Markets clock gains for the third day

Markets ended in the green after swinging between gains and losses for the major part of the day as heavyweight Reliance Industries reversed losses and buying interest emerged in the IT shares.

The Sensex closed at 17,166, up 101 points, and the Nifty ended at 5,153, up 29 points.

Earlier in the day, the Nifty touched a low of 5,098 in opening trades, tracking subdued Asian peers and recovered thereafter for a brief period.

The markets received a fresh jolt around noon after food price index was reported close to double digits, at 9.6 per cent for the second consecutive week, raising concerns that the Reserve Bank of India will continue to maintain a hawkish stance and raise interest rates by another 25 bps during the policy review next week.

The markets reversed trend and turned positive in the latter half of the day following positive opening in Europe.

Asian markets faltered during the second half of the trading session led by losses in financial shares.

The Nikkei Stock Average ended marginally higher, up 0.3%, but the Hang Seng and the Shanghai Composite indices closed down 0.6% each. European markets were trading marginally higher; FTSE, CAC and DAX were up almost 1% each after Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said that growth in the G7 countries would stagnate and urged the central banks to keep rates low.

Shanu Goel, Senior Research

Analyst from Bonanza said, "All eyes are on the United States. President Barack Obama is likely to announce some measures on Thursday for boosting the job income for the masses. Markets will take cues from Obama's speech."

Back in India, Reliance Industries climbed 3% at Rs 857 and helped the Sensex recover; the heavyweight contributed 48 points to the index.

The stock touched a low of Rs 814 in the afternoon session after the Comptroller Auditor General in a report said that oil & gas conglomerate had violated the production sharing contract for blocks in the KG D6 basin. L&T, ICICI Bank and Tata Motors were also other prominent gainers on the Sensex, up over 2% each. ITC, HDFC Bank and HDFC were the top losers, down 0.6-1% each.

BSE Consumer Durables index was the top gainer, up 2%. VIP Industries rallied 8%, Gitanjali Gems and Titan Industries were up 3% each.

Value buying emerged in the BSE IT index on expectations that the United States President Barack Obama would unveil a stimulus package of around $300 billion to improve jobs; Wipro was leading the gains, up over 3%, TCS and Infosys were also up between 0.5-2 per cent.

Metal shares were the top losers, down 0.8%. SAIL slipped 2.5%, JSW Steel and Jindal Steel were off almost 2% each.

From the broader markets, the midcap and the smallcap indices declined 0.2% and 0.8% each.

Market breadth was positive, 1,733 stocks advanced, for 1,099 stocks which declined on the BSE.