Markets witness partial recovery

Markets have corrected partially on back of the weak opening of the European markets and some selling pressure visible in the auto space. The Sensex was at 16,626, up 90 points and the Nifty was at 5,010, up 36 points. Earlier in the day, the Sensex touched the high of 16,799

According to Somil Mehta, Senior Technical Analyst (Equity) with Sharekhan, "The Nifty is likely to be ranged between 4900 and 5050 for the time-being. I have a short-term (1-month) target of 5300 and a medium-term (1-2 quarters) target of 5600 on the index."

On the macro economic front the government released the index of industrial production (IIP) data for the month of August. The IIP came in at 4.1% compared to 4.5% during the same period previous year and 3.8% during July.

Meanwhile, the European markets have opened on a weak note, CAC opened at 3,122, down 31 points, DAX was at 5,827, lower by 38 points and the FTSE shed 34 points to 5,361.

Back to Indian markets, Infosys continued to remain the top gainer among the Sensex stocks. The stock has rallied 5.3% to Rs 2,642 after the company reported its second quarter results which were better than the street expectations. It reported an increase 10.8% in ts net profit to Rs 1,906 crore.

TCS, Wipro, Jindal Steel, State Bank of India, ITC, Sterlite Industries, Cipla and Tata Steel also advanced 1.7%-3.4$ each in trades, thus far.

On the other hand, Coal India was the top loser, down 3.2% to Rs 333. Tata Power, Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, HDFC, DLF, Bharti Airtel and J P Associates were also among the laggards on the benchmark index.

BSE IT index was the top gainer on the sectoral charts. The index jumped 4.2% or 222 points to 5,467 on back of buying in the heavyweight IT stocks. Bankex also jumped 1.2% to 10,639. FMCG, Oil & Gas, Metal, Capital Goods, Healthcare, Realty and Consumer Durable indices were also among the gainers, up 0.4-1% each. At the same time, the Auto index
was the only loser on the sectoral charts.

Among the banking stocks, Punjab National Bank was the top gainer, up 2.6% to Rs 976. Kotak Mahindra Bank, IDBI Bank, ICICI Bank, Federal Bank, Axis Bank and Yes Bank were also trading higher by 1-2% each.

The broader markets also advanced 0.5% each. BSE mid-cap index advanced 38 points to  6,108 and the small-cap index was at 6,840, up 38 points.

The overall breadth was positive as 1,453 stocks were advancing while 1,088 stocks were declining.