Nifty ends tad below 7750, Sensex strong; M&M, ONGC up 3-4%

03:40 pm Global markets
European shares eked out gains driven by upbeat earnings from a number of blue-chip companies, while the euro fell to the day's low after a broadly disappointing set of services activity data.

Investors were cheered by strong results from German luxury carmaker BMW and France's third biggest listed bank Credit Agricole, among others, enabling European equities to buck the trend in Asian markets which were hit by weak Chinese data.

But the gains appeared fragile ahead of a US survey that could cast fresh light on the pace of recovery in the world's biggest economy.

03:30 pm Market closing
The market finally ended on higher note, supported by auto stocks. The Sensex ended up 184.85 points at 25908.01, and the Nifty was up 62.90 points at 7746.55. About 1758 shares have advanced, 1164 shares declined, and 125 shares are unchanged.

M&M, ONGC, Hindalco, Bajaj Auto and Tata Steel are major gainers while Hero, Bharti, L&T, BHEL and NTPC were among laggards. Realty and metals stocks also helped the benchmark indices in upward journey. Both Midcap and Smallcap index jumped 1 percent each.

03:20 pm Rupee check
The rupee is trading at 60.78 versus Monday's close of 60.93/94 on the back of custodian and corporate dollar sales. Traders expect the pair to face good support at 60.60 levels keeping it in a 60.60 to 61.00 range for the rest of the session.

RBI kept key policy rate unchanged but warned about inflationary risks should a shortfall in monsoon rains spark a surge in food prices. Most other Asian currencies are also trading stronger compared to the dollar.

03:10 pm Houseview
Analysts are bullish on Marico and suggest buying it after April-June quarter earnings. The FMCG firm reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 185.27 crore for the quarter ended June 30 on the back of net sales of Rs 1,619.23 crore.

CLSA retains buy rating with a target price revised upwards to Rs 315 per share. It says   Marico's unique product positioning helped to get strong 25 percent Y-o-Y growth in revenues while strong pricing power in core segments also boosted April-June quarter earnings.

Credit Suisse also has an outperform rating with an increased target price of Rs 275. The brokerage remains positive on Marico's ability to consistently deliver 20 percent earnings growth.

Both Citi and Deutsche Bank have buy rating. Citi is hoping to see healthy revenues in FY15 with steady volumes and share gains. With a target of Rs 300, Deutsche Bank believes Marico's valuation is justified given its demonstrated strong resilience even in difficult times.

03:00pm Crompton Greaves falls 4.5%
Avantha Group Company Crompton Greaves missed street expectations with the consolidated net profit growing 6.5 percent year-on-year to Rs 64 crore in the quarter ended June 2014 supported by sales growth and operational performance. Net profit in the year-ago period was Rs 60.1 crore.

According to CNBC-TV18 poll estimates, analysts had expected the company to report net profit of Rs 80 crore on revenue of Rs 3,500 crore for the quarter.

Consolidated net sales grew by 7.7 percent year-on-year to Rs 3,441 crore in April-June quarter led by power segment but impacted by industrial segment.

02:50pm Tata Chemicals Q1 earnings
Tata Chemicals' first quarter (April-June) net profit shot up 133.4 percent to Rs 175.5 crore compared to Rs 75.2 crore in same quarter last year on account of higher revenue but impacted by tax cost and total expenses during the quarter.

Consolidated net sales grew by 16.8 percent to Rs 3,803 crore in the quarter ended June 2014 from Rs 3,256 crore in the year-ago period. The stock gained 2 percent.

02:40pm Coal India bounces back
Coal India board, in a meeting on August 12, may consider price hike of around 10 percent, reports CNBC-TV18 quoting unnamed sources.

It is learnt that the board of directors may consider cut in e-auction quantum by 50 percent. Coal price hike will protect revenue if e-auction quantum cut and will adjust loss on account of higher input cost, say sources.

According to sources, cut in coal for e-auction may hit revenue of the company by Rs 2,800 crore. The stock gained 1.5 percent.

02:30pm Sintex shares in demand
Plastic products manufacturer Sintex Industries has reported a massive 32 percent growth in consolidated net profit at Rs 61.5 crore in April-June quarter of FY15 supported by strong revenue growth. Profit in the year-ago period was Rs 46.6 crore.

Consolidated total income from operations grew by 19.2 percent to Rs 1,345 crore in the quarter ended June 2014 from Rs 1,128 crore in same quarter last year aided by good growth in all major segments.

