 "Markets gain marginally as heavyweights rise in noon deals")
____________________
(Updated at 1428 hrs)
Markets have marginally moved into the green in the noon deals on the back of gains in Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank and Hindustan Unilever. At 1415 hrs, the Sensex was up 11 points at 19,496 and the Nifty was flat with a positive bias at 5,907.
In broader markets, the smallcap index continues to languish in the red, down 0.2% while the midcap index was flat with a positive bias.
Equity trading volume was lower than average with markets in Japan, China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia closed for public holidays.
Meanwhile, European markets were largely in the green ahead of the finance chiefs meeting in Brussels today to discuss aid to Cyprus and Greece as a tightening election contest in Italy and corruption allegations in Spain disrupt market calm. CAC and FTSE was up 0.3% and 0.1% respectively while DAX was down 0.1%.
From the sectoral indices, FMCG, IT and Capital Goods continued to remain in the negative, losing 0.1-0.5% in the noon deals. On the other hand, Realty, Health Care, Consumer Durables, Metal, Power and Bankex indices gained between 0.3-1%.
The movers among the Sensex stocks were Cipla, Dr Reddys Lab, Sterlite, Hindustan Unilever, Hindalco and Tata Motors up 2% each. HDFC Bank and Reliance Industries up 1% each were other major gainers.
ONGC, Maruti Suzuki, Hero MotoCorp, L&T and Bharti Airtel down 1-1.5% were the major losers. The other notable names in the red were ITC, ICICI Bank, TCS and NTPC down 0.4-0.7%.
Shares of select PSU companies having government holding more than 75% rallied up to 15% on back of heavy volumes after offer-for-sales of Oil India and NTPC got strong response from the overseas investors.
MMTC surged 18%, State Trading Corporation of India soared 16%, Hindustan Copper, HMT, National Fertilisers, RCF and Dredging Corporation of India were trading higher by 3-12%.
Among other stocks, Cochin Minerals and Rutile was locked in lower circuit of 20% at Rs 230 after its net profit for the quarter ended December 31, 2012 almost halved to Rs 9.55 crore due to lower operational income and higher raw material cost.
SKS Microfinance was locked in upper circuit of 10% at Rs 146 after the company said it concluded two highest rated microfinance securitization transactions aggregating to Rs 390 crore.
Gillette India tanked 5% to Rs 2,140 after the company said it is taking steps to increase its public shareholding to 25%, as directed by the market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India.
Cadila Healthcare dipped 5% to Rs 751, extending its previous day’s 3% fall, on reported 31% year-on-year drop in consolidated net profit at Rs 103 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2012 due to higher tax outgo and raw material cost.
Hexaware Technologies was trading higher by 3% to Rs 84 after IT consulting and software firm reported a better-than-expected consolidated net profit of Rs 66 crore against an average analyst estimates of Rs 61 crore for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2012.
The market breadth was positive on the BSE. 1236 stocks advanced while 1447 stocks declined.