Sensex, Nifty edge up; Maruti gains ahead of Q3

The BSE Sensex edged up on Friday, having slipped below the 20,000 mark yesterday. Markets are at crucial support and a break below 6,000 levels on the Nifty may signal a short term downtrend.

The Sensex traded 62 points or 0.3 per cent higher at 19,985 while the broader Nifty was up 12 points at 6,032 as of 09.51 a.m. The rupee traded flat against the dollar at 53.68.

Stocks are trading near two-year highs, but the momentum has been lost over the last few days. While foreign funds continue to invest in equities, the redemptions by domestic institutional investors continue unabated.

Realty developer HDIL, infra major IVRCL, and logistics firm Arshiya International have crashed over the last few days, triggering a huge selloff in mid cap stocks. The market breadth, measured in terms of advancing to declining stocks, has also collapsed.

Market analyst Sarvendra Srivastava asked investors to wait and watch for a couple of sessions.

"Midcap price action is a cause of concern... 6,000 is crucial support on index," he added.

Rate sensitive stocks - banks, auto and realty - moved up on hopes that the Reserve Bank will reward the government next week for its efforts to reform the economy and bring its finances under control by announcing its first cut in interest rates in nine months.

"The government has gone ahead with all the promises it had made 3 to 4 months earlier. There have been pretty substantial measures on the fiscal deficit front," said Samiran Chakrabarty, head of research at Standard Chartered Bank in Mumbai.

Beaten down blue chips such as Tata Motors and HUL bounced back today. Tata Motors traded with over 2 per cent gains and was the top Nifty gainer. HUL, which has seen heavy selling after its Q3, traded 0.6 per cent higher.

Maruti Suzuki, India's biggest car maker, gained 1.5 per cent ahead of reporting third quarter earnings later today.

Drug maker Ranbaxy was the top Nifty loser, down 1.5 per cent. Ultra Tech Cements fell after HSBC downgraded the stock to "underweight".

Reliance Industries shares declined for the second day as the company is unlikely to benefit from a gas price revision that the government is likely to announce for state-owned firms.