The markets are having a sound look about them as we head into the last hour of trade. The Sensex is quoting at 19141, higher by 143 points and the Nifty is at 5742, up 45 points. The midcap index is at 7255, higher by 63 points and the smallcap index is at 9015, up 69 points. today. It may be recollected that the BSE benchmark had ended with gains of 147 points and the Nifty was up 42 points in the week gone by.
Meanwhile, the key benchmark indices in Hong Kong, Indonesia, China, and Taiwan were down by upto a percent each, while the South Korea, Singaporean and Japanese markets ended with gains of around a half a percent each.
SBI is in the limelight on the eve of RBI's Monetary Policy, zooming by 3.7% at Rs 3695. ONGC has gained 3% at Rs 1138, BHEL has added 2.7% at Rs 2278 and Tata Steel has added 2.6% at Rs 646. ICICI Bank rose 1.6% to Rs 1083 after net profit jumped 30.51% to Rs 1437.02 crore on a 8.78% rise in total income to Rs 8444.75 crore in Q3 December 2010 over Q3 December 2009.
On the other hand, Wipro is continuing its bad run after failing to meet market expectations in the third quarter; the IT major has slid by 2.3% at Rs 445. RIL has shed another 1.6% at Rs 970 to languish further below the 1000k mark on concerns about a slowdown in gas production from the KG-D6 field and RCom has lost 1.5% at Rs 134.
The market breadth is positive. Out of 2876 stocks traded on the BSE since this morning, there are 1665 advancing stocks as against 1104 declines.