02:20pm Sugar story
The impasse between the state and UP Sugar Mill owners has intensified with companies serving suspension notice to the government. Even the industry body, Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA), on Tuesday said the crushing operations at UP sugar mills will not take place in 2014-15.

In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Vivek Saraogi, MD, Balrampur Chini, said the biggest loser in the ongoing battle is the industry. He said that there is a need for permanent solution to ongoing cane pricing issue and thinks it ''lies only with the state government''.   

He said the mill owners have briefed the Centre of their problems. ''Even the central government in its affidavit said arrears issue exists due to high cane prices,'' he added.

02:10pm FII View
Mahesh Nandurkar, CLSA says the results season so far has been on the expected lines on the whole. ''The good news for domestic recovery was visible in demand growth uptick for autos and cement. Asset quality trends in PSU banks have also held up well. Telecom has been the stand out sector with positive surprises. On the negative side, capital goods sector including L&T was the big disappointment,'' he adds.

He further says the brokerage believes better evidence of economic recovery would be visible in September and more so in December quarter.

02:00pm Equity benchmarks recouped all losses in last 10 minutes of trade supported by auto, healthcare, technology, metals and select banks socks. The Sensex climbed 124.36 points to 25847.52 and the Nifty rose 43.85 points to 7727.50.

About 1540 shares have advanced, 1237 shares declined, and 130 shares are unchanged.

Shares of Mahindra and Mahindra, ONGC, Sun Pharma, Bajaj Auto and Hindalco Industries rallied 2-2.7 percent followed by Infosys and Dr Reddy's Labs with 1 percent. Commercial vehicle maker Tata Motors jumped nearly 2 percent.

Cement stocks like ACC, Ambuja Cements, UltraTech Cement and Grasim Industries surged 3-4 percent.

However, Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, Larsen and Toubro, NTPC, Hero Motocorp, Coal India, Bharti Airtel and Cipla declined 0.4-1.3 percent.

2:00 pm Airport privatisation: As the process of privatisation of four airports: Jaipur, Lucknow, Guwahati and Ahmedabad have gathered pace in the last few weeks, doubts have cropped up over Chennai and Kolkata airports' privatisation being pushed back due to lack of cooperation from state governments and strong objections from their respective workers' unions. The plan to privatise six airports including Chennai and Kolkata was moved by the former aviation minister Ajit Singh just before the UPA's tenure came to a close.

A consultant closely associated with the parleys for airport privatisation through PPP told CNBC-TV18 that Chennai and Kolkata may be dropped initially from the list of six airports to be privatised. One large private airport developer also spoke of the PPP process being initiated for only four airports now.

1:50 pm Reaction to RBI policy: The RBI's decision to cut statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) in its bi-monthly credit policy will not give any momentum boost to the auto industry, says VS Parthasarathy, chief financial officer, M&M.

Speaking to CNBC-TV18, Parthasarathy says the policy is neutral but given the fact that festive season is around the season is picking up, there will be an immediate need for uptick in the supply being available.

''Now the RBI has given some B2B flexibility to banks and we will now wait and watch whether the B2B follows B2C,'' says Parthasarathy.

1:40 pm CAT order against NSE: The Competition Appellate Tribunal today upheld an order passed against National Stock Exchange by fair trade regulator CCI, which had found the bourse guilty of abusing its dominant market position in currency derivatives segment.

Reacting to the order, passed this morning after nearly 3-year-long hearings on NSE's appeal, the exchange said that it would appeal against the decision and "whatever it has done was in the interest of the development of the capital markets".

In May 2011, the competition watchdog had found NSE guilty of abusing its dominant market position and adopting unfair trade practices in currency derivatives trading. A month later, CCI also imposed a fine of Rs 55.5 crore on the country's leading bourse for abusing its dominant market position, and asked it to stop unfair trade practices. At that time, it was the CCI's first major penalty against anti-competition practices.

1:30 pm Losing on downgrade: Shares of Petronet LNG slipped over 5 percent intraday, following a series of downgrades post its dismal April-June quarter earnings. JP Morgan has downgraded the stock with a new target price of Rs 195 per share due to execution delays and lower than expected volumes/margins.

The India's biggest importer of liquefied natural gas has reported a 30 percent drop in net profit for the first first quarter on lower margins and said it has received interest from 17-18 global LNG players for hiring its almost idle Kochi terminal.

