Sensex up marginally amid cautious trades

Amid alternate bouts of buying and selling in blue chip stocks, the market is having a choppy ride this morning. Though global cues are positive, the mood is somewhat cautious on the Indian bourses after two successive days of strong gains. Activity is mostly stock specific at present.

The Sensex, which faltered to 15,788.99 after spurting to 15,911.23, is currently up 26.85 points or 0.17% at 15,840.21. The Nifty index of the National Stock Exchange is up 6.50 points or 0.14% at 4740.35.

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Capital goods majors BHEL (3.3%) and Larsen & Toubro (2.75%) are trading firm with strong gains with investors picking up the stocks after recent sharp losses. Metal stocks Sterlite Industries (2.1%), Hindalco (2%) and Tata Steel (1%) are also up with impressive gains.

Automobile stocks Maruti Suzuki and Tata Motors are up 1.9% and 1.2%, respectively. Mahindra & Mahindra is trading nearly a percent up. FMCG major Hindustan Unilever is up with a gain of 0.9%. DLF, Reliance Industries, Coal India, Sun Pharmaceuticals and Wipro are also trading higher.

Sesa Goa, SAIL, Grasim Industries, Axis Bank, Siemens, Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Cairn India and Power Grid Corporation are up in positive territory with smart gains.

BPCL, IDFC, Ranbaxy Laboratories, NTPC, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Power, Punjab National Bank, Bajaj Auto, GAIL, Jindal Steel, ONGC, Infosys, ICICI Bank, Cipla and Jaiprakash Associates are down with sharp to moderate losses.

Among the most impressive gainers in BSE 'A' Group, Lanco Infratech is up 6%, Apollo Hospitals is gaining 5.5% and ABB is up by a little over 5%. NMDC, Gujarat Fluorochemicals, Jet Air India, Wockhardt, Manappuram Finance, Indiabulls Real Estate, Indian Hotels, Coromandel International, Neyveli Lignite Corporation, Alstom Projects, JP Infratech, Adani Enterprises and Voltas have also risen Sharply.

Suzlon Energy is up 2.7% at Rs 19.15. The company has announced that it has bagged cumulative orders worth around Rs 935 crore for 166.30 MW in India.

ABB has booked an order worth more than $900 million from India's Power Grid Corporation to supply a transmission system with the highest converter capacity ever built. The group has been contracted to supply an ultra-high voltage direct current transmission system to deliver hydropower from northeast India to Agra. The stock is up 5.5% at Rs 601 at present.

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Century Textiles & Industries Ltd has informed that, in order to comply with certain pollution control requirements and other technical reasons, manufacturing operations at Pulp & Paper Division of the Company situate at Lalkua, Dist. Nainital, Uttarakhand have been temporarily shut effective from December 23, 2011. Efforts are being made to resume operations earliest possible. The stock is up 0.6% at Rs 233 now.

Monnet Ispat Ltd shares are up nearly 2.5% at Rs 368 following an announcement from the company that its Board of Directors, on Thursday, approved the proposal of Buy-back of Equity Shares from the open market, through the stock exchanges, at a price not exceeding Rs 500/- per share, up to a maximum amount of Rs 100.00 crore being 4.97% of the total paid up capital and free reserves of the company.