Markets ended with marginal gains on Tuesday, amid the ongoing debate on foreign direct investment in retail, led by index heavyweight Reliance Industries.
The 30-share Sensex provisionally ended up 37 points at 19,342 and the 50-share Nifty ended up 14 points at 5,885.
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(Updated at 14:30hrs)
Markets were trading with marginal gains in late noon trades on Tuesday led by index heavyweight Reliance Industries.
At 2:30PM, the 30-share Sensex was up 35 points at 19,340 and the 50-share Nifty was up 11 points at 5,882.
In Asia, Shanghai Composite and Hang Seng have gained 0.2-0.8% each. However, most other indices slipped lower as some weak global manufacturing data contrasted with earlier numbers showing improvement at Chinese factories. Nikkei, Straits and Kospi were down 0.2-0.3% each.
Stocks in Europe were trading mixed with FTSE-100 and DAX marginally down while CAC-40 was up 0.4% on the back of discouraging US economic data.
The sectoral indices on the BSE were led by Oil & Gas Index followed by healthcare and realty. However, Auto, IT and Capital Goods and COnsumer Durables were the top losers on profit taking after recent gains.
Index heavyweight- Reliance Industries was up 2.1% at Rs 821 on reports that the oil ministry may approve the company’s investment plans for the KG-D6 block. State-owned ONGC was up 1.4%.
In the banking pack, ICICI Bank was up 1.2% and SBI gained 1.4%.
However, Mahindra & Mahindra has slipped 1% at Rs 945. Bharti Airtel, TCS and Wipro are down 1% each. Among other losers are ITC, Larsen & Toubro and Sterlite Industries.
In the broader market, Jet Airways (India) slipped 9% to Rs 505 on profit taking after the stock rallied 61% in past three-weeks on speculation of 24% stake sale to Etihad Airways.
United Breweries has rallied over 13% to Rs 950, also its record high on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on back of heavy volumes.The stock has rallied over 19% in past two trading sessions from Rs 796 after the company included in the MSCI India index from November 30, 2012. An addition into the index leads to inflows from passively managed funds.