Mumbai, January 14: Indian markets opened in the positive terrain Thursday in line with other Asian peers. The upmove was led by gains in oil&gas and realty space while IT stocks were subdued.
“Indices honored crucial support levels and bounced back to close in green, ending a 4 day losing streak. FIIs, however sold Nifty futures worth 716 cr and stock futures worth 716 cr in yesterday’s trade.
While Petroleum Minister’s meeting with Finance Minister later today on fuel price hike will keep OMC stocks active, Defense Minister’s statement that Ministry of Defense would implement a new procurement policy this year is likely to keep defense related shares live.
Inflation data for the month of December will be the key economic event to watch out for today. 5310-5180 continues to be relevant resistance and support levels in Nifty,” said Anagram Stock Broking note.
Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensex was at 17575.27, up 65.47 points or 0.37 per cent and National Stock Exchange’s Nifty was at 5260.75, up 26.80 points or 0.51 per cent.
BSE Midcap Index was up 0.78 per cent and BSE Smallcap Index moved 0.90 per cent higher.
“Nifty has created strong support around levels of 5120-5130 for short term. Any breach below this may
see indices slipping close to 4900 mark. On higher side levels of 5500 may soon come into play. Stock specific action may continue with bouts of profit booking at higher levels.
For today’s trade, key support for the day remains at 5190-5180 levels. Hurdle is seen around 5250-5260 range on higher side. Breach above or below above mentioned range may provide fresh trading opportunity,” said Reliance Money report.
Amongst the sectoral indices, BSE Oil&gas Index was up 1.27 per cent, BSE Realty Index gained 1.15 per cent and BSE Healthcare Index advanced 0.77 per cent. BSE IT Index was down 0.61 per cent.
ONGC (1.98%), Jaiprakash Associates (1.92%), Reliance Industries (1.73%), DLF (1.70%) and Sterlite Industries (1.52%) were amongst the top Sensex gainers.
Infosys Technologies (-0.89%), TCS (-0.67%), Wipro (-0.63%), Hindustan Unilever (-0.40%) and L&T (-0.39%) were amongst the index losers.
Market breadth was positive on the BSE with 1378 advances and 258 declines.
Meanwhile, US stocks rose on Wednesday as investors bet on recently weakened technology and financial shares ahead of earnings from Intel Corp and JPMorgan Chase, taking the Dow industrials to a fresh 15-month high.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 53.51 points, or 0.50 percent, to 10,680.77. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index added 9.46 points, or 0.83 percent, to 1,145.68. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 25.59 points, or 1.12 percent, to 2,307.90.
Asian stocks rose Thursday after commodity prices advanced. The Nikkei climbed 1.02 per cent, Straits Times inched up 0.87 per cent, Seoul Composite moved 0.93 per cent higher and Taiwan Weighted advanced 0.90 per cent.
—Agencies