Sensex, Nifty trade flat-to-positive; BHEL, SBI hot picks

Moneycontrol Bureau

After beginning on a tepid note, Indian benchmarks picked up momentum and gained over 1% each. However, it once again succummed to profit-booking resulting in a flat-to-positive trade. At 10.44 hrs IST, the Sensex was up 30.15 points or 0.16% at 19335.47, and the Nifty up 8.25 points or 0.14% at 5879.20. CNX Midcap continues with its outperformance since yesterday, and was up about 1%.

Moody's, which met the finance ministry official, has expressed concerns on banks' stressed assets. Mild profit taking was visible in HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and Andhra Bank. However, largest public sector lender, State Bank of India (SBI) was trading up 1.03%. It had closed with 1.5% gains yesterday.

BHEL remains top gainer on the Sensex with close to 2% gains. The stock has moved up over 6 % in just three trading sessions.

Sectorally, BSE power gained 0.8%, with Power Grid and CESC rising over 1% each. Interest in CESC picked up after regulator in West Bengal allowed an average 1% raise in tariffs for FY13.

Among Infra stocks, IVRCL (up 2.6%), Patel Engineering (up 3%) and HCC (up 1.4%) were on buyers' list.