Sensex above 20400; Hindalco, Cipla, TCS, HDFC up

MUMBAI: Benchmarks gained momentum as investors took positions across the board on the back of positive earnings season and gains in Asian markets. All the sectoral indices were in the green with metals, banks and oil&gas top performers.

At 11 am; Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensex was at 20424.68, up 258.82 points or 1.28 per cent. The index touched a high of 20448.59 and low of 20199.73.

National Stock Exchange’s Nifty was at 6136.55, up 70.5 points or 1.16 per cent. The index touched high of 6151.30 and low of 6094.60.

“The market has clearly entered a range trade between 6284-5965 in the short-term. Nifty needs to break the range between 5965 – 6165 to get back into a directional trend. Momentum oscillators are presenting a mixed picture, and thus the price action will lead the market direction.

Bharti Airtel has taken support on weekly and monthly moving averages supporting the longer-term uptrend, thus offering good risk-reward opportunity on the long side,” said Edelweiss report.

BSE Midcap Index gained 0.84 per cent and BSE Smallcap Index moved 1.03 per cent higher.

Amongst the sectoral indices, BSE Metal Index gained 1.67 per cent, BSE Bankex advanced 1.22 per cent and BSE Oil&gas Index moved 1.13 per cent higher.

Sensex gainers included Hindalco (3.42%), Cipla (2.71%), Sterlite Industries (2.23%), TCS (1.99%) and HDFC (1.88%)

Wipro (-2.54%) and Hero Honda (-0.23%) were the only index losers.

Market breadth was positive on the BSE with 1907 advances against 836 declines.

Asian markets were in the green. Nikkei 225 was up 0.07 per cent, Seoul Times climbed 0.90 per cent higher and Shanghai Composite surged 1.89 per cent higher.