Markets recover in noon deals as heavyweights gain

ONGC, Infosys and Hindustan Unilever were the top movers

Markets have edged into the positive territory in the noon deals on account of buying in heavyweights like ONGC, Infosys and Hindustan Unilever. At 1415 hrs, the Sensex was up 14 points at 19,515 and the Nifty was marginally up four points at 5,903.

The broader markets continue to outperform with both the midcap and the smallcap indices gaining 0.5% each.

In Asia, Japan's Nikkei share average edged down on Tuesday as Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso played down talk of foreign bond buying by the central bank. The Nikkei dropped 0.3% to close at 11,372. The other major losers were Shanghai Composite, Hang Seng down 1% each.

Among the sectoral indices, Metal and Capital Goods were the only indices to trade in the neagtive, down 0.2% each.  On the positive side, Realty, Health Care, Power, IT and PSU indices were up 0.5-1%.

The top gainers among the Sensex stocks were ONGC, Cipla, NTPC and Hindustan Unilever up 1-2.7%. The other notable gainers were BHEL, Infosys, Wipro, Dr Reddys Lab and Sterlite up 0.6-0.9%.

Among the major losers were Bharti Airtel, Gail India, Hero MotoCorp, Coal India and Jindal Steel down 1-2%. Among the other heavyweights in the negative were Reliance Industries, L&T, ITC and HDFC down 0.3-0.7%.

The market breadth was positive on the BSE. 1423 stocks advanced while 1269 stocks declined.