Markets end higher led by banks

Realty, banks, auto among key gainers

Markets ended near the day's high on the back of buying in bank shares on hopes that demand for credit from the retail segment would pick up ahead of the festival season. The BSE benchmark index ended up 181 points at 18,792. Nifty is up 58 points at 5,719.

The Asian markets are trading higher as a slew of Chinese data pointed to stabilisation in the world's second largest economy, and positive US housing data helped ease worries about a sharper slowdown in global growth. Nikkei jumped 2% to 8,982 driven by US markets and a fall in the yen. Shanghai Composite surged 1.2%, followed by Hang Seng and Straits Times.

The rupee declined to 53.10 against the dollar in early trade today at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market on increased demand for the American currency from importers.

Broader markets gained in line with the benchmark. The BSE mid-cap index added 1% at 6,707 while small-cap index was up 0.8% at 7,193.

BSE realty index gained 2.5% to 1,857 in afternoon trades. Bankex, auto, consumer durables and power were also in the green. Meanwhile, selling pressure can be seen in pharma shares, with the BSE healthcare index dropping 0.3% at 7,557.

Bharti Airtel shed 1.6% at Rs 266. In a major setback to incumbent telecom operators Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular, BSNL and MTNL, the Telecom Commission decided all spectrum given to operators in the 900-MHz band would be refarmed to the 1,800-MHz band at the time of renewal of licences, beginning 2014.

Tata Motors said it will launch six new products in the next one year. Launching a new version of its sports utility vehicle Safari Storme the company said that while its focus will be on the volumes segment, it will also continue to introduce new products in the fast growing SUV market. Tata Motors was up 2% at Rs 270.

On auto shares, Mudit Goyal, technical analyst, SMC Global said, "MARUTI has formed the “Bull Flag” pattern on daily chart which is considered to be bullish and suggest the upside target of 1460-1500. TATAMOTORS short term and medium term bias remains positive for the stock so one can make long for the upside target of 300-310. M&M is also looking very attractive on charts so one can also initiate long for the target of 870-900."

Wipro was the biggest loser - down 2% at Rs 346. Sun Pharma and Gail slipped marginally. On the other hand, Tata Power led the gainers list - up 3% at Rs 107. Banking shares buoyed markets - with ICICI Bank and SBI accounting for a 40 points rally on the Sensex. Other gainers include - ITC, Reliance, Hindalco, TCS and Maruti Suzuki.

Among the individual stocks, Hathway Cable and Datacom surged 3.3% to Rs 243 on over five-fold jump in trading volumes. Around 3,75,000 shares changed hands on the counter today against an average sub 41,000 shares that were traded daily in past two weeks on the BSE.

Agro Tech Foods rallied over 4.5% to Rs 433 after reporting 16% year-on-year (yoy) jump in standalone net profit at Rs 9.24 crore for the second quarter ended September 2012.

ACC dropped 0.5% at Rs 1,40 falling by over 3% from intra-day high after reporting a lower-than-expected a net profit of Rs 242 crore for the third quarter ended September 2012 (Q3) due to higher tax outgo. Analysts on an average had expected profit of Rs 280 crore from cement maker.

The market breadth was positive with 1728 shares advancing and 1124 shares declining.