Trades Marginally Higher

The Indian markets opened their first trades lower, and are trading in a very narrow range now. Both the frontline indices are up by 0.11% at this hour.

The Asian markets are in a mixed bag. Hang Seng is marginally higher by 0.06%, while Nikkei and Shanghai Composite are 0.19% and 0.41% down respectively at this hour of trade. According to Bloomberg reports, most of the Asian stocks fell after US manufacturing shrank unexpectedly and American lawmakers grappled with new budget proposals.

Back home, Capital Goods major BHEL is the leading index gainer, trading higher by 1.88% at Rs 241.50 per share. Other stocks like Jindal Steel, Cipla, Wipro, RIL, etc. are up by more than 1% each. Banking stocks like SBI, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank are also in the positive territory, as well as others like Coal India, Sun Pharma, NTPC and HDFC.

Defensive names like ITC and HUL are lower by 0.79% and 0.42% respectively. Auto stocks M&M and Hero MotoCorp have lost 0.65% and 0.44% respectively. Infosys, TCS, Sterlite Industries and Tata Steel are among the others which are trading lower.

The market breadth, which indicates the overall health of the market, is strong. On the BSE, 1293 shares have advanced, while 618 shares have declined and 94 shares are unchanged.