Markets corrected marginally in the past one hour of trade, the Sensex was up 103 points at 18,986 and the Nifty was up 33 points at 5688.
Most of the Asian markets ended the day in the green, Taiwan ended the day with gains, the index ended at 8988 up 99 points, Nikkei ended marginally higher by 16 points at 10,518, Seoul closed at 2096 down 3 points, Shanghai ended 2709 up 2 points. Hang Seng was trading lower by 26 points at 24,130.
On the corporate front Exide Industries and Mastek anounced their third quarter results, Exide Industries reported a drop of 5% in the bottomline at Rs 210 crore, however the net sales rose to Rs 1049 crore compared to Rs 913 crore during the same quarter previous year. Mastek reported a net loss of Rs 27.66 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2010 as against a net profit of Rs 23.54 crore for the same period last year. The total income of the company dropped to Rs 152.31 crore as against Rs 193.23 crore for the corresponding quarter last year
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(updated at 12.30 pm)
Markets traded on a firm note in the past one hour of trade, the Sensex was up 120 points at 19,002 and and the Nifty was at 5694 up 40 points.
According to Deepak Singh Tanwar, a Mumbai based technical analyst, "The market seems to be in corrective mode but the outlook continues to remain negative. It has strong resistance in the range of 5800-5875. The outlook will remain negative till the level of 5875 is not crossed."
TCS, Wipro, Cipla, Tata Motors, Hindalco Industries, ICICI Bank, Sterlite Industries, Tata Steel and ITC were up 1.5-4% each and were the top gainers on the Sensex.
On the other hand, Tata Power was the top loser the stock shed 2% at Rs 1317. Reliance Inftrastructure, Jindal Steel, DLF, Hero Honda and HDFC were down 1-2% each.
On the sectoral front BSE IT index rose consecutively for the second day, the index was up 2.2% or 147 points at 6698. Teck, BSE banking index - Bankex, Metal, Consumer Durables and FMCG indices were also trading higher by 1% each. Capital Goods stocks reeled under a mild selling pressure, the Capital Goods index was lower by six points at 13,649. Realty and Oil & Gas indices which were in the red earlier staged a recovery and were back in the gren.
Among the IT stocks TCS, Wipro, HCL Technologies, Core Projects and Maphasis were among the top gainers. While Thermax was the top loser among the capital goods stocks followed by Gammon India, BEML, Larsen & Toubro and Siemens.
The broader markets continued to underperform, the BSE mid-cap index was up 19 points or 0.2% at 7142 and small-cap index was at 8897 up 29 points or 0.3%.
The overall market breadth was positive as 1,466 stocks have advanced while 1,138 stocks have declined.