At 9.20 am, the BSE Sensex was trading 214.12 points or 0.37 per cent, higher at 57,835.31. The NSE Nifty50 stood at 17,278.55, up 64.95 points or 0.38 per cent.
“Over the past three sessions, the index has retraced 61.8 per cent of preceding five session’s up move (16,836-17,794), indicating lack of faster retracement. Going ahead, we expect buying to emerge around the key support range of 17,000-16,800. An extended correction from hereon should not be construed as negative. Instead, dips should be capitalised on to accumulate quality stocks,” said ICICIdirect in a note.
Domestic investors are keenly awaiting the RBI policy review this week to know the views of the monetary policy committee members on inflation, prevailing liquidity conditions and economic recovery. Globally, all eyes are on inflation figures to be released in the US on Thursday.
Among Sensex stocks, Maruti Suzuki rose 2.19 per cent to Rs 8,696. Tata Steel advanced 1.1 per cent to Rs 1,196. Titan Company, Dr Reddy’s Labs, Bajaj Finserv, Reliance Industries and Wipro added up to 1 per cent.
Losers included SBI, which declined 1 per cent to Rs 528. Power Grid, NTPC, Larsen & Toubro, IndusInd Bank and TCS declined up to 1 per cent.
Bharti Airtel, Godrej Consumer Products, Gujarat Gas, IRCTC, Jindal Steel and Power, NMDC, Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra), Indraprastha Gas, Bata India, Escorts, Endurance Technologies, Suven Pharmaceuticals, BSE, Redington (India) and EID Parry were among the companies that were scheduled to report December quarter results later today.
Global cues were mixed with US stocks settling almost flat overnight. Markets across China and Hong Kong plunged up to 1.5 per cent but those in Japan, Korea and Australia were trading higher.
Data showed FPIs have sold equities worth Rs 8,779 crore so far in February. Naveen Kulkarni, CIO, Axis Securities said most emerging markets will continue to see FPI outflows and currency depreciation in the short term.
