Firm trades continue

Auto shares drop while banks shine

Markets continued to trade in the green with the Sensex gaining 79 points to 16,985. Nifty is up 27 points at 5,147. Analysts expect markets to be volatile this week as traders roll over their positions for the June series this Thursday.

"Rollover in Nifty are inline with 3-month average are more skewed towards longs; same is the scenario in most of the front-line counters such as Reliance and Hindalco which are particularly showing signs of long rollovers," said Shshank Mehta, Derivatives Strategist, Shah Investor's Home Ltd.

Meanwhile, in Asia, bourses gained with the Nikkei finally snapping three-days of losses. The Japanese market edged up 0.7% to 8,730. Hang Seng was up 1% at 19,174.

BSE power index is leading the gains and is up 1.2% at 1,914. IT, metal and bankex have advanced around 1% each. However, auto stocks are weak this afternoon and the index has slipped 0.4% to 9,279.

Tata Motors has slipped 1.2% to Rs 243. Mahindra & Mahindra, Hero MotorCorp and Bajaj Auto have also shown weakness are trading in the red.

ONGC is down 0.7% at Rs 275. Market heavyweight - Reliance has slipped 0.4% to Rs 721 after BNP Paribas downgraded the stock.

Meanwhile, Tata Power has added 2.3% to Rs 98. Hindalco and Tata Steel have added 1.5% each. ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank are the top movers and account for a 33 point gain on the Sensex. IT shares - TCS and Infosys have advanced over 1% each on upbeat housing data from US. US is the biggest market for IT service providers.

Reliance Infrastructure has added 2.2% to Rs 546. Tata Power has moved up 2.3% to Rs 97.70 after the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission approved a steep tariff hike for power distributed by these utilities in the national capital.

BSE market breadth was positive. Out of 2,595 shares traded, 1,446 shares advanced while 1,012 shares declined.