After having opened weak, markets staged a recovery and are surging in late-morning deals. The bourses have been witnessing volatile trades with investors awaiting the outcome of UP state election results due later today. The BSE Sensex is at 17,642, up 279 points and the Nifty is at 5,358, up 78 points.
Earlier in the day, the BSE benchmark index touched the day's low at 17,185 and the day's high at 17,692.
The gains were led by Infosys along with financial and capital goods shares. Infosys and SBI accounted for a 65-point gain on the Sensex.
Meanwhile, Asian shares and growth-linked currencies are under pressure today as slowing economies in China and Europe and tension over Iran dampened sentiment, prompting investors to take profits from recent rallies that had been driven by ample liquidity. Hang Seng, Nikkei, Shanghai and Strait Times have declined by almost 1-2% each.
Back home, all the sectoral indices are in the green. BSE Realty, Capital Goods, Consumer Durables and Bankex indices are leading the gains, up 3-4% each.
Banking shares are in focus on the bourses at early trades on hopes of another reduction in the cash reserve ratio (CRR) by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to ease the severe liquidity in the system.
The RBI, which is scheduled to announce its mid-quarter monetary policy on March 15, had slashed the CRR by 50 basis points to 5.5% to free primary liquidity worth Rs 32,000 crore. CRR is the portion of deposits that banks keep with RBI.
Among individual stocks, Yes Bank, Bank of India, Axis Bank, Union Bank of India and Federal Bank, up 4% each, are the notable gainers.
From the Capital Goods space, BHEL, Punj Lloyd, L&T, up 3-4% each, are the notable gainers.
DLF has moved up 6% at Rs 203 and is the top gainer on the Sensex. Other prominent gainers include BHEL, SBI, Larsen & Toubro and Jindal Steel, up 2-4% each. Cipla, down marginally, is the only loser from the pack.
Among individual stocks, Subex Limited has spurted 7% at Rs 31.70 after the company said it has won another multi-million dollar revenue operations centre (ROC) for fraud management and revenue assurance solutions from a leading Middle Eastern mobile operator. “The company has been selected to provide its industry leading ROC fraud management and revenue assurance solutions to the leading Middle Eastern mobile operator. This is the sixth multiple ROC solutions win for the company in the Middle East,” Subex said in a filing to the stock exchanges.
Reliance Communications has gained 1.3% at Rs 97.9 over reports that the company, in a consortium led by IT firm HCL Infosystems, is believed to have bagged the Rs 300 crore contract from that the Unique Identification Authority of India for the government's national identity card programme, Aadhaar.
The overall market breadth is positive as 1,423 stocks have advanced against 765 declining ones, on the BSE.
