The markets have gained in confidence in the past one hour. The indices were subdued at opening bell in the absence of any clear cues from the global front, but have picked up pace from thereon and have in the process, put behind a three-day losing streak. The Sensex is quoting at 17502, higher by 61 points and the Nifty is at 5249, up 13 points. The midcap index is at 7172, higher by 33 points and the smallcap index is at 9179, up 46 points.
The leading gainers on the Sensex are TCS (strengthened by 1.1% at Rs 748), Wipro (gained 0.8% at Rs 392) and Tata Power (added 0.7% at Rs 1313). Jindal Steel, Infosys and Cipla are the other significant gainers. And index heavyweight RIL has added 0.4% at Rs 1072.
Among the major Sensex losers, RCom has weakened by 1.8% at Rs 182, Hero Honda has shed 0.2% at Rs 2016 and DLF has lost 0.1% at Rs 280.
RNRL has lost another 1.3% at Rs 45. The stock had shed more than a quarter of its value in the previous trading session as the merger deal with Reliance Power valued RNRL at a steep discount to its market capitalisation. And Reliance Power is seeing profit-booking after gaining around 3% on Monday. The stock has weakened by 1.1% at Rs 179 on the BSE.
Banks have continued from where they left on the previous day. Banking stocks had rebounded from their lows on Monday on hopes that a fast-growing economy will eventually boost the demand for loans and thereby negate the impact of the interest rate hike. And the banking counters are again in the positive this morning. State Bank of India has gained 0.2% at Rs 2,278, HDFC Bank has added 0.1% to Rs 1916 and ICICI Bank has risen by 0.3% at Rs 844.
The market breadth is positive. Out of 2262 stocks traded on the BSE, there are 1439 advancing stocks as against 739 declines.