Nifty holds 5400 amid choppy trade; HPCL shoots up 6%

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The Sensex opened volatile and with moderate losses, but turned positive soon after. Even the Nifty managed to hold the 5400 mark quite nicely, supported by Reliance, SBI, Bharti. Metals, power, auto and FMCG stocks. However, Infosys, ICICI Bank, DLF and L&T were down.

The BSE benchmark rose 48 points to 17,878.46 and the NSE benchmark gained 11 points at 5,423.75.

The market is waiting for industrial output data. CNBC-TV18 poll sees at 3.45% in December versus 5.9% in previous month.

On the global front, Greece polity finally has an agreement on austerity on Thursday; Greek Finance Minister said they have struck a deal with private bondholders. But global markets were flat yesterday even after this deal approved. 

Back home, BPCL gained 3% ahead of results. HPCL shot up 6% post the company reported a PAT of Rs 2725 crore in Q3FY12 as against Rs 211 crore YoY.

The CNX Midcap rose 46 points to 7579. About two shares advanced for every share falling on the National Stock Exchange.

In the second line shares, Shasun Pharma was locked at 20% upper circuit after its Q3 net profit spiked to Rs 12.6 crore versus Rs 36 lakh YoY.  

HCC, SREI Infrastructure and Manappuram Finance were up 1-3%. DEN Networks jumped 5%.

Numeric Power Systems shot up 20% as the company agreed to sell UPS division to Indo Asian Electric Pvt. Ltd - a wholly owned subsidiary of Legrand France SA for a consideration of Rs 837.08 crore.

However, Essar Oil was down nearly 1% ahead of numbers.