Market Takes Breather After Strong Start

After a strong start led by oil marketing companies, the Indian markets are taking a bit of a breather in the afternoon trading session. The Nifty is trading up by 30 points at 6068 and Sensex is up by 107 points at 20070. Both indices are trading up in the range of 0.51%-0.54%.

The advance-decline ratio has turned negative in the afternoon trading session. On the NSE, 720 shares are trending down and 663 shares are trending up.

Top 5 NSE Gainers: Bharat Petroleum is the top performer at this hour of trade, with gains of 9.73%. It is followed by ONGC, Maruti Suzuki India, Bank of Baroda and GAIL.

Top 5 NSE Losers: Wipro is among the strongest losers, trading lower by 5.10%. Other counters witnessing negative trades include Hero MotoCorp, Bharti Airtel, Hindustan Unilever and Axis Bank.

7 of the 13 sectoral indices are trading positive as of now. Oil & Gas and PSU remain at the top of the charts, up between 2.80%-3.01%. TECk and IT are seeing profit booking at this hour of trade, lower by 0.67%-0.85%.

Meanwhile, the Asian markets are still trading firm. The Nikkei 225 index is higher by 2.78%, Taiwan Weighted is up 1.50, Shanghai Composite is up 1.38% and Hang Seng has gained 0.97%.

Buzzers: ITC is trading up by 0.95% at Rs 288. The stock has registered a high of Rs 289.85 and a low of Rs 284.65. It gained momentum after the company posted its Q3 numbers, in which its net profit went up by 21%, which was higher than the street’s estimation of 16.5%.

The stock of Magma Fincorp has jumped 3.13% so far in today’s trade to touch Rs 98.90. It surged and saw a jump in volumes after the company posted strong quarterly numbers.

Going ahead, the market will take cues from trades in Europe. As long as the Nifty trades above the 6050 levels, it is good for the bulls.