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Markets continued to trade firm this morning with the Sensex gaining 119 points at 18,854. Nifty is up 39 points at 5,690. The index is likely to turn volatile in the next two days as traders roll over positions in the derivatives sections on Thursday.
In Asia this morning, the Nikkei has gained 2% at 12,592 as the yen fell against other major currencies amid abating concerns over a Cypriot bailout deal. Hang Seng, Kospi and Taiwan Weighted are up 0.7-1.3% each.
Cyprus will get the first tranche of a 10 billion euro international bailout in early May after all formalities are finished in April, Klaus Regling, the head of the euro zone bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism, said on Tuesday.
The rupee appreciated by 24 paise to 54.09 against the US dollar in early trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange today on sustained selling of the American currency by exporters and banks and increased capital inflows.
Back home, BSE Realty index has surged 3% to 1,830. Consumer Durable, Oil & Gas and PSU indices have spurted by nearly 2% each followed by counters like Power, Banks, Metal and Capital Goods, all gaining by 1% each. Apart from IT and FMCG, all the major BSE sectoral indices are trading in green zone.
ONGC has soared 4.5% at Rs 309. Shares of state-owned oil marking companies (OMC), including refineries stocks have rallied up to 5% in morning deals after the public sector oil retailers increased diesel retail prices by 45 paise a litre from Saturday.
Jindal Steel, NTPC, HDFC and Sterlite are up 1.5-2.5% each. Among other key movers are SBI, ICICI Bank and Reliance. However, Bharti Airtel, Infosys and Hero MotoCorp are down in trades.
In individual stocks, Aarti Drugs is locked in lower circuit of 10% at Rs 167 on BSE with no buyers on the counter after the pharmaceutical company said an accident has occurred at the company’s factory unit situated at Tarapur, Thane on March 22, 2013.
Cairn India is trading higher by 2% at Rs 283 after the oil exploration and production firm said that it has commenced commercial sale of gas from its Barmer basin in Rajasthan.
