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Benchmark shares indices were trading with marginal gains in late trades on Tuesday led by gains in Tata Motors and oil exploaration major ONGC. Better-than-expected wholesale price inflation for April helped improve sentiment.
At 2:50PM the 30-share Sensex was up 45 points at 19,737 and the 50-share Nifty was up 18 points at 5,998.
India's wholesale price inflation slowed for a third straight month in April to 4.89 percent against 5.96% in the previous month, official release showed today. This is the lowest level since last seen in November 2009.
The Nikkei share average edged down on Tuesday, after two gaining days, as interest rate-sensitive sectors such as real estate and financials succumbed to signs of rising long-term interest rates. The Nikkei ended down 0.2%, Hang Seng was down 0.3%, Shanghai Composite fell 1.1% while Straits Times was up 0.1%.
European shares were trading lower on Tuesday as investors remained cautious ahead of data on German investor confidence and industrial production in the euro-zone. The CAC-40, DAX and FTSE-100 were down 0.1-0.4% each.
The sectoral indices on the BSE were led by Oil & Gas index up 0.7% followed by Healthcare, Realty, Power, Metal and Auto indices.
Select oil and gas shares were up after a report in the The Financial Express said that ONGC and Oil India have requested the government to reduce the discounts they must offer PSU refiners on crude purchases because of declining crude oil prices.
ONGC was the top Sensex gainer up 1.8% at Rs 326 while GAIL India was up 1.8% at Rs 338.
Among other oil shares, Oil India was up nearly 2% at Rs 560.
Tata Motors was up 1.4% at Rs 302 after its UK-owned Jaguar Land Rover reported 12% growth in April to 28,503 vehicles compared to the same month last year. For the first four months of 2013 sales grew 16%.
Software shares firmed up on upbeat US retail sales data. Infosys was up 0.4% while TCS gained 0.1%.
Other Sensex gainers include, Sun Pharma, Bharti Airtel.
HDFC Bank was among top Sensex losers down 1% after television news channel reports citing unnamed sources that the central bank has discovered violations by private banking majors related to Know Your Customer rules. ICICI Bank was down 0.1%.
other Sensex losers include, Bajaj Auto, Mah&Mah, Reliance Ind and Dr Reddy's Labs.
Among other shares, Ranbaxy Laboratories has moved higher by 3.4% at Rs 455, bouncing back 8% from day’s low after the pharmaceutical company has agreed to pay $500 million (approximately Rs 2,743 crore) to resolve fraud allegations that the company sold adulterated drugs and lied about it to US regulators.
Muthoot Finance has slipped 7% to Rs 147, falling almost 10% from intra-day high, after reporting 6.4% year-on-year (yoy) drop in net profit at Rs 220 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2013 (Q4) due to higher provisioning. Analyst on an average had expected profit of Rs 278 crore from gold financing company.
Elder Pharmaceuticals is locked in upper circuit of 10% at Rs 248, bouncing back of 22% from day’s low, on back of heavy volumes. The stock had opened at Rs 203, its lowest level since May 2009 on BSE has seen huge trading activities on the counter.
The BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices were marginally up.
Market breadth was negative with 1,203 losers and 1,081 gainers on the BSE.