According to JP Morgan, positives from the structural growth in LNG demand is fairly reflected in the stock price and upside would need further catalysts (clarity on Kochi volume outlook, more stable trading margins, sustained higher utilisations at Dahej).

1:20 pm Results: Plastic products manufacturer Sintex Industries has reported a massive 32 percent growth in consolidated net profit at Rs 61.5 crore in April-June quarter of FY15 supported by strong revenue growth. Profit in the year-ago period was Rs 46.6 crore.

Consolidated total income from operations grew by 19.2 percent to Rs 1,345 crore in the quarter ended June 2014 from Rs 1,128 crore in same quarter last year aided by good growth in all major segments.

Revenue from its plastics segment jumped 12.7 percent on yearly basis to Rs 1,076 crore while textile revenue rose by 39 percent to Rs 155 crore and infrastructure (affordable housing and EPC contract) business shot up 84 percent to Rs 113.8 crore during the same period.

The market is still in red as the Sensex is down 102.96 points at 25620.20 and the Nifty is down 23.20 points at 7660.45. About 1341 shares have advanced, 1307 shares declined, and 113 shares are unchanged.

Auto index is up over 1 percent, led by Bajaj Auto, M&M and Tata Motors. Sun Pharma,ONGC and Hindalco are major gainers in the Sensex. Among the losers are Coal India, Hero MotoCorp, NTPC, Reliance and ITC.

Meanwhile, the UP sugar crisis has intensified with mill owners serving suspension notice to state government. Crushing operations at UP mills will not take place in 2014-2015 as mill owners accuse the state government of coercive action. Sugar stocks like Dhampur Sugar are sliding.

In the money market, bond yields spike by half a percent as the Reserve Bank leaves key interest rates unchanged in line with expectations. Governor Raghuran Rajan says the central bank is committed to bringing down inflation to 6 percent by January 2016. It has maintained FY 15 GDP target of 5.5 percent is achievable.

01:00pm Zensar bags order
Zensar Technologies has announced new wins in Germany and Europe in July. It has also opened a new office in Switzerland with other global office in Kenya this year.

"We are delighted to announce first significant win in the private sector in Germany. This follows on the heels of a multi-million dollar project we signed for a government agencey in the first quarter of this year. With the wins we have seen last year in Europe and the robust pipeline in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Holland and UK, we see the region contributing over 15 percent of our global revenues by 2017," said Gurdeep Grewal, senior vice president and head Europe. The stock surged 4 percent.

12:50pm Marico shares in demand
Marico rose 6 percent after Saugata Gupta, MD and CEO of the company told CNBC-TV18 in a boardroom interview that sustainable margins for FY15 is seen at 15 percent level and that price hikes are enough to offset the hike in input costs.

Credit Suisse increased earnings per share by 4-5 percent to account for the margin beat in the results and maintains outperform rating with a target price of Rs 275.

The stock gained as much as 15 percent intraday.

12:40pm Sugar stocks in focus
Indian Sugar Mills Association told CNBC-TV18 that UP sugar mills gave suspension notice to UP government. "Crushing operations at UP sugar mills will not take place in 2014-15 as mills are struggling to survive on high cane cost," it said.

12:30pm Tata Communications under pressure
Tata Communications reduced its Q1FY15 consolidated net loss at Rs 21.4 crore compared to loss of Rs 123.2 crore in previous quarter. Consolidated total income from operations of the company declined to Rs 5,111.7 crore from Rs 5,219.3 crore Q-o-Q.

12:20pm RBI policy analysis
"Today's monetary policy statement is marginally hawkish than anticipated. Clearly the RBI still sees upside risks to 2015 Inflation target and that is not comforting. I think the RBI is also preparing for the hike in US rates and the associated market dislocation, if any. This in all pushes any rate cut expectation a little further away," said Ashish Vaidya, ED & Head - Trading & ALM, DBS Bank, India.

12:10pm FII View
The global markets have now stabilised after witnessing a mammoth sell-off. Richard Gibbs, Global Head, Macquarie Securities expects investors to lighten positions in equity markets with a shallow 5-7 percent correction globally.

Gibbs sees the Federal Reserve to end tapering by September-October and rates being eventually hiked by March 2015.

The Chinese market is more oversold than Indian market in 2014, he says adding that more buying can be seen in the former market.

There is a need to see new policy measures in the Indian economy as new policy announcements will lead an upside, he says in an interview with CNBC-TV18.

