Sensex in green; SpiceJet up 1.48% after it orders Boeing jets

The market opened in the positive terrain. The Sensex is up 73.75 points at 20766.99, and the Nifty up 15.80 points or 0.26% at 6178.05.

Markets expected to remain range-bound ahead of Infosys results on Friday and inflation data next week.

Hindalco, Coal India,Sun Pharma, Bajaj Auto and ICICI Bank are early gainers in the Sensex. On the losing side are GAIL, Cipla, Dr Reddy’s Labs, HUL and Maruti Suzuki are among the laggards.

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The rupee gained in the early trade on Wednesday. It opened higher by 12 paise at 62.19 per dollar versus previous day’s closing value of 62.31.

According to Himanshu Arora of Religare, dollar-rupee pair is expected to trade slightly higher in today’s session amid dollar surging against a basket of currencies and plunging domestic equities. “Moreover, Fed’s recently instigated tapering is also underpinning dollar against the rupee. Range for the rupee is seen between 62.12-62.65/dollar,” he added.

The Reserve Bank ofIndia(RBI) has recommended sweeping changes in thebankingstructure.

According to media reports, an RBI panel has suggested the setting up of specialised banks to cater to low income households to ensure that all citizens have bank accounts by 2016.

Rakesh Arora of Macquarie believes that market has had a lot to absorb and look jittery at the moment. “On this backdrop the earnings season will play the lead role in determining the direction of the market along with inflation data and RBI policy on January 28,” he told CNBC-TV18 in an interview.

Meanwhile, the dollar hovers near a one-month high against a basket of major currencies early in Asia trade, having rebounded smartly overnight on the back of upbeat US trade data. US stocks ended higher Monday, with the S&P snapping a three-day losing streak.

In macro news from the Eurozone, inflation data came in lower than expected, increasing the pressure on ECB to announce stimulus measures at its policy meeting this week. German unemployment fell in December on a seasonally adjusted basis, the first drop since July.

Stocks in news:

IDBI Bank isdown 0.93 percent. According to a ToI report today, the bank’s loan of Rs 1000 crore may become bad debt.

SpiceJet is up 1.48 percent. The companywill buy 42 Boeing 737 MAX jets for USD 4 billion.

Banking stocks - Union Bank up 1.7 pct, IndusInd Bank gains 0.9 pct, Kotak gains 0.8 pct, Canara Bank rises 0.8 pct, PNB gains 0.6 pct, ICICI Bank rises 0.6 pct