Markets Positive, Metals Index Top Gainer

After a positive start, the Indian markets have continued to trade positive.

Of the Asian indices, Hang Seng and Nikkei are trading in the green, sending positives signals to the Indian markets. The Shanghai market is trading flat, with no movement from yesterday's closing.

Meanwhile, IMF's Managing Director, Christine Lagarde has said that ECB has room to ease interest rates. She has also said that Euro zone needs to be vigilant on fiscal policies.

The Economic Times has reported that India's services sector expanded at a slower rate for the 8th straight month in Jun 2012. The new orders have picked up, and firms are hiring workers at the fastest pace in a year.

Among the sectoral indices, Metals are up by 1.5% as all the stocks in the index are trading in gains. Worldwide, the shares of the commodities are trading with gains as the prices of most of them have increased. The Auto index has surged by 0.8% after sessions of volatility, as buyers are seeing a buying opportunity at the lower valuations. Realty and CD are also trading up. The Power index is trading in gains as the weak monsoon is expected to increase the spot market rates of electricity traded on the power exchanges. However, Oil & Gas, IT, FMCG and Teck are all trading lower.

From the Sensex stocks, Jindal Steel is trading with 3% gains this morning. Similarly, Sterlite Industries, Maruti, Tata Steel, Bharti Airtel, SBI, BHEL, Hindalco, GAIL and Tata Motors are also in the green. On the other hand, the shares of ONGC, Wipro, HUL, Dr. Reddy's Labs, Sun Pharma, Infosys, ITC, RIL and TCS are trading in negatives.

In other shares, Voltas has gained 6% at this time. Both Shriram Transport and Sesa Goa have also gained over 3%. Yesterday's gainer Sun TV has lost 2%, and ONGC and Strides Arcolab have also lost by a similar margin.

The advance-decline ratio on the BSE and NSE is positive as of now.

We expect the markets to remain volatile.