Sensex crawls up after brief slip into negative

Indian markets had started on a positive note on Tuesday, the first day of full time trade of Samwat 2066 - the new year according to the Hindu lunar calendar. Markets had ushered in the new year Saturday with a 60-minute special Diwali trading session -- also called muhurat, and were closed on Monday.

At 11.47 a.m., the sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened higher at 17,414.8 points, was ruling at 17,378.69 points -- 52.68 points or 0.3 percent higher than Saturday's close at 17,326.01 points.
 
Around the same time, the S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE), too was trading in the positive at 5,160.95 points, up 0.37 percent.
 
Mid-to-small capitalised company scrips also found favour among buyers, pushing the BSE midcap index 0.56 percent higher and the BSE smallcap index 0.53 percent up.
 
The market breadth was positive, with 1,316 stocks advancing, 1,146 declining and 71 remaining unchanged.
 
Among the gainers this time on the Sensex were Hindalco, up 3.48 percent at Rs.139.60; Wipro, up 2.67 percent at Rs.589; Tata Steel, up 2.32 percent at Rs.576.50, and DLF, up 1.71 percent at Rs.469.55. Among the losers were M&M, down 2.78 percent at Rs.910; Grasim Industries, down 1.12 percent at Rs.2,362.70; Reliance Communications, down 0.99 percent at Rs.236;  Bharti Airtel, down 0.92 percent at Rs.329.90.

Other Asian markets were ruling firm.  The Nikkei, a key index of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, closed 100.33 points or 0.98 percent higher at 10,336.84 points.
The primary index of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Hang Seng, was ruling 176.12 points or 0.79 percent higher at 22,376.58 points. At the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the composite index was ruling 1.3 percent up at 3,077.79 points.  The Kospi, benchmark index of the Korean Stock Exchange, was also in the green at 1,659.15  points, up 10.08 points or 0.61 percent.