Sensex trades higher; oil & gas, metals, auto, banks gain

ALSO READ See Key Market Stats - Top Gainers/ Losers, Most Actives, Highs/Lows See how Global Markets are trading Indian ADRs BSE | NSE 10/02/12

At 12:12 hours IST - the Sensex remained positive led by buying interest in oil & gas, metal, banking (barring ICICI Bank), auto and select infrastructure stocks. ITC, Bharti Airtel, Infosys and Wipro were other gainers. However, selling was seen in ICICI Bank, Tata Power, DLF and Reliance Infrastructure.

Positive Asian markets were also supportive. Shanghai was up 1.2%. Hang Seng, Nikkei, Straits Times, Kospi and Taiwan Weighted were up 0.3-0.5%.

Cairn India was down half a percent due to crude falling below $ 76 per barrel. This was positive for oil marketing companies. BPCL shot up 6%. HPCL and IOC gained over 3%. GAIL and Reliance Industries were up nearly 2%. ONGC was up 1%. Reliance Industries continued to hold in green as it will go ex-bonus tomorrow.

All banking stocks were seeing buying interest; Bank of Baroda, Kotak Mahindra, Axis Bank, PNB, HDFC Bank and SBI were up 0.7-1.7% while only ICICI Bank fell 0.5%.

Auto stocks maintained gains for third day in a row. Maruti Suzuki, M&M, Hero Honda and Ashok Leyland went up 1-1.6%. Bajaj Auto was up 0.76% and Tata Motors up 0.30%.

JSW Steel and SAIL gained over 2% in the metal space. Jindal Saw, Sesa Goa, Sterlite Industries, Jindal Steel, Tata Steel and NALCO moved up 1-1.9%. Hindalco was up 0.33%.

The Nifty rose 37 points to 5,127 and the Sensex gained 123 points at 17,253. The broader indices were trading in line with benchmark indices, up 0.9% each.

In the midcap space, M&M Financial, Gujarat Gas, Reliance Industrial Infra, Prism Cement and Welspun Gujarat were up 4-7.5%. However, Motherson Sumi, Chambal Fertiliser, OnMobile Global, Sterling Bio and Aurobindo Pharma fell 1.4-4%.

In the smallcap space, Honda Siel was up 14%. NESCO, Avaya GlobalConnect, TIL and Ador Welding were up 9-11% while Jindal Worldwide, Grindwell Norton, Shristi Infra, Entegra and TV TodayNetwork lost 3-5%.

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