Nifty touches 5500 mark; heavyweights lead

The benchmark Nifty bounced back with moderate gains in opening trade after a deep cut seen on Monday. The index touched the 5500 level as financial, steel, auto and infrastructure stocks were supporting the markets.

Tamil Nadu Deputy CM said congress asked for 1 more day to decide on fate of alliance and DMK leaders would not submit resignations today. There was buzz that congress may come out with better solution so that alliance will not break adead of elections in Tamil Nadu in next month. Even crude oil also cooled off as OPEC members will raise oil output to cool soaring prices and allay fears of a supply crunch in the west. There were unconfirmed reports that Libyan Leader Gaddafi is trying to make a deal to escape Libya with his wealth intact. London brent crude oil was trading at USD 114.5 a barrel and NYMEX crude was trading at USD 104.8 a barrel. Among frontliners, Jaiprakash Associates, Reliance Infrastructure, L&T, SAIL, Tata Steel, ONGC, BPCL, Maruti, Hero Honda, Tata Motors, Sesa Goa, SBI, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and ACC were witnessing buying interest. However, NTPC, Infosys, Wipro, ITC and Hindalco were on sellers' radar. At 9:18 hours IST, the 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 97 points to 18,319 and the 50-share NSE Nifty went up 22 points to 5,485.  The CNX Midcap was trading at 7,594, up 41 points. About 652 shares advanced as against 261 shares declined on National Stock Exchange. Midcap & Smallcap space: United Phosphorous gained 2.5% as there were reports that it is set to buy company in Brazil. RCF and Chambal Fertiliser were up nearly 2%. Ispat was up 2%. Jet Airways gained 2.5%. MTNL gained 3% and KRBL was up 1%. PTC India went up nearly 2% as its subsidiary PTC India Financial Services' IPO is likely in March. However, NOCIL tanked 5%. Apollo Tyres was down 0.5%. _PAGEBREAK_ Global cues: The US markets recovered from day's low on Monday as crude slipped marginally on unconfirmed reports that Gaddafi is trying to make a deal to escape Libya with his wealth intact. OPEC members to raise oil output to cool soaring prices and allay fears of a supply crunch in the west. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended down 80 points at 12,090, after seeing recovery of 50 points from day's low of 12,041. The Nasdaq Composite ended down 39 points at 2,746, after seeing recovery of 22 points from day's low of 2,724. The S&P 500 index ended down 11 points at 1,310, after seeing recovery of 6 points from day's low of 1,304. Commodities CRB Commodity Index ended up 0.5%; seventh straight gain April crude oil contract slipped to USD 105.44 after hitting USD 106.95, a fresh 2.5 years high Crude oil fell for the first time in three days April natural gas was up 2.5% at USD 3.93 per MMBtu, best levels in a week April gold contract was up 0.5% at USD 1434.5/ounce, hit new all-time high at USD 1445.70 May silver contract gained 1.9% at USD 35.87/ounce, hit fresh 30 years highs at USD 36.70 F&O cues: Total Futures Open Int down Rs 887 crore, Total Options Open Int down Rs 588 crore Total stock futures Open Int add 44 lakh shares in Open Int Futures Open Int shed 19 lakh (8%) shares in Open Int, discount widens to 12 pts from 4 pts India VIA jumps 10% at 25.22 Nifty Open Int PCR falls to 1.26 from 1.27 (recovered after hitting a low of 1.21) Total Put shed 12.3 lakh shares, call shed 4.8 lakh shares Highest Open Int outstanding at 5400 put (from 5600 call), 5300 put, 5600 call Nifty 5600 Call sheds20.5 lakh (25%) shares in Open Int Nifty 5500 put shed 6.5 lakh (14%) shares in Open Int Nifty 5600 put shed 5.2 lakh (22%) shares in Open Int Nifty 5000 put shed 2.34 lakh (5%) shares in Open Int Nifty 5400 call adds 7.8 lakh (32%) shares in Open Int Nifty 5500 call adds 4.1 lakh (8%) shares in Open Int Nifty 5800 call adds 2.5 lakh (6) shares in Open Int Nifty April 5000 put adds 1.1 lakh (11%) shares in Open Int