Benchmark indices recover some of their losses

The benchmark indices after trying hard to recover were trading in a narrow band with a positive bias in the last leg of the trade. The easing of political concerns after the DMK and Congress agreed on a seat-sharing formula for the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections has helped the markets a bit. However, the major recovery came after the Index heavyweight RIL bounced back on the news that gas output from its D6 block in Krishna-Godavari basin is set to rise from 53 mmscmd to 67 mmscmd by April. The NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex continued surfing around a band of 5510-5540 and 18400-18500 levels respectively. Broader markets were also trading strong, midcap and small cap indices were up 0.65% and 0.81% each. Market breadth was positive with 1283 stocks advancing against 984 declines while 113 stocks were unchanged.

State owned  Bank of India (BoI) is in advance stage to acquire 51 percent stake in Bharti AXA Investment Managers. The talks were extended because, besides the valuation, the bank was also engaged in the fresh capital infusion that the company might need after the acquisition.

The BSE Sensex surged 22.79 points or 0.12% at 18,462.44. The index touched a high and a low of 18,583.30 and 18,303.80, respectively.

The BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices added 0.65% and 0.81%, respectively.

All the sectoral indices were trading in the green. Realty up 1.51%, Consumer Durables (CD) up 0.89%, Auto up 0.58%, Bankex up 0.42% and Oil & Gas up 0.41% were the major gainers in BSE sectoral space.

The top gainers on the Sensex were RCom up 4.74%, Bajaj Auto up 2.13%, ICICI Bank up 1.49%, JP Associates up 1.36% and Reliance Infra up 1.17%.

Sterlite Industries down 1.22%, Cipla down 1.14%, NTPC down 1.11%, Jindal steel down 1.09% and Bharti Airtel down 0.87% were the losers on the index.

With Gujarat reporting the highest number of customers willing to change their service providers through Mobile Number Portability (MNP) Service the total number of unsatisfied mobile phone users crossed 38 lakh by end of February.

As per the data reported by the service providers to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), by the end of February 2011, about 38.33 lakh subscribers have submitted their requests to different service providers for porting (shifting) their mobile number.

In rest of the country, in MNP Zone-1 (Northern and Western India) maximum number of requests have been received in Gujarat (3.65 lakh) followed by Rajasthan with 3.14 lakh requests, said the statement issued by Trai.

In MNP Zone-2 (Southern and Eastern India) maximum number of requests have been received in Karnataka (3.18 lakh) followed by Tamil Nadu Service area (2.76 lakh).Telecom service providers in Jammu and Kashmir circle received only 1,291 request for changing service provider.

The S&P CNX Nifty advanced 7.95 points or 0.14% to 5528.75. The index touched a high and a low of 5563.30 and 5477.45, respectively.

The top gainers on the Nifty were RCom up 5.46%, Reliance Capital up 3.08%, SAIL up 2.15%, Ambuja Cement up 2.09% and Kotak Bank up 2.08%.

Cairn India down 2.83%, Sun Pharma down 2.11%, Cipla down 1.92%, BPCL down 1.77% and Sterlite Industries down 1.25% were the major losers on the index.

The other Asian markets are trading in green except Strait times; Shanghai Composite advanced 0.11%, Hang Seng increased 0.42%, KLSE Composite added 0.40%, Nikkei 225 advanced 0.61%, Strait Times down 0.35%, Seoul Composite rose 0.26%, Taiwan Weighted soared 0.03% and Jakarta Composite rose 0.51%.

All the European markets were trading mix. FTSE down 0.46%, DAX surged 0.11% and CAC-40 down 0.18%.

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