12:00pm Equity benchmarks declined in noon trade after RBI policy indicated that interest rate cut may not be possible in FY15. The Reserve Bank of India kept repo rate and cash reserve ratio unchanged at 8 percent and 4 percent (in line), respectively. The central bank cut statutory liquidity ratio (the amount that commercial banks has to maintain in the form of gold or government approved securities) by 50 basis points to 22 percent that freed up liquidity worth Rs 6,500 crore for banks.

"The upside risks (like uncertainty over monsoon conditions, higher oil prices and rupee movement etc) to the target of ensuring CPI inflation at or below 8 per cent by January 2015 remain, although overall risks are more balanced than in June. It is, therefore, appropriate to continue maintaining a vigilant monetary policy stance as in June, while leaving the policy rate unchanged," said the RBI.

The Sensex fell 131.03 points to 25592.13 and the Nifty declined 28.40 points to 7655.25. About 1294 shares have advanced, 1251 shares declined, and 129 shares are unchanged.

India's largest private sector lender ICICI Bank, housing finance company HDFC and two-wheeler maker Hero Motocorp fell 1.5 percent each.

12:00 am PMI data: Growth in India's services sector eased in July as new orders slowed, prompting some companies to put hiring plans on ice, a survey showed.

The HSBC Services Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), compiled by Markit, fell to 52.2 in July from June's 17-month high of 54.4.

The country's dominant services industry hit a rough patch in 2013 and overall activity shrank for nearly a year but starting to expand again in May. A reading above 50 denotes expansion while below signals a contraction. "Growth in the services sector softened in July after a big jump in the previous month. Nevertheless, the sector recorded its third consecutive month of expansion," said Frederic Neumann, co-head of Asian Economic Research at HSBC.

11:50 am Rajan reviews: Obligations put on Indian banks need to be reduced further as they are entering a more competitive environment and the statutory liquidity ratio will have to be cut further, RBI chief Raghuram Rajan.

Rajan also said interest rate tools are blunt and the central bank is trying to use other tools.

India needs to look again at the governance of state-run banks, Rajan said, commenting days after the head of Syndicate Bank Ltd was arrested over allegations that he was seeking bribes to favour debtors. Rajan, however, said "one has to be careful" extrapolating the alleged Syndicate Bank issue to the entire banking sector.

11:40 am FII view: Tushar Mahajan, head of listed F&O - India Nomura Financial Advisory & Sec is of the view that 7800 on the Nifty remains an insurmountable resistance and there is a very slim chance of breaching that level.

Stock specific, Larsen and Toubro offers a good buying opportunity post the correction. "We continue to believe that an investable, liquid large cap, relatively clean way to play the infrastructure story is through L&T," he said.

11:30 am Buzzing: Shares of Power Grid were down 1 percent intraday as some investors seem to be growing worried about regulatory hurdles eating into profits. The state-owned transmission utility reported around 9 percent rise in net profit at Rs 1,136.51 crore in April-June quarter.

Acoording to Deutsche Bank, Q1 FY15 results were affected by new regulations and appeared weak but there were a few one-off adjustments. "The company delivered strong capacity growth, adding Rs 4900 crore assets in Q1, up 66 percent Y-o-Y, ahead of our bullish estimates. The stock appears inexpensive on our forecast of a 22 percent EPS CAGR FY14-17E and 50 percentcapacity addition in FY15E. We reiterate buy," it said in a report.

11:10 am RBI policy fine print: Despite a clear decline in June CPI inflation, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its monetary policy on Tuesday kept key interest rates unchanged. The repo rate and cash reserve ratio (CRR) remain at 8 percent and 4 percent respectively. RBI cautioned that inflationary risks due to shortfall in monsoon rains could lead to surge in food prices.

The RBI also lowered the statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) by 0.5 percent to 22 percent effective from Aug. 9. SLR refers to banks' minimum bond holding requirements. This move aims at giving more headoom to banks for lending.

Also, it has cut the ceiling on debt that must be held-to-maturity (HTM) by half a percentage point to 24 percent.

The market is flat just as the RBI announced its bi-monthly monetary policy review. The Reserve Bank of India has slashed SLR rate by 50 basis points while CRR and repo rate are kept unchanged. CNBC-TV18 poll expected the central bank to maintain status quo on interest rates.

The Sensex is down 4.46 points at 25718.70 and the Nifty is up 4.95 points at 7688.60. About 1242 shares have advanced, 1000 shares declined, and 101 shares are unchanged.

