Sensex Trades Firm; Infosys Gains Over 3%

The BSE Sensex was up nearly 200 points after touching a day high of 25,688 whereas the Nifty traded above the 7,650 mark.

Banks, IT, realty and FMCG stocks traded higher after witnessing a sharp sell-off on Friday. The IT sub-index gained1.7 per cent as the rupee traded at three month low of close to 61 levels per dollar.

Interest sensitive stocks lead the gains ahead of RBI's policy review on Tuesday. Axis Bank gained 1.50 per cent whereas ICICI Bank and IndusInd Bank were up nearly 1 per cent each. Public lender State Bank of India was up 0.67 per cent at Rs 2,453.55.

Syndicate Bank fell as much as 8.2 per cent after its chairman was arrested over allegations of taking bribes to grant loan extensions to two companies.

The realty sub-index was up over 1 per cent led by over 3 per cent gain in Unitech and over 1.5 per cent gain in Phoenix Mills. DLF was trading 0.42 per cent higher at Rs 201.45.

Power Grid Corporation traded half a per cent lower at Rs 129.20 ahead of its earnings today.

Infosys was the top gainer in Nifty which traded with over 3 per cent gains at Rs 3,447.65 whereas HDFC was the top loser in Nifty, down 2.16 per cent. Out of the 50 stocks in Nifty 43 shares gained whereas seven stocks traded lower.

Oil marketing companies continued to see buying today as the brent crude fell below $105 per barrel. HPCL was up 2.75 per cent at Rs 413.35 whereas BPCL and IOC were up nearly 1.5 per cent each.

Asian markets were mixed. The Hang Seng index traded 0.47 per cent higher and Japan's Nikkei was flat with 0.02 per cent loss.

As of 10.53 a.m. Sensex was 197 points up at 25,678 whereas the Nifty was up 0.84 per cent at 7,666.4.

(With inputs from Reuters)