Markets volatile; RIL up 1.5% on higher gas price nod

The market started off trade with a positive bias on last day of the week supported by Reliance Industries and ONGC .

The Sensex rose 47.94 points to 20,756.56, and the Nifty gained 5.10 points at 6,171.75.

Reliance rallied 2 percent in opening trade as cabinet approved gas price issue subject to company submitting bank guarantee, but saw some profit booking later on. ONGC also climbed nearly 2 percent, but power stocks are under pressure with the NTPC and Tata Power falling marginally as they have to buy gas at higher price compared to earlier.

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Country’s largest private sector lender ICICI Bank bounced back with 0.9 percent gains on short covering while its rival SBI rose 0.4 percent.

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The Indian rupee trading at 62.30 per dollar vs previous close of 62.14/15.

Technology stocks continued their positive momentum with TCS and Wipro gaining more than a percent while their rival Infosys advanced 0.4 percent.

However, shares of ITC , Larsen and Toubro , Sun Pharma , HDFC Bank , Sesa Sterlite and Bharti Airtel are under pressure.

IT stocks would be on watch after their global peer Accenture said it expected its consulting business to turn the corner this financial year as orders rise, building on strength in its outsourcing unit that helped the company report better-than-expected quarterly results.

Asian markets are mixed today while a day after the call to taper, US markets ended flat to lower on mixed economic data. Europe too reacted positively to a less easy Fed with core markets ending 1.5 percenthigher.

Yesterday, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said that India is better prepared than it was months ago to deal with the Federal Reserve’s reduction of its monetary stimulus even as the rupee fell only slightly in the wake of the once much-feared decision.