Thursday, the Indian market is trading higher after remaining shut for trading on Tuesday and Wednesday. However, the market has pared some of its gains on profit taking due to the weakness in the other Asian markets and caution ahead of the release of industrial output data for January later in the day.
After opening higher at 8,275, the BSE Sensex rose to a high of 8,376 before paring some of its gains. The index is now trading at 8,293, up 133 points or 1.62%, while the S&P CNX Nifty is trading at 2,609, up 1.39%.
On the BSE, second-line stocks are also rising, but the corresponding indexes are underperforming the benchmarks. The broad-based BSE 500 index is rising 1.28%, while the small-cap and the mid-cap indexes are moving up around 0.60% each. The market breadth is positive, with 852 gainers compared to 588 stocks that are declining. The Sensex futures are trading at a premium of 52 points to the benchmark.
Stocks across the sectors are trading mostly higher. IT, FMCG, oil/gas and banking stocks are leading the bounce- back.
Among the major gainers, ICICI Bank is gaining 4.22%, Sterlite Industries is adding 3.62%, Infosys is moving up 3.03%, Tata Motors is up 2.89%, ITC is advancing 2.88% and Reliance Industries is up 2.55%.
Hindustan Unilever, Wipro, Hindalco Industries, Reliance Communication, Jaiprakash Associates, Maruti Suzuki, Larsen & Toubro, Tata Steel and ONGC are the other major gainers.
However, Bharti Airtel is losing 3.36% and Tata Power is moving down 2.03%.
Tata Steel is rising 2.04% on reports that its UK-subsidiary Corus has cut production by 35-40 percent and that it could save $831 million from Corus operations by March as envisaged. Gujarat NRE Coke is gaining 1.77% after it issued non-convertible debentures worth Rs.500 million to Axis Bank.
Satyam Computers is adding 3.79% on reports that global IT firms Hewlett-Packard and Computer Sciences Corporation are evaluating the possibility of acquiring a majority stake in Satyam. Prospective investors or bidders for the company will have to register their Expression of Interest (EOI) in participating in the bidding by Thursday evening.
Subex is trading flat after it signed a reseller agreement with JSC 'Company TransTeleKom (???), one of Russia's top three fixed network providers, to help Russian operators optimize business. IDBI Bank is up 0.84% following reports that it will hire 2,000 supervisory officers in the next 6 months to support the expansion of its branch network.
