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Markets firmed up in late trades on Tuesday and the Sensex regained the 20,000 for a brief moment led by HDFC and L&T.
At 2:15PM, the 30-share Sensex was up 84 points at 19,985 and the 50-share Nifty was up 25 points at 5,915.
The rupee was marginally up at Rs 62.53 to the dollar compared with previous close of Rs 62.60 due to dollar sale by custodian banks.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold Rs 80.57 crore worth Indian shares on Monday, snapping their five-day buying streak, exchange data shows.
In Asia, most markets were trading lower with Hang Seng and Shanghai Composite down over 0.6% each while Nikkei and Straits Times were marginally down.
European markets opened with marginal gains ahead of survey of German business confidence and US housing data. CAC-40, DAX and FTSE-100 up 0.1-0.4% each.
Auto index was the top gainer among the sectoral indices on the BSE up 1.2% followed by Capital Goods, Power, Consumer Durables. However, Metal, IT and FMCG were among the top losers.
HDFC and L&T were among the top Sensex gainers on shortcovering after losses in the previous two sessions. HDFC was up 2.6% while L&T was up 1.7%.
In the auto segment gainers include, Bajaj Auto, Tata Motors and Mah & Mah.
IT majors were among the top losers after the rupee firmed up against the dollar. TCS, Infosys and Wipro were down 0.3-1.7% each.
Bharti Airtel was down 1.3%. Despite easing competition in the Indian wireless market, Bharti’s revenue market share trends continue to be choppy. This may continue as its established peers (Voda, Idea) continue to expand in their newer markets. In Africa, Bharti faces slowing markets and keen competition, which are eroding realizations. Regulatory interventions and political disturbances have worsened matters, Anand Rathi Financial Services said in a note. ITC was down 0.4%.
Among other shares, PI Industries was trading higher by 3% at Rs 148, extending its 11% rally in past six trading sessions after the company increased the limit on the stake that foreign institutional investors (FIIs) can hold in the company to 40% from 24% of the paid up capital.
The BSE Mid-cap index and the BSE Small-cap index were trading with marginal gains.
Market breadth was nearly neutral with 1,075 losers and 1,024 gainers on the BSE.
