Mkts gain strength led by cap good, power, banks, pharma

At 13:05 hours IST - the markets were seeing some choppiness, ahead of the Union Budget. Buying in power, capital goods, financials, pharma stocks along with Bharti and HDFC was helping the benchmark indices. However, selling in realty, FMCG stocks, and Infosys, Reliance Communication, Sterlite, Idea, Grasim, Hindalco, Jindal Steel and SAIL was putting some pressure. Reliance Industries and ONGC were volatile stocks.

The Nifty rose 20 points, to 4,368 and the Sensex gained 74 points, at 14,729. The market breadth was negative; about 543 shares advanced while 929 shares declined. The broader indices were quiet in trade.

Union Railway Minister Mamata Bannerjee today presented the Railway Budget for 2009-2010.
Here are the key highlights:
-12 non-stop services to be introduced immediately
-To expand rail network for development
-To develop 50 stations with international facilities
-To develop Mumbai CST, Pune, New Delhi, Jaipur
-Identified 375 stations for development
-To computerize ticketing through 5000 post offices
-e-ticketing to be simplified; to provide sms updates
-To buy 18000 wagons in FY10
-BEML, Titagarh, Texmaco to gain from wagon orders
-To set up 1000 MW plant along with NTPC

In the midcap space, Shriram Transport, Monnet Ispat, Advanta, Anant Raj Industries and Puravankara Projects gained 5-6.7% while Rei Agro, GMDC, SKF India, Havells India and Jai Corp fell 3-5%.

In the smallcap space, Vishal Info, Kewal Kiran, Sanghi Industries, Premier and Pennar Inds went up 5-12.5% while Geefcee, Century Plyboard, Transport Corp, HBL Power and Swaraj Mazda slipped 5-8%.

On the next page - see how Indian markets performed in the last couple of hours