Nifty trades with modest gains; metals, auto, oil & gas up

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The benchmark Nifty has begun a day with positive bias on further short covering and buying interest in oil & gas, technology, power, realty, FMCG (after yesterday's sell-off) and metal companies' shares.

At 9:02 hours IST, the Sensex was trading at 16713, up 55 points and the Nifty was at 5018, up 18 points. 

The CNX Midcap rose 35 points to 7818 and BSE Smallcap went up 37 points to 8530. About 501 shares advanced while 161 shares declined on NSE.

Cairn India, Hindalco, ONGC, Reliance Power, Reliance Infrastructure, Tata Motors, SBI, DLF, SAIL, Tata Power, Idea Cellular, M&M, HDFC, Ranbaxy Labs nad Bharti Airtel (up 1.4%, which gained 5% yesterday) were witnessing buying interest.

However, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, ACC, Suzlon Energy and Ambuja Cements were under pressure.

Midcap & Smallcap space:

KPIT Cummins shot up another 8% after yesterday's 20% rise.

Fortis Healthcare lost 1% on concerns of fund raising.

Essar Oil rose 1.4% as its holding company Essar Energy included in FTSE 100.

Dish TV and Orchid Chemical gained 2% each.

Orbit Corporation gained 2% ahead of meeting for QIP of Rs 1000 crore.

Hindustan Copper and Engineers India went up 2% ahead of FPO plans.

Marico, Pipavav Shipyard and Voltas rallied 1-2%.

Dena Bank and UCO Bank moved up 1% each.

However, United Spirits fell nearly 4%. Petronet LNG lost 2%.

Global cues:

Asian markets were trading mixed. Shanghai Composite was down 0.75% and Hang Seng down 0.13%. Jakarta fell 0.54%. However, Taiwan, Kospi, Straits Times and Nikkei gained 0.22-0.6%.