacco marketing laws globally might be emulated in India as well, dealers say.

Among other shares, Tinplate Company of India has soared 13% to Rs 56.25 after its promoter Tata Steel acquired additional 14% stake of the company for Rs 87.92 crore through open offer.

Neyveli Lignite Corporation is trading higher buy 2.14% at Rs 78.60 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) after the company said it is planning to increase its raw lignite sales to over 1 million tonnes.

The broader indices are performing in line with the benchmarks – BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices are up 0.3-1%.

The market breadth remains positive with 1,466 advancing and 1,161 shares declining.