Markets marginally higher in morning deals

Reliance Industries among the top Sensex gainers

Markets are trading marginally higher in the morning deals on the back of buying visible in the heavyweight stocks.  The Sensex is up 48 points at 18,871 and the 50-share Nifty is up 15 points at 5,733.

Meanwhile, Dr Reddy's Labs is the top gainer among the Sensex stocks, up 2.3% at Rs 1,683. Hindustan Unilever, Bharti Airtel, index haevayweight Reliance Industries, Tata Steel, TCS, Maruti Suzuki, Sun Pharma and ONGC are also among the gainers. On the other hand, Jindal Steel, ITC, Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Auto, BHEL, Tata Motors and Infosys are among the losers.

Among the individual stocks, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) is trading higher by over 1% at Rs 874 on registering a record high monthly auto sales number of 48342 units in the month of September 2012. The company had sold 44,137 units in September 2011.

Hero MotoCorp and Bajaj Auto are trading lower by almost 2% each after reporting more than 10% year-on-year (y-o-y) drop in sales for the month of September.

Hero MotoCorp, the country's largest two-wheeler maker, recorded 26.35% drop in sales at 404,787 units in September on y-o-y basis. The company had sold 549,625 units in September 2011, Hero MotoCorp said in a statement. Bajaj Auto too, reported a 14% decline in overall sales last month compared to the corresponding period last year. In the sales statement, the company said it has sold 360,152 units in September against 417,686 units during the same month of previous year.
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(Updated at 9.20 AM)

Markets have opened on a flat note in trades today tracking flat global cues. The Sensex has advanced 49 points to open at 18,873 and the 50-share Nifty has opened at 5,737 up 19 points.

Meanwhile, Among the Asian markets Chinese and South Korean markets are on holiday. Japan's Nikkei was up 9 points at 8,795, Hang Seng has advanced 68 points at 20,908 while the Taiwan Weighted was down 7 points at 7,711.

Overnight, the Wall Street ended little changed in a volatile session on Tuesday as uncertainty over when Spain might apply for a bailout shackled a market struggling to build on gains that took the S&P 500 to its highest in nearly five years.

The Dow Jones slipped 33 points to close at 13,482, S&P 500 Index was up 1 point at 1,445 and The Nasdaq Composite was up 6 points, or 0.21 percent, at 3,120.

Back home, Tata Power is the top gainer among the Sensex stocks. It has opened higher by 1% at Rs 107. HDFC, HUL, Hindalco, NTPC, Cipla, Sun Pharma, ONGC, Wipro, Dr Reddy's Labs, Coal India and Sterlite Industries have also opened higher by 0.6-1% each.

On the other hand, Jindal Steel, Jindal Steel, Tata Motors, Hero Motocorp, ITC, Larsen & Toubro, State Bank of India and Bajaj Auto have opened lower by 0.3-1.4% each.

On the sectoral front, the BSE healthcare index is the top gainer. BSE healthcare index is the top gainer, up 0.5% at 7,603. Oil & gas, PSU, power, FMCG, IT, consumer durables and realty indices have opened flat, up 0.1-0.4% each. At the same time, auto and metal indices have opened lower.

The broader markets are outperforming the benchmark indices. The BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices are up 0.5% each compared to 0.2% rise in the Sensex.

The overall breadth is positive as 1,010 stocks are advancing while 415 are declining.