Markets See Some Recovery, Close Higher

The Indian markets turned positive in the last couple of hours of trades after investors saw some buying opportunity in the beaten down stocks. The markets have been closing in the negative territory over the past few sessions, and saw some relief today.

The Realty and Oil & Gas indices majorly closed higher by over 1%, helping the markets to move northwards. All the other indices closed higher in the green zone, except for Healthcare, which closed lower marginally in the red zone.

European markets are currently trading lower, with major indices like FTSE, CAC and DAX up in the range of 0.2%- 0.8% respectively. Media reports said that the European stock markets dropped as pressure on the European Central Bank to activate stimulus measures increased after Moody’s Investors Service warned that the European Union could lose its AAA debt rating.

Dow Jones Futures is currently trading higher 15 points or 0.11% at 13094, indicating a positive sentiment in the US markets.

Back home, Jindal Steel was the leading index gainer closed higher by almost 2.77% at Rs 354 after investors saw some buying opportunity in the stock. Other index heavyweights like RIL, Bharti Airtel, SBI and HUL closed higher by over 1%, taking the market higher. Other stocks like HDFC Bank, M&M, Sterlite Industries, TCS, etc. also closed higher in the positive territory.

On the other hand, mortgage major HDFC was the leading loser, down by 1.72% at Rs 721. Others like Cipla, Tata Power and ONGC closed lower by more than 1%, while stocks like HDFC Bank, Coal India, Hindalco, etc. closed marginally lower in the red zone.  

BPCL closed up by 1.91% at Rs 346.80 after the company made an announcement that results of hydraulic and flowback from the well located in Australia are very encouraging. Software services major Tech Mahindra announced the acquisition of Hutchison Global Services (HGS) for an upfront payment of US$ 87.1 million (about Rs 480 crore). On the back of this news, the share price moved up by 1.28% to Rs 820.90.

The market breadth, which indicates the overall health of the market, was on the positive side. Out of the 3237 stocks traded on the BSE, 1752 advanced, 1318 declined, and 167 remained unchanged.