Mkts recover in early trade, stabilise

New Delhi: The markets gain stability on account of buying interest witnessed in the IT, telecom and auto stocks.

Triggered by firming Asian stock markets, the benchmark Sensex recovered by more than 98 points in early trade on Thursday on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

At 1055 hrs IST, the Sensex, which had lost nearly 215 points in the last two trading sessions, was up 51.44 points or 0.36 per cent at 14239.93. And the broad based Nifty was up by 23.25 points or 0.57 per cent at 4119.45.

About 1,141 shares have advanced, 828 shares declined, and 61 shares are unchanged.

Market observers said apart from funds buying short-covering by speculators in the Futures and Option (F&O) segment in view of today's expiry of February contract helped trading sentiments to improve.

Top gainers on the Sensex are Wipro at Rs 679 up 1.61 per cent, Bharti Airtel at Rs 818 up 1.45 per cent and Satyam at Rs 468.35 up 1.33 per cent.

Top losers on the Sensex are ACC at Rs 999.40 down 0.85 per cent, Hindalco at Rs 149.25 down 0.8 per cent and Grasim at Rs 2,535 down 0.5 per cent.

Top gainers on the Nifty are GlaxoSmithKline at Rs 1,171.05 up 1.67 per cent, Satyam at Rs 468.50 up 1.37 per cent and Reliance Comm at Rs 452.95 up 1.35 per cent.

Top losers on the Nifty are HPCL at Rs 289 down 1.53 per cent, BPCL at Rs 332.15 down 1.15 per cent and MTNL at Rs 141.75 down 0.94 per cent.

Most active shares on BSE are Firstsource Sol at Rs 82.20 with 1,01,71,000 shares, GBN at Rs 710.25 with 7,41,831 shares and HDFC Bank at Rs 1,015.95 with 4,55,174 shares.

Most active shares on NSE are Aptech at Rs 254.75 with 30,98,881 shares, GBN at Rs 708 with 10,55,905 shares and Reliance at Rs 1,420.50 with 3,36,988 shares.

Index heavyweight Hindustan Lever was trading at Rs 196 up 0.26 per cent from its previous close of Rs 195.50.

Index heavyweight Reliance was trading at Rs 1,421 up 1.06 per cent from its previous close of Rs 1,406.15.

Tech major Infosys was trading at Rs 2,306.25 down 0.29 per cent from its previous close of Rs 2,312.90.

Cigarette major ITC was trading at Rs 174.20 down 0.29 per cent from its previous close of Rs 174.70.

Refinery major HPCL was trading at Rs 288.50 down 1.25 per cent from its previous close of Rs 292.15.