Markets remain firm in late morning session

Following positive Asian markets, Indian equity markets continued trading firm in the late morning session amid constant buying across the board. The BSE benchmark Sensex advanced by 90 points, while Nifty up by 28 points. In currency markets, rupee continued trading higher against American currency amid mild capital inflows. On sectoral front, refinery, power, PSU, metal, IT and realty stocks firmed up on renewed demand. IT stocks were up on expectations that the US lawmakers will try to reach a deal to break the budget impasse before the end of the year, while bank stocks were a bit subdued.  In global markets, Asian shares were trading strong with Japanese shares poised for their biggest annual advance since 2005, after a report that the country's consumer prices fell fanned speculation that the central bank will respond to government calls for more asset purchases. Back home, the market breadth favoring positive trend; there were 1,464 shares on the gaining side against 931 shares on the losing side while 132 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19,414.22 up by 90.42 points or 0.47% after trading in a range of 19,445.04 and 19,346.07. There were 22 stocks advancing against 8 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.63% and Small cap index was up by 0.43%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Oil & Gas up by 1.82%, IT up by 0.95%, PSU up by 0.81%, TECk up by 0.80% and Power up by 0.73% while, Bankex down by 0.10% was the only loser on the sectoral space.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ONGC up by 2.47%, Reliance up by 1.80%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.71%, Hindalco Industries up by 1.68% and Hero MotoCorp up by 1.47%.

On the flip side, Coal India was down by 0.79%, ITC was down by 0.48%, SBI was down by 0.41%, Mahindra & Mahindra was down by 0.32% and Sun Pharma was down by 0.29% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, expressing optimism over the Indian economy and defending some of the tough decisions taken by the government in the recent past, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said some measures may have caused ‘immediate pain’ but they were necessary to contain the fiscal deficit to 3 per cent of GDP for the next three years.

While addressing the National Development Council meeting, Chidambaram said ‘it was imperative to contain the fiscal deficit by augmenting resources and controlling expenditure, some measures may cause immediate pain but this was necessary to ensure that the fiscal deficit came down to three per cent in the next three years.’

By adding further he said, Indian economy has strong fundamentals and factors such as high savings rate, growing services sector, a large middle-class, which continues to create demand and technical and qualified manpower and the youth, would persist to grow at a healthy rate, despite the global economies facing recession.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,898.70 up by 28.60 points or 0.49% after trading in a range of 5,909.75 and 5,881.80. There were 40 stocks advancing against 10 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were BPCL up by 4.32%, ONGC up by 2.61%, Reliance up by 1.81%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.80% and Hindalco Industries up by 1.72%.

On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 0.57%, Coal India down by 0.47%, SBI down by 0.37%, HDFC Bank down by 0.35% and ITC down by 0.29% were the major losers on the index.

Most Asian equity indices were trading in the green; Shanghai Composite rose 0.72%, Hang Seng added 0.19%, Jakarta Composite surged 0.70%, KLSE Composite jumped 0.34%, Nikkei 225 soared 0.94%, KOSPI Composite increased 0.59% and Taiwan Weighted was up by 0.67%, while Straits Times down 0.01% was the only loser.