Markets notched gains in the morning session on back of firm Asian markets and surge in metal and capital goods shares. The Sensex climbed 188 points, at 18,410 and the Nifty was up 50 points, at 5512.
Political worries eased as The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) put off its plan to resign six ministers from the ministerial posts till Tuesday. Also, Crude oil surged to 29 month high of $118/bbl, but pared most of the gains. The Brent crude was trading at $114.46/bbl.
US markets ended in the red as investors continued to fret over the potential impact of rising crude prices as political turmoil in Libya escalated. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.7%, the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index shed 0.8%, and the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite dipped 1.4%.
Asian markets ignored weak overnight cues from Wall Street. China's Shanghai Composite was trading marginally higher. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 0.4% supported by rally in property developers and coal miners. Japan's Nikkei 225 was up 0.4% on merger news giving fillip to the technology stocks after Japan’s Hitachi Ltd sold a disk drive unit to California based Western Digital for $4.3 billion.
Back in India technical charts indicate short term upmove as long as Nifty remained above 5400. Edelweiss in the morning note said, "we continue to maintain the short-term uptrend as long as 5400 remains inviolate on a daily closing basis for a test of the 200-Daily Moving Average at 5650. On a break below 5400 (daily closing), the index can slide down to 5200-5000."
Among the sectors, BSE Capital goods index was leading the gains, up 1.2% followed by higher beta realty and metal pack, up 1.3% and 1% each. From the Capital goods pack, Usha Martin and Punj LLoyd advanced over 2%, Larsen and Tourbo surged 1.9%.
Metal shares added sheen, Bhushan Steel advanced 3%, Sesa Goa gained 1.9% and Sterlite was up 1.6%. Realty stocks were on firm ground, Sunteck Realty was up 2.1%, HDIL gained 1.8% and DLF was up 1.8%.
On Sensex JP Associates, was the top gainer, up 2.6%, Reliance Infrastructure surged 1.9% and Tata Motors gained 1.5%. Only three components on the Sensex were trading in the red, Hindalco Industries fell 0.2%, LTC was off 0.2% and NTPC was trading flat.
Broader markets were also trading firm, midcap and smallcap indices were up 0.9% and 0.7% each. Market breadth was positive 1043 stocks advanced for 314 stocks that declined.
