Markets continued to trade in the positive zone albeit off the day's highs. The Sensex was up 20 points at 18,733. Nifty traded higher by six points at 5,693.
Meanwhile, the Asian markets are trading higher. The Hang Seng has advanced 64 points to 21,212, Shanghai Composite was up 11 points at 2,110 and Japan's Nikkei was up 108 points at 8,686 as index heavyweight Softbank Corp rallied after the company confirmed a $20 billion acquisition of a U.S. competitor with a loan from four banks that also benefited from the news.
The rupee today rose by 14 paise to 52.87 against the dollar in early trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange, supported by selling of the American currency by exporters and banks.
Most of the sectoral indices are in the green with BSE realty index leading the rally. The index is up 0.7% at 1,892. IT, consumer durables and FMCG indices are also up marginally. Weakness can be noticed in oil & gas, auto and metal shares.
Back home, index heavyweight Reliance Industries is down 0.3% at Rs 820 after the company on Monday reported a 5.7% decline in its second quarter net profit but met street estimates on improved refining margins and higher treasury gains.
From the private banking space, Axis bank is up 2.7% at Rs 1149 after the bank reported 22% increase in net profit at Rs 1,123.54 crore for the second quarter ended September 30 on the back of lower expenses.
Tata Motors is the top loser from the heavyweight space. The stock has slipped 2% at Rs 264 after it reported weaker than expected Jaguar-Land Rover sales numbers.
On the other hand, Maruti Suzuki added 1.2% at Rs 1355. Bharti Airtel, HDFC, TCS and Tata Power managed to hold on to gains.
BHEL has set up a facility at its Electronics Systems Division here in collaboration with the country's space research nodal body ISRO for assembling and testing space grade solar panels using high efficiency solar cells. Shares of BHEL are down 0.5% at Rs 248.
Engineering and construction company KEC International has bagged orders worth Rs 868 crore in different verticals, including telecom and transmission. Shares of KEC are up 1.3% at Rs 69.75. Unity Infraprojects has jumped 1% at Rs 48.75 after the company received orders worth Rs 315.8 crore.
BSE market breadth is positive. Out of 2,425 stocks traded, 1,365 shares have advanced while 963 shares have delcined in trades.
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