Reliance leads market recovery

The markets have recovered smartly after a subdued start this morning. Overseas cues weighed on the investor sentiment, owing to which the markets opened on a soft note. The Sensex touched a low of 17,482 on the back of weakness in realty and healthcare stocks.

However, renewed buying interest in energy stocks - mainly Reliance - has led to a recovery. The markets have rebounded into the positive zone, and the Sensex is now up 74 points at 17,625. The Nifty is up 16 points at 5,294.

Broader markets are trading in the negative territory. CNX Midcap index is down 33 points and BSE Small Cap is down 40 points. Market breadth is extremely negative with only around 650 stocks advancing against over 1,200 declining stocks.

Fed’s statement on Wednesday and a downgrade by CLSA has put TCS under pressure, the stock is down marginally. ONGC is flat after Cairn accused it of overstating gas reserves in KG basin. Tata Steel, which accepted $130 million to settle UK plant loss, is in the red. Tata Motors is in the red for a second straight day after the company ex-parte petition was refused by the Calcutta High Court in the Singur Land case.

Defensive pharmaceuticals stocks are among top losers on the benchmark indices - Cipla down nearly 1.5%, Ranbaxy and Dr Reddy’s down over 1% each. Healthcare index id down nearly a per cent.

Yesterday’s top gainers on Sensex, L&T, HDFC and HDFC Bank, are down up to 0.5% each. Top contributors to Sensex are RIL, ITC, Bharti Airtel, SBI, ICICI Bank, each up almost 1%. Notable losers on NIfty are Maruti, Sesa Goa, Ambuja Cement, Axis Bank, down between 1 and 2%.

Realty index remains in the red for the seventh trading session, down over 0.5%. In the process, the index has shed 10.5% in the same period. Unitech is the biggest loser today, down over 3% at Rs 28.95. Rate sensitives banks and auto are down between 0.25 and 0.5%. Axis Bank, Union Bank and Bank of Baroda are all down over 1% in the banking space. Maruti and Ashok Leyland led the losers in the auto segment, down over 1% each.

Oil & Gas index is the top gainer (up almost 1%) led by RIL. Oil marketing companies are also in the green.