Nifty trades moderately higher on easing Japanese crisis

Indian equity benchmarks started the trade on a positive note following strong global cues, reacting to easing Japanese crisis and M&A deal. SBI, Reliance Industries, NTPC, Infosys, Bharti Airtel, L&T and BHEL were leading the markets higher.

Among frontliners, Hero Honda, Reliance Infrastructure, Reliance Power, Reliance Communications, NTPC, Bharti Airtel, SBI, Wipro and Infosys were pushing the markets higher in early trade.

However, ONGC, ITC, HUL, Ranbaxy Labs, Cairn, BPCL and HDFC Bank were witnessing selling pressure.

At 9:17 hours IST, the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 23 points to 5,387 and the 30-share BSE Sensex went up 76 points to 17,915 amid volatility.

The CNX Midcap climbed 31 points higher to 7,614. About 523 shares advanced as against 160 shares declined on National Stock Exchange.

There were reports that the engineers had restored electricity to three reactors at the Fukushima plant and hoped to test water pumps at the damaged facility soon. Tokyo Electric resumes work to restore power at reactors numbers 1-4. Nikkei 225 Average jumped 3%.

Midcap & Smallcap space:

Shree Renuka Sugars, Balrampur Chini, Bajaj Hindusthan and Triveni Engg jumped 1-3%. Sakthi Sugars, Oudh Sugar Mills and Dhampur Sugar rallied 5-6%. Yesterday, there were reports that Sharad Pawar is seeking Finance Minister