Sun Pharma, ONGC, Bajaj Auto, M&M, Hindalco are top gainers in the Sensex. Among the losers are HDFC, Hero, Sesa Sterlite, Coal India and Reliance.

Asian stocks slipped after a survey showed China's services sector growth fell to a record low, pouring cold water on the positive market mood following upbeat U.S. earnings and relief over Portugal's rescue of its largest bank.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.5 percent, turning negative after the China services purchasing managers' index(PMI) compiled by HSBC/Markit fell to 50.0 in July from a 15-month high of 53.1 in June.

It was the lowest reading since November 2005 when the data collection began, indicating a recovery in the broader economy is still fragile and may need further government support.

11:00am FII View
Mahesh Nandurkar, CLSA says the results season so far has been on the expected lines on the whole. ''The good news for domestic recovery was visible in demand growth uptick for autos and cement. Asset quality trends in PSU banks have also held up well. Telecom has been the stand out sector with positive surprises. On the negative side, capital goods sector including L&T was the big disappointment,'' he adds.

He further says the brokerage believes better evidence of economic recovery would be visible in September and more so in December quarter.

10:50am Crompton Q1 expectations
Avantha Group Company Crompton Greaves will announce its first quarter (April-June) earnings today. Analysts expect consolidated profit after tax of the company to jump 33.1 percent year-on-year to Rs 80 crore and net sales to increase 10.9 percent to Rs 3,500 crore led by low base and improved execution.

Better revenue visibility and partial turnaround in global operations is likely to lead to a strong earnings growth on consolidated basis, say analysts adding, revenue is expected to grow mainly led by growth in consumer segment (on pent up demand) and international power systems, and favorable currency movement for overseas subsidiaries.

10:40am Punj Lloyd at lower circuit
Shares of Punj Lloyd fell 5 percent after it reported standalone net loss at Rs 363.92 crore in the first quarter ended June 30 as against a profit of Rs 4.95 crore in the corresponding period of 2013-14.

Total income from operations of the company in April-June quarter declined to Rs 1,113.83 crore from Rs 2,228.92 crore in the same quarter last year.

There were pending sell orders of 110,704 shares, with no buyers available.

10:30am Interview
Marico's FY15 sustainable margin is seen at 15 percent. In an interview to CNBC-TV18, MD & CEO Saugata Gupta says he sees the company's international business margins trending between 14-15 percent ahead.

The FMCG major's consolidated net profit grew by 17.5 percent on yearly basis in Q1FY15 to Rs 185.3 crore aided by higher revenue. Its consolidated total income from operations jumped 17.4 percent to Rs 1,623 crore in the quarter ended June 2014 from Rs 1,382 crore in the year-ago period supported by the price increases taken across the portfolio during the quarter.

Marico recorded sustained double-digit volume growth in value-added hair oil segment, he says. Gupta expects input cost pressures to continue to persist in one of the key raw material - copra. However, added that recent price hikes are enough to offset increase in input costs.

10:20am Market Expert
Ajay Bodke, Prabhudas Lilladher believes that the market in the very short-term will continue to be range bound. "On the upper side 7,800 looks to be a level difficult to be breached while on the downside 7,450 looks like a very strong support for the market," he elaborated.

10:10am Expectations from RBI policy
CARE Ratings expect RBI to keep repo rate unchanged at 8 percent and accordingly, reverse repo will remain unchanged at 7 percent.

It does not expect any change in SLR that is currently at 22.5 percent. "Banks are holding on to excess SLR varying between 4-5 percent and any further cut will not have a major impact," the report said.

CARE also expects CRR to remain unchanged as RBI is constantly making efforts to ease liquidity in the system through the term repo window.

10:00am Equity benchmarks remained rangebound with a positive bias ahead of RBI policy. The Sensex rose 60.20 points to 25783.36 and the Nifty climbed 14.45 points to 7698.10.

About 1141 shares have advanced, 628 shares declined, and 77 shares are unchanged.

Drug maker Sun Pharma topped the buying list, up over 2 percent followed by ONGC, Bajaj Auto, Hindalco Industries and Mahindra and Mahindra with 1-1.7 percent. Infosys extended upmove, rising 1 percent in addition to 3.66 percent in previous session.

Banks like HDFC Bank, Axis Bank and State Bank of India gained marginally while rival ICICI Bank declