Sensex trading strong; oil & gas, realty, pharma up

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At 11.54 hrs IST, the Sensex was trading strong with 100 points gains at 16,719. Buying was seen in oil & gas, realty, pharma, metal, banking and auto stocks. However, FMCG stocks witnessed selling pressure. Stocks like Reliance, ICICI Bank, L&T, HDFC and HDFC Bank were the positive contributors to the Sensex while Infosys, ITC, HUL, Tata Motors and NTPC were the negative contributors.

The Sensex was up 102.44 points or 0.62% at 16719.54, and the Nifty was up 38.85 points or 0.78% at 5025.95.

About 1738 shares advanced, 1115 shares declined, and 453 shares were unchanged.

Top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel at Rs 270.50 up 4.93%, ONGC at Rs 1,198 up 2.78%, Reliance Infra at Rs 1,078 up 2.01%, ACC at Rs 857.65 up 1.95% and M&M at Rs 580.65 up 1.69%.

Index heavyweight Reliance was trading at Rs 1,010.50 up 1.41% from its previous close of Rs 996.45.

Refinery major HPCL was trading at Rs 358 up 2.89% from its previous close of Rs 347.95.

However, Top losers on the Sensex were ITC at Rs 280.60 down 3.14%, Tata Power at Rs 1,227.25 down 1.2%, Wipro at Rs 641.90 down 0.31%, Infosys at Rs 2,649 down 0.23% and HUL at Rs 251.25 down 0.1%.

Cigarette major ITC was trading at Rs 280.60 down 3.14% from its previous close of Rs 289.70.

Markets Outlook

Markets, globally, continue to witness a bout of turbulence leading to massive volatility since the past many trading sessions. However, Raamdeo Agrawal of Motilal Oswal Financial Securities feels the current fall is not alarming yet but he does agree to the fact that the cyclicals have been impacted more by the recent correction.

Concentrating on specific stocks and sectors rather than the global scenario, which, according to him, is unlikely to have any catastrophic impact on Indian markets in the near term, he says he is bullish on public sector banks. "The State Bank of India (SBI) looks attractive from that pack," he adds.

Suresh Mahadevan of UBS Securities  "Maintaining a target of 22,000 for the Sensex by March FY11. If the markets rebound, metal stocks will do very well. He is positive on banks, pharma, real estate and power. "Also, steel stocks look attractive. In fact we have upgraded SAIL to buy," he adds.