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Markets continued to trade soft, albeit off the morning lows. The Sensex, after touching a low of 19,506, has now recovered to 19,566 - down 11 points from Monday's close. The Nifty is down 10 points at 5,888.
Asian stocks rose on Tuesday with Tokyo's Nikkei extending gains after encouraging manufacturing data in Europe and the United States helped cheer a market fretting about a slowing Chinese economy. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.5% in early trade, reversing Monday's 0.3% fall. Australian shares climbed 1.8%, while South Korean stocks edged up 0.1%.
Meanwhile, broader markets outperformed the index. BSE mid-cap index was up 23 points at 6,096. Small-cap index was up 21 points at 5,758.
BSE consumer durables index was the top gainer in morning deals - up 1.6% at 6,309. Oil & gas and metal shares also advanced with the indices moving up around half a per cent each.
Auto shares were weak. Maruti has slipped 0.8% at Rs 1592 after the smart rally on Monday. Tata Motors is down 1.6% at Rs 285. The company reported 18.08% decline in total vehicle sales at 52,708 units in June 2013.
Global credit rating agency Moody’s Investors Service has downgraded the outlook on India’s largest private power producer Tata Power Company (TPC) to negative from stable. The stock is down 0.8% at Rs 88.
Heavyweights which helped yesterday have slipped this morning, including Reliance and Larsen & Toubro. The shares are down around half a per cent each.
IT shares have recovered after yesterday's losses. Wipro and TCS are up 0.8% each. Among other gainers are Tata Steel and Bajaj Auto.
Oil marketing companies have reacted to the diesel price hike. BPCL, HPCL and IOC are up around half a per cent each.
The BSE market breadth remained marginally positive. Out of 1618 shares traded so far, 640 shares have declined while 891 shares have advanced.
