Markets near day highs

HDFC Bank and HDFC top Sensex gainers

Benchmark share indices were trading near their day highs in late morning trades led by financials, oil and gas shares.

At 11:30am the Sensex was up 94 points at 16,042 and the Nifty was up 27 points at 4,863. The Sensex has remained rangebound between a high of 16,064 and a low of 15,935 while the Nifty between 4,830 and 4,868.

Asian markets are trading mixed with the Nikkei and Straits Times trading marginally up while the Hang Seng was down 0.2% and Shanghai Composite was down 0.5% at 2,352.

Among the sectoral indices on the BSE, Oil & gas index was up 1.2% at 7,527 while Bankex and PSU indices were up marginally by 0.3% each. However, BSE realty index has slipped 1% at 1,537. Auto, Power, Consumer durables indices are among the top losers.

ONGC was the top Sensex gainer up 3.3% at Rs 251 as the subsidy burden on the company would get reduced after the government late Wednesday hiked petrol prices.

Among HDFC Group shares, mortgage lender HDFC was up 3% at Rs 655 and HDFC Bank was up 1.8% at Rs 496.

Bharti Airtel rebounded today after Wednesday's sharp fall and was up 1.6% at Rs 286. Mobile service providers had witnessed selling pressure ahead of the Telecom Commission meeting scheduled today to consider the TRAI's recommendation on auction of 2G spectrum.

Other Sensex gainers include, Reliance Industries, ITC, ICICI Bank and Infosys.

Meanwhile, auto shares witnessed profit booking on concerns that the petrol hike would further slowdown sales of petrol driven vehicles. The hike in petrol price will severely affect the sales of entry level cars, which are mainly petrol driven. This will also, result in inventory pile up of petrol vehicles as more and more consumers will opt for diesel vehicles, according to a PTI report. Maruti Suzuki, Bajaj Auto, Hero Motocorp and Tata Motors were down 0.1-1.9% each.

BSE market breadth was positive with 1,111 stocks advancing and 948 stocks declining.