Hindu Business Line file photo
Mumbai, India (BBN) - The benchmark BSE Sensex made a tepid recovery ahead of release of key macroeconomic data and start of March quarter earnings season due later this week amid a weak trend in Asia.
At 10.15am, the 30-share BSE index Sensex was up 125.92 points or 0.43 per cent at 29,701.66 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty was up 29.1 points or 0.32 per cent at 9,210.55, reports The Hindu Business Line.
Barring metal, all other BSE sectoral indices were trading in the green. Among them, infrastructure index gained the most by 1.03 per cent, followed by PSU 0.84 per cent, power 0.77 per cent and oil & gas 0.75 per cent, while metal index was down 1.54 per cent.
Top five Sensex gainers were Infosys (+1.37 per cent), Asian Paints (+1.03 per cent), ICICI Bank (+1.01 per cent), ONGC (+0.99 per cent) and SBI (+0.9 per cent), while the major losers were Tata Steel (-1.3 per cent), M&M (-0.74 per cent), Bajaj Auto (-0.64 per cent), HUL (-0.29 per cent) and Cipla (-0.22 per cent).
EARLY TRADE
The 30-share index, which had lost 398.50 points in the previous three sessions, recovered 55.50 points or 0.18 per cent to 29,631.24.
The NSE index Nifty also rose 7.95 points or 0.09 per cent to 9,189.40.
Optimistic buying in blue-chip stocks ahead of industrial production (IIP) data for February and retail inflation for March on Wednesday boosted the domestic sentiment.
ASIAN MARKETS
Asian stocks fell in choppy trade on Tuesday as the political tinderbox in West Asia and the Korean Peninsula added to uncertainty over the looming French vote, pushing edgy investors into safer assets such as the yen and Treasuries.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan swung between gains and losses and was last down 0.4 per cent.
US stocks ended a choppy session slightly higher on Monday as gains in energy shares offset losses in financials ahead of quarterly corporate earnings later this week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.92 points, or 0.01 per cent, to 20,658.02, the S&P 500 gained 1.62 points, or 0.07 per cent, to 2,357.16 and the Nasdaq Composite added 3.11 points, or 0.05 per cent, to 5,880.93.
BBN/SK/AD