Markets come off day highs on profit taking

Technology shares tumble on profit booking

Markets have come off their day highs in late morning trades on Wednesday as investors remained cautious and booked profits at higher levels ahead of the Economic Survey to be tabled in Parliament today.

At 11:40, the Sensex was up 60 points at 19,075 after touching an intra-day high of 19,137 and the Nifty was up 14 points at 5,775 levels after touching a high of 5,796 so far.

Asian markets rebounded on Wednesday after encouraging data from the US and the Federal Reserve's assurance to continue with monetary stimulus measures. However, investors remained cautious after Italy's hung parliament in the general elections could hinder reforms in the euro zone and drive up borrowing costs.

Most Asian indices were trading marginally higher except for Japan's Nikkei which was up 0.9%. Strait Times, Hang Seng, Taiwan, Kospi and Shanghai gained between 0.02-0.30% each.

The rupee appreciated by 19 paise to Rs 53.90 against the dollar in early trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (forex) market today on selling of the US currency by exporters.

Among the sectoral indices on the BSE, Capital Goods was the top gainer up 1.3% followed by
FMCG, Oil & Gas indces. IT index was the top loser down 0.9% follwed by Auto and Healthcare indices.

Sensex gains were led by index heavyweights ITC, Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel, HDFC, Hindustan Unilever, SBI and BHEL.

Bharti Airtel was up 3% after two foreign brokerages upgraded the stock. Morgan Stanley raised its rating on Bharti Airtel Ltd to "overweight" from "equalweight," citing positive factors for the sector such as rising tariffs and data volumes, falling capital spending and eased competitive intensity.

Morgan Stanley said the "failure" of the recent 900 Mhz auction also lowered regulatory risk for India's mobile sector, and upgraded Idea Cellular Ltd as part of the same report dated Wednesday.

Nomura also raised its rating on Bharti, but to "neutral" from "reduce", citing a recent share price drop. Nomura said it remained "relatively cautious" on the sector given high valuations, regulatory "drama", and a "low" degree of confidence in earnings.

Technology shares were down on profit taking after they gained on Tuesday despite the sharp fall wherein markets fell to their three-month lows. Infosys was down 1.5% while TCS slipped 0.7%.

The broader markets were marginally down with the BSE Mid-cap index down 0.1% and Small-Cap index down 0.4%. The market breadth on BSE was weak with 1,373 shares declining and 946 shares advancing.