Markets on a firm footing

Hindalco, BHEL and State Bank of India among the top Sensex gainers

Markets continue to trade on a firm note in the morning deals. The Sensex is up 107 points at 16,098 and the S&P CNX Nifty has advanced 39 points to 4,887 levels.

Accordiing to Kunal Bothra, Technical Analyst with LKP Securities, "Its a good start to the week. Support at 4,770 is extremely crucial for the market and resistance is placed at 4,950 and then at 5,040 levels."
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(Updated at 9.20 AM)

The markets have opened higher in trades today tracking firm global cues. The Sensex opened at 16,079 up 91 points and the S&P CNX Nifty opened higher by 30 points at 4,878 levels.

Meanwhile, according to technical analysts Nifty has an important support at 4,815 on the downside. While, on the upside it has resistance at 4,880-4,905 levels.

Overnight, the US stocks ended flat after recent sharp losses, though worries about the European debt crisis and weaker US data kept investors wary of equities.

The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 17 points, or 0.14%, to 12,101. S&P 500 Index ended unchanged at 1,278 and Nasdaq Composite Index rose 12 points to close at 2,760.

The Asian markets are also trading on a firm note with stocks holding a touch above 2012 lows, as investors looked to European policymakers and the wider G7 to take decisive action to address the worsening euro zone crisis.

The Nikkei was up 0.6% at 8,345, Hang Seng advanced 0.7% to 18,313 levels and the Shanghai Composite was trading marginally in the red at 2,306 levels.

Back home, Sterlite Industries is the to[p gainer among the Sensex stocks, up nearly 2% at Rs 91. Hindalco, State Bank of India, BHEL, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, reliance Industries, TCS, Larsen & Toubro, Jindal Steel and Tata Steel have also opened higher by 0.7-1.4% each. On the other hand, DLF, ITC, ONGC, Tata Motors and Bajaj Auto are among the notable losers in the opening trades.

Among the individual stocks, Hero MotoCorp has opened higher by over 1% at Rs 2,069 after the country’s largest two-wheeler manufacturer, on Monday announced an investment of Rs 2,575 crore to set up, among other things, two more manufacturing units to the existing three factories.

These two new ones are to be in Gujarat and Rajasthan. Also, an integrated research and development centre (R&D) is to be made operational by the middle of 2013-14.

All the sectoral indices have opened higher. The BSE banking index- bankex is the top sectoral gainer, up 1% or 114 points at 10,916. Metal, power, capital goods, PSU, oil & gas, IT, auto and healthcare indices are also up 0.3-0.9% each.

The broader markets are in line with the benchmark indices. The BSE mid-cap index is up 45 points at 5,855 and the small-cap index is at 6,212, up 32 points.

The overall breadth is positive as 833 stocks are advancing while 311 are declining.