February 26: mid-session report

The Indian markets remained within a range with a positive bias with one eye on Economic Survey from the Chief Economic Advisor to Finance Ministry. Indian markets taking cues from the American and Asian markets opened in green after two days of a continuous fall. Benchmark indices opened in green and stayed there till the afternoon session. The buying came in from banks as Bank Nifty was the top gainer in the trade.

Nifty was trading up by more than 30 points at 7000 and the Sensex by 100 points at 23,072. Both the leading indicators were trading up with gains of 0.46 and 0.43 per cent respectively.

The advance-decline ratio showed a different trend as most of the stocks traded in red. 1386 scrips were trading in the negative territory; 760 scrips were in green; however 153 stocks remained unchanged on the NSE.

Top Nifty Gainers: Coal India is leading the gainer's list as it was trading up by close to 3.50 per cent followed by SBI, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and HCL Tech which were up 3.06; 2.31; 2.12; and 1.95 per cent respectively.

Top Nifty Losers: Bajaj Auto is leading the losers list down more than 3.01 per cent, followed by Hero MotoCorp and Grasim which are down anywhere between 2.75 per cent to 1.75 per cent.

All the major sectors were trading in green. BSE Bankex was leading the way with gains of 1.04 per cent, closely followed by BSE Capital Goods and BSE Oil & Gas, which were trading up by 1 and 0.56 per cent respectively. BSE Small-Caps witnessed some selling activity as it was trading down 0.44 per cent. BSE Mid -Cap index too was trading in the positive territory by 0.33 per cent.

Asian shares made guarded gains on Friday as a gathering of world finance leaders provided a welter of reassuring comments, but little in the way of actual policy stimulus. Chinese benchmark index CSI opened in green as policymakers sounded positive on the future growth. Chinese CSI 3000 Index was trading up by 1 per cent. Japanese Nikkei was trading up with minor gains of 0.30 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng also showed some smart move as it was up 1.90 per cent in late trade.

In commodities, crude oil prices dipped on Friday as reports of a meeting of oil producers to freeze output failed to convince traders that enough effort was being made to rein in the ballooning global oversupply.

Buzzer: - Aurobindo Pharma was buzzing in trade as it was trading up by more than 5 per cent.

Analysts expect the positive momentum to extend to Europe, forecasting a higher opening for Britain's FTSE, Germany's DAX and France's CAC. Second half for the Indian markets looks to be volatile as traders would not like to carry forward their positions given the nervousness surrounding the Union Budget to be presented on Monday.