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After a firm opening markets came off their early morning higs as investors booked profits at higher levels
At 9:40am the 30-share Sensex was up 86 points at 18,501 after touching a high of 18,595 and the 50-share Nifty was up 19 points at 5,578 after hitting a high of 5,611 so far.
According to technical experts, market outlook continues to remain bearish. The ideal strategy remains to sell on rise. The NSE index is likely to face considerable resistance around 5,600-5,650 levels.
Asian shares were trading with gains tracking overnight gains on Wall Street and growing optimism about the Chinese economy. The Nikkei and Hang Seng were up 0.8% each while Shanghai Composite and Straits Times were up 0.1-0.4% each.
Tata Motors was the top Sensex gainer after it's overseas subsidiary Jaguar Land Rover reported a robust 16% growth in global sales to 53,772 units in March 2013 compared with March 2012. For the first quarter of 2013 (Jan-Mar), sales grew 17% to 115,504 units compared to the same quarter in 2012.
In the banking segment, ICICI Bank was up 2.2% and HDFC Bank was up 1.2% amid short covering and value buying at lower levels after the recent correction.
Infosys was up 1.2% at Rs 2,847 ahead of its fourth quarter earnings which will be released tomorrow.
FMCG majors ITC and Hindustan Unilever which had corrected in the past few trading sessions rebounded in early trades and were up 0.5% each.
Mortgage lender HDFC was the top Sensex loser down 1.3% followed by Reliance Industries and Bharti Airtel.
Auto major Mahindra & Mahindra was down 1.2% on reports of strike by workers at its Igatpuri unit in Nasik, Maharashtra.
In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices were up 0.5% each.
Market breadth was positive with 692 gainers and 302 losers on the Bombay Stock Exchange.
