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Led by an uptick in IT shares key benchmarks remained in the green zone after coming off their day's high.
Market is expected to remain volatile ahead of February series F&O expiry on Wednesday as it will remain closed on Thursday. The rollover for Nifty and broader market is expected to be similar as that of January rollovers in percentage terms, say experts.
At 10:30AM, the 30-share BSE Sensex was up 68 points at 20,879 while the 50-unit NSE Nifty was trading at Nifty 6,207, up 21 points from its previous close.
Broader markets currently outperform the benchmarks as BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices are up between 0.3-0.5% against Sensex's 0.2% gain.
Infosys, ICICI Bank, TCS, HDFC Bank and HDFC are the top Sensex gainers at this hour.
BSE consumer durables and TECk indices are the top gainers among sectors. BSE Power index is down a whopping 5%, pulled down by NTPC after CERC order was found to be negative for the PSU power firm.
Extending its gains for the third day, the rupee today strengthened by 12 paise to 61.95 against the US dollar in early trade on the Interbank Foreign Exchange market on increased foreign fund inflows amid a higher opening in the domestic equity market.
Forex dealers said euro's gains against the US dollar in the overseas market also supported the rupee.
The domestic currency had gained five paise to close at 62.07 in yesterday's trade amid a rise in stock markets.
Asian stocks firmed up on Tuesday tracking overnight gains on Wall Street and the broader S&P 500 and tech laden Nasdaq hitting record highs. Nikkei topped the 15,000 level with Softbank Corp leading the gains.
The Nikkei was up 1.3%, Hang Seng was up 0.3%, Straits Times was up 0.1% while Shanghai Composite was trading with marginal losses down 0.1%.
NTPC tanked further 1.3% after the sharp sell off in the stock yesterday on concerns that the new norms by the electricity regulator CERC is seen negative for the PSU firm
Tata Power came under profit booking after yesterday's upmove on CERC order of giving compensation for the losses incurred in procuring expensive coal from Indonesia for its Mundra plant in Gujarat.
Gujarat Gas Company has rallied 9% to Rs 242 after its board approved the consolidation of city gas distribution business.
Kinetic Engg is up 2.4% after the company sold its remaining stake in Mahindra 2-wheeler business to private equity company Samena Capital for a consideration of about Rs 182 crore.
Cadila Healthcare is trading higher by 2% at Rs 1,019, extending its yesterday’s nearly 5% rally on the BSE, after the company said it has received the final approval from the US FDA to market Clonidine Hcl Injection 0.1 and 0.5 mg/ml, 10 ml.
