Markets retain gains

RIL up 2% as AGM begins

After a brief blip in the morning trades, the markets edged higher on account of the strong Asian markets and buying in Oil & Gas and Banking counters. The BSE benchmark index, Sensex added 122 points at 16,576 and the Nifty gained 27 points at 5,024.

Earlier in the day, the Sensex slipped to a low of 16,533 and moved to a high of 16,621.

In the broader markets, the midcap and the smallcap indices up 0.5% each underperformed the benchmark index which saw nearly 1% gain in the morning trades.

Asian shares hit one-week highs on signs that Europe was dealing urgently with Spain's banking crisis and that the United States could embark on fresh monetary stimulus. Also, Dovish comments from a senior US Federal Reserve official cemented the bullish sentiment. Hang Seng, Nikkei and Kospi Composite up 1-2% were the top gainers among the Asian markets.

Back home, Bankex, Oil & Gas, Metal and Realty indices up 1% each were top index gainers on the BSE. Meanwhile, Consumer Durables is flat with a negative bias.

Banking shares extended yesterday’s gain on hopes of a rate cut by the Reserve Bank in the upcoming policy review. HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Yes Bank up 1% each were the top gainers here.

From the Oil & Gas space, index heavyweight, Reliance Industries was trading higher by over 2.2% at Rs 730 extending its yesterday’s 1.7% gain ahead of the company's 38th Annual General Meeting today.

The top gainers among the Sensex-30 were Sterlite, Infosys, Hero MotoCorp, Maruti Suzuki, Jindal Steel and Tata Power up 1-2%.

On the other hand, TCS, Wipro, Mahindra & Mahindra and Bharti Airtel down 0.5-1.5% were the notable losers.

The market breadth continues to remain positive.1259 stocks advanced while 869 stocks declined.