Markets Up 0.3%, Honeywell Automation 19% Down On Stake Sale Buzz

The Indian markets have gained after the range-bound trades seen at the beginning of the day. Sensex is up 0.35% and Nifty is up 0.27%.

In Europe, the Euro-zone finance ministers failed to reach an agreement on conditions to release the next tranche of financial aid for Greece. Earlier, Japan released poor trade data, with exports contracting by 6.5% and imports contracting 1.6% in Oct 2012. The trade deficit also came in higher than expected. The Asian markets, did not react to this information and the markets held their gains. The Shanghai is up 1.05%, and Hang Seng and Nikkei have both gained over 0.7%.

The European markets have opened on a mixed note, with FTSE and CAC in the red and DAX showing gains.

On the sectoral front, the Auto index has maintained its winning streak on hopes of good sales in Nov due to the festive season. FMCG, Realty, Bankex and IT have also gained over 0.5% each. The Power index, on the other hand, has dropped by 0.5%.

Among the Sensex stocks, Jindal Steel is the top gainer, higher by 2%. The stock is up on news that the company has started producing coal at its mine in Mozambique with the first exports expected by Jan 2013. Other counters that are showing significant gains at this moment are Sun Pharma (1.8%), Tata Power (1.6%), Cipla (1.6%) ICICI Bank (1.5%) and ITC (1.4%). The shares of BHEL, on the other hand, are down 1.7%. NTPC has also tanked 1.6% over the news of divestment. Stocks like Bharti Airtel (1.4%), Hero (1.2%) and Maruti (1%) are in the red at this time.

In the other shares, Union Bank is higher by 4% and Reliance Communication has gained 3.4%. Aurobindo Pharma is also up by 2.9%. L&T Finance has shown growth momentum again after taking a beating of nearly 15% in the last two days.

Honeywell Automation has tanked heavily by 19% on news that the promoters are looking to sell their stake in the company to reduce the shareholding to 75%. MCX and Financial Technologies are down on profit booking.

DB Realty has jumped 7% at this hour on reports that Bharti Group's realty arm is in talks to buy some stake in DB Realty 's hospitality arm. IT company MphasiS dropped 4% after its parent Hewlett-Packard wrote down US$ 8.8 billion on allegations of accounting fraud.

The advance-decline ratio on the BSE is mixed, with equal advances and declines.

Ahead today, we expect the market to remain volatile.