Market trades higher; breadth strong

The key indices opened lower following a decline US and mixed Asian markets. But strong demand for oil & gas stock pulled the indices in positive territory shortly. IT and banking stocks declined. The market breadth was strong. Hindalco Industries was the top gainer from the Sensex pack.

At 10:20 IST, the 30-share BSE Sensex was up 38.79 points or 0.25% at 15,829.30. The index lost 84.29 points at the session’s low of 15,706.22, hit at the onset of trading session. The Sensex gained 71.85 points at day’s high of 15,862.36, hit in early trade.

The CNX S&P Nifty was up 20.95 points or 0.44% at 4768.

The BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.84% at 6,525.79 and the BSE Small-Cap index was up 1.02% at 8,021.91.

On BSE, 1209 stocks gained, 462 stocks declined and 38 stocks were unchanged.

India’s largest private sector firm by market capitalization and oil refiner Reliance Industries rose 0.60% at Rs 2432.50.

India’s largest private sector bank by assets ICICI Bank was down 1.55% at Rs 823.50.

India’s largest engineering and construction firm by revenue Larsen & Toubro rose 0.18% at Rs 2642.

Hindalco Industries (up 2.66% at Rs 177.25), Maruti Suzuki (up 1.83% at Rs 747.75), Reliance Energy 1.96% at Rs 1200, Mahindra & Mahindra (up 1.34% at Rs 616.05), and NTPC (up 0.96% at Rs 189.50), edged higher from the Sensex pack.

Infosys Technologies (down 1.28% at Rs 1461), Satyam Computer (down 1.26% at Rs 422.10), HDFC Bank (down 0.66% at Rs 1366.95), ACC (down 0.52% at Rs 816) and Tata Steel (down 0.15% at Rs 677), edged lower from the Sensex pack.

Reliance Petroleum (RPL) was the top traded scrip on BSE. The RPL counter clocked a turnover of Rs 80.13 crore while the stock was stock was up 3.79% at Rs 176.55.

Asian stocks were mixed today. Key benchmark indices in Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea were up by between 0.17% to 1.55%. Key benchmark indices in China, Japan and Singapore were down by between 0.22% to 1.04%.

US stocks fell on Wednesday, 9 April 2008, after United Parcel Service Inc slashed its earnings forecast and oil prices hit a record high above $112 per barrel, darkening the outlook for corporate results. The Dow Jones industrial average was down 49.18 points, or 0.39%, ending the day at 12,527.26. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 11.05 points, or 0.81%, finishing at 1,354.49. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 26.64 points, or 1.13%, at 2,322.12.

US crude oil futures surged after government data showed a surprising draw on crude stockpiles last week.