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

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Sensex volatile ahead of expiry tomorrow; ICICI Bk dips

The Sensex started the day with some consolidation ahead of F&O expiry on Thursday. Heavyweight Reliance Industries was marginally up, as it is the last day for RIL's cum bonus trade. It will go ex-bonus tomorrow.

At 9:56 am, the Sensex was up 25 points at 17,155 and the Nifty gained just 2 points at 5,092. The CNX Midcap went up 37 points to 7,267. About 509 shares advanced while 176 shares declined on the NSE.

Among the frontliners, ICICI Bank slipped below Rs 900 level, down 1.5%. Reliance Infrastructure, Wipro, Infosys, TCS, HDFC, Bharti Airtel and Hindalco were other losers.

However, BPCL, M&M, Maruti, Hero Honda, ITC, IDFC, BHEL and ONGC were gainers in early trade.

Unitech will raise money for third time. It has proposed to issue GDR/FCCB for $ 700 million.

Astec Lifesciences started the first day at Rs 87 as against issue price of Rs 82 per share.

Midcap space:

Man Industries was up 11%.

Den Networks was down 0.5%, after slipping 16% on first day yesterday.

Vishal Retail fell over 5.5%. MphasiS was up 1.7% post good numbers.

Geometric Soft and Max India were up over 2%.

Global cues:

Asian markets were quiet in trade. Shanghai, Hang Seng and Kospi were marginally down while Nikkei, Straits Times and Taiwan Weighted were flat.

The US markets ended off day's low after Fed raised 2010 GDP forecast while shrugged off lower than expected preliminary 3Q GDP data.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended down 17 points at 10,434, which saw recovery of 75 points from day's low of 10,359.

The Nasdaq Composite ended down 6.8 points at 2,169, after seeing recovery of 14 points from day's low of 2,155.

The S&P 500 index ended flat at 1,105, after seeing recovery of 8 points from day's low of 1,098.

Fed raised its GDP target for 2010 to the range of 2.5% to 3.5% from prior forecast of 2.1% to 3.3% in July.

Commodities

Reuters CRB Index was down 1%.

Crude oil was down 2% at $76/bbl, at 5-week lows.

Gold held above $1165/ounce.

Copper was down 1.1% at $ 6870/tonne.

Baltic Dry Index was down 2%.

Market cues:

-FIIs net sell USD 14.6 million on November 23
-MFs net buy Rs 219.2 crore on November 23
-Total F&O Open Interest up by Rs 2,229 crore at Rs 1,17,186 crore
-FIIs net buy Rs 170 crore in Cash on November 24 (prov)
-DIIs net sell Rs 147 crore in Cash on November 24 ( prov)
-FIIs net sell Rs 116.5 crore in F&O on November 24

F&O cues:

-Total Futures Open Int up by Rs 982 crore
-Total Options Open Int up by Rs 1247 crore
-Nifty down 0.3%, Futures Open Int up 5%
-Nifty Dec futures trading at 7 pt premium
-Nifty IVs at 22-26%
-Nifty Open Int PCR at 1.66 versus 1.65
-Nifty Calls add 6.4 lakh shares in Open Int
-Nifty Puts add 15.2 lakh shares in Open Int
-Nifty Nov 5100 Put adds 5.9 lakh shares in Open Int
-Nifty Dec 5000 Put adds 5.3 lakh shares in Open Int
-Nifty Dec 4800 Put adds 4.6 lakh shares in Open Int
-Stock Futures add 1.46 crore shares in Open Int