Indian shares edged higher in morning trades on Wednesday led by buying in rate-sensitive sectors such as banks, real-estate ahead of the Reserve Bank of India monetary policy next week amid hopes the central bank may cut interest rates to boost growth.
At 10AM, the Bombay Stock Exchange's 30-share index Sensex gained 53.6 points at 20,034.04 while the National Stock Exchange's 50-share Nifty rose 155 points and traded at 6,063.85.
In the results calendar, JSW Energy, Reliance Communications, Sun TV Network will declare its third quarter performances later today.
Globally, Asian shares also traded on a mixed note with Japanese shares trading lower as the yen strengthened a day after the Bank of Japan opted to hold off on new monetary stimulus until next year.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.17% to 23,618, Taiwan's Weighted index declined 0.2% to 7,744, Singapore's Straits Times inched up 0.37% to 3,231 while China's Shanghai Composite dropped 0.25% to 2,309 and Japan's Nikkei dropped 0.77% to 10,627.
Back home, banks, real-estate, metals, capital goods, consumer durables, health care indexes gained while FMCG, PSU, oil & gas indexes dropped on BSE.
Among key Sensex stocks, HDFC and HDFC bank gained 1%, SBI rose 0.2%, Maruti Suzuki and M&M gained 0.8% respectively, ITC up 0.9% while Hindalco and Sterlite Industries rose 0.8% on BSE.
Among losers, HUL fell 5%, Hero MotoCorp dropped 0.2%, Tata Motors shed 0.8% while NTPC was down 1% on BSE.
Hindustan Unilever Ltd, consumer goods company tanked over 5% today. A number of investment banks, including Credit Suisse and Nomura, cut their ratings on Hindustan Unilever Ltd, a day after the country's largest consumer goods maker disappointed investors with slower-than-expected volume growth and a hike in royalty payments.
The other notable movers include Oil India which is trading lower by over 2% or by Rs 13 at Rs 548 after shares of the state-owned oil exploration and production firm turned ex-dividend today.
The broader markets traded positive with mid-caps and small-caps up by 0.2-0.3% on BSE.
The market breadth was firm. Out of 1,707 stocks traded, 1,018 stocks advanced compared to 610 declines on BSE.
