Sensex up modestly amid stock specific buying

Metal, oil and capital goods stocks are mostly trading weak. Automobile, healthcare, consumer durables and realty stocks are trading mixed. FMCG, power, bank and information technology stocks are finding fairly good support today. Midcap and smallcap stocks are mostly subdued.

Sterlite Industries, Hero Motocorp and Hindalco are trading lower by 3.3% - 4%. Reliance Industries and Tata Steel are down 2.8% and 2.7% respectively. Coal India is down by around 2%, while GAIL India and Maruti Suzuki are down 1.8% and 1.5% respectively. HDFC Bank is also trading notably lower.

Larsen and Toubro is up 1.2% at Rs 1288 thanks to better than expected results. The company announced a little while ago that its net profit for the third quarter ended December, 2011 was Rs 991.55 crore as compared to Rs 840.53 crore in the corresponding quarter last fiscal. Net sales for the quarter stood at Rs 13,999 crore, up 23% from Rs 11,396 crore in the same quarter last year. Other income for the quarter was posted at Rs 449 crore as compared to Rs 251 crore in the same quarter a year ago.

Bharti Airtel is up nearly 3% at Rs 352.35. Hindustan Unilever, BHEL, Cipla, ICICI Bank, DLF and NTPC are up 1.4% - 2.5%. HDFC, ITC, Tata Power, Wipro, State Bank of India, Infosys, Bajaj Auto, Mahindra & Mahindra and Jindal Steel are also trading notably higher.

Adani Ports and United Spirits are down 5.6% and 5.2% respectively. United Breweries, Pantaloon Retail, Power Finance Corporation, TTK Prestige, Aditya Birla Nuvo, Alstom Projects, IRB Infrastructure, Thermax, Engineers India, REC and JSW Steel are down 2% - 4%.

JSW Energy has gained over 8% to Rs 46.90 on strong results. JSW Energy posted net loss of Rs 71.61 crore for quarter ended December 31, 2011 against net profit of Rs 122.86 crore in the same period a year ago. Total Income was at Rs 1472.15 crore for December 2011 quarter whereas the same was at Rs 985.17 crore in the corresponding quarter last fiscal.

Jain Irrigation Systems is up with a big gain of 7.3%. Suzlon Energy has moved up by over 6%. Godrej Consumer Products is up 5.2% on strong results. Syndicate Bank has also gained over 5%.

Idea Cellular is up 4.2% at Rs 87.75. The company has announced that its net profit declined 17% to Rs 201 crore for the third quarter ended December 2011. Net profit for the corresponding quarter last year was Rs 243 crore.

Colgate Palmolive is trading higher by over 3% at Rs 990. The company has announced that its net profit rose to Rs 115.58 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2011 as compared to Rs 66.24 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2010. Total income increased from Rs 585.88 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2010 to Rs 699.52 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2011, the company said.

Oriental Bank of Commerce, Gujarat Fluorochemicals, Asian Paints, Union Bank of India, Essar Oil, Jet Air India, Tata Communications, Wockhardt, Max India, Yes Bank and Amtek Auto are also up with strong gains.

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Meanwhile, CLSA has upgraded India to overweight from neutral and raised its weightage by two percentage points to 8% in its Asia Pacific ex-Japan relative return portfolio citing recent rupee appreciation versus US dollar and improved sentiment towards the euro zone.

CLSA in a report said the key variable in India is the currency, since renewed rupee weakness would clearly undermine the Reserve Bank of India's ability to ease. With growth slowing, the research house expects RBI to commence easing with a CRR cut on January 24, followed by a rate cut after the Union budget announcement in mid-March.