Firm trades continue

Realty and auto shares surge

Markets continued to trade firm in late morning deals with the Sensex gaining 59 points to 19,801. Nifty is up 12 points at 6,014. Global markets rose, shrugging off cues from US Peers. Trading was, however, cautious ahead of the Oct-Dec earnings starting this Friday.

In Asia, markets went up as earnings season got off to a positive start in the US, with US aluminum major Alcoa Inc.'s Q4 December 2012 sales surpassing market expectations. Nikkei added 1% to 10,613.Hang Sneg, Straits Times and Taiwan Weighted also traded in the positive zone.

BSE autp index surged 1.6% to 11836. Realty, healthcare and oil & gas indices added around 1% each. On the other hand, BSE FMCG index saw some selling pressure and was down 0.3% at 5,866.

Buying was witnessed in index heavy-weights such as Reliance Industries along with Tata Motors after Credit Suisse and CLSA upgraded their ratings on the car-maker. Reliance added 0.7% at Rs 856. Tata Motors was the biggest gainer among Sensex stocks- up 4.7% at Rs 329. Together they contributed 45 points to the Sensex's upmove.

Bharti Airtel, GAIL, Cipla and Mahindra & Mahindra alsow ent up. Cipla touched its record high of Rs 435 this morning.

On the other hand, Tata Steel shed 1.2% at Rs 428. HDFC abd ITC slipped 1% each. BHEL, Wipro and TCS were also in the red.

Havells India jumpedover 4% at Rs 676 on the back of nearly four-fold jump in trading volumes. The stock opened at Rs 656 and hit new high of Rs 681. EPC Industries has rallied 8% to Rs 164, extending its previous day’s 10% surge after the company said that Reliance Net has acquired more than 5% stake in the company via open market transaction on Tuesday.

BSE market breadth was positive. Out of 2572 stocks traded, 1,547 stocks advanced while 899 stocks delcined in trades.