Nifty begins year on positive note; Asian mkts support

The benchmark Nifty started the year 2011 on a positive note, led by buying in financial, auto, metal and realty stocks. Even midcaps and smallcaps followed the same trend. Asian markets were quite supportive in early trade today.

Among frontliners, Axis Bank, Tata Motors, M&M, Hero Honda, DLF, Reliance Communications, Sterlite, Sesa Goa, JSPL, SAIL, Tata Steel, SBI, Kotkak Mahindra Bank and PNB were on buyers' radar.

However, Bharti Airtel, ACC and Infosys were marginally down.

At 9:17 hours IST, the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 37 points to 6,171 and the 30-share BSE Sensex gained 134 points at 20,643.

The CNX Midcap rallied 68 points at 8,925 and the Nifty Junior rose 98 points to 12,330. About 667 shares advanced as against 103 shares declined on National Stock Exchange.

Midcap & Smallcap space:

Textile Ministry seeks Rs 2,003 crore from Cabinet for 2011-2012 under Technology Upgradation Funds Scheme, reports CNBC-TV18 quoting government sources. Arvind and Alok Industries gained 2% each.

TVS Motor rallied 3.5% ahead of monthly auto numbers. Apolly Tyres went up 3.5% on good growth in auto companies' sales numbers.

3i Infotech rose 2.3% and Subex was up 1.6%. Shree Renuka Sugars and Balrampur Chini moved up 1.5%.

Indraprastha Gas was up 2%. Prakash Industries shot up 6%.

Jet Airways was up 1% and Kingfisher up 1.5%; both companies hike fuel surcharge by up to Rs 200/Ticket.

However, Shree Ashtavinayak tumbled 5%. Patni lost 3.5% as board raises concern on iGATE deal and was unhappy with iGATE