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At 1PM, the Bombay Stock Exchange's 30-share index Sensex rose 59 points to trade at 19,528 while the National Stock Exchange's 50-share Nifty gained 16 points at 5,903.
Investors, however, traded cautious ahead of the Union Budget on February 28 and government's road-map to bridge current account deficit and fiscal deficit that will help decide the pace of growth recovery in Asia's third-biggest economy.
Equity markets in China and Taiwan resumed trading after a week-long holiday. Shanghai Composite index gained 0.33% to 2,427 while Taiwan Weighted rose 0.47% to 7,943 today.
Other Asian markets also gained with Japan's Nikkei rising 2% to 11,408, Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.27% to 23,380.17, Singapore's Straits Times added 0.04% to 3,284.64, while South Korea's Kospi was up 0.04% to 1,981 today.
Back home, consumer durables, IT, metal sectors traded lower while real-estate, capital goods, power, banks, autos leading gains on BSE.
Among key Sensex stocks, HDFC and HDFC Bank gained 1.6% and 0.6%, NTPC rose 0.6%, HUL added 1.4%, Hindalco Industries rose 1.2%, ICICI Bank and SBI rose 0.2% and 0.7% respectively on BSE.
Among losers, Coal India fell 2%, Dr Reddy's fell 1%, Jindal Steel shed 1.4%, Bharti Airtel was down 0.7%, TCS dropped 0.7% on BSE.
The other key notable movers include, State-run oil retailers gain after increasing prices of petrol by 1.50 rupees per litre excluding local taxes, and diesel by 0.50 rupees per litre from Saturday.
Indian Oil Corp (IOC.NS) up 1.8 percent, Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL.NS) gains 1.6 percent and Hindustan Petroleum Corp (BPCL.NS) is up 1.9 percent.
Shares of HDIL were up over 3% after the company's management clarified on the recent promoters' stake sale last month.
Shares of Suzlon Energy were up over 2% on huge volumes on reports that the debt-ridden company plans to turnaround by sale of non-core asset
The broader markets traded positive with mid-caps and small-caps rising 0.5% on BSE.
The market breadth is positive. Out of 2,656 stocks traded, 1,414 stocks gained compared to 1,093 declines on BSE.
