Sensex maintains uptrend; ADAG, metals rise

Indian equity benchmarks were consistently trading higher today with the support from metal, power, healthcare, financial, Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group and oil & gas (barring ONGC) companies' shares. The Sensex has maintained its 100 points gains and the Nifty was facing resistance at 5500 level at 13:54 hours, despite fall in European markets in opening trade.

Crude oil prices saw sell-off on the back of likely lower demand after a massive 8.9 magnitude earthquake and 10-metre Tsunami in Japan on Friday. Ports, power plants and refineries were shut in world's third largest economy.

London Brent crude was trading around USD 112 a barrel and Nymex crude oil slipped below the USD 100 a barrel, which pushed the Indian markets higher.

"Short-term oil prices will decline because Japan is one of the world's largest oil importers and the Japanese economy will be severely and negatively impacted," said Andrew Moorfield, head of oil and gas division at Lloyds banking group.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was trading at 18,300, up 127 points and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 44 points at 5,489. However, European markets like FTSE and CAC declined 0.5%; DAX plunged over 1.5%.

Among frontliners, Tata Power, Reliance Communications, Tata Steel, Reliance Industries, Reliance Infrastructure, GAIL, BPCL and SAIL rallied 2-4%.

Reliance Capital surged 7% as Nippon will acquire 26% stake in Reliance Life by investing Rs 3,062 crore. Transaction has pegged Reliance Life Insurance at USD 2.6 billion.

However, Maruti Suzuki, BHEL, Bharti Airtel, Tata Motors and Hero Honda slipped 0.5-1%. Suzlon Energy tanked over 3%.

In midcap space, Atlas Copco jumped 13%. Whirlpool, MRF, Kirloskar Oil and Alfa Laval gained 5-7% while KGN Industries, Sunteck Realty, Wockhardt, Shree Global and Indian Metals lost 3-5%.

In smallcap space, Atlanta, Hitachi Home, Federal-Mogul, IFB Industries and Shrenuj & Company were up 8-13.5% whereas Shristi Infra, Zenith Infotech, Welspun Project, Graviss Hosp and Entegra fell 5-7%.

(With inputs from Reuters)

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Nifty hits 5500; RIL, NTPC, HDFC, Infosys lead

Consistent buying in financial, oil & gas, infrastructure, metal, healthcare, technology and Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) companies' shares was supporting the Nifty to hit the 5500 level. The Sensex too was trading with more than 100 points gains at 11:57 hours IST.

Heavyweights Reliance Industries, NTPC, HDFC, Infosys, ICICI Bank, Wipro and L&T gained 1-2%. Among others, ONGC, SBI, TCS, ITC and HDFC Bank gained 0.4% each.

However, auto stocks like Tata Motors, Maruti Suzuki and Bajaj Auto were on sellers' radar with 1% fall. After the massive 8.9 magnitude earthquake and tsunami on Friday, Japan has been battling hard to prevent a nuclear catastrophe and carry on rescue operations for millions of people without power or water in its worst crisis since World War II. Suzuki is the parent company of Maruti Suzuki, based in Japan.

The 30-share BSE Sensex went up 130 points to 18,304 and the 50-share NSE Nifty climbed 42 points to 5,487. The broader indices were marginally in green today.

India's wholesale price index (WPI) rose an annual 8.31% in February on higher fuel and manufactured product prices, government data showed on Monday. The figure was well above the median forecast for a 7.79% rise in a Reuter