Mumbai, India (BBN)-Indian markets edged higher Tuesday but struggled to gain momentum with caution prevailing ahead of the expiry of monthly derivatives contracts on Thursday.
Buying was seen in healthcare and consumer durable stocks while some selling pressure was seen in auto stocks, reports NDTV.
Banking stocks saw some buying activity after suffering sharp losses in the previous three sessions.
At 9:50am, the Sensex was up 83 points to 28,274 while Nifty edged up to 8,574.
Despite Tuesday's upmove, market analysts expect Nifty to remain weak in the near term.
Rohit Srivastava, Fund Manager at Sharekhan, said that there are few triggers left to take Nifty higher in the near term.
He expects Nifty to slip to 8300 levels in the near term.
Among Nifty stocks, JSPL rose 2 per cent to be the biggest gainer. The Delhi High Court yesterday directed the government to maintain status quo on a Chhattisgarh mine, the bid for which by Jindal Power Ltd (JPL) had been cancelled by the government.
Sun Pharma and Ranbaxy gained nearly 1 percent each after getting approval from the Competition Commission for sale of seven brands to Emcure Pharma to comply with the fair trade watchdog's conditional nod for their $4 billion merger.
BBN/SS-24Mar15-10:20am (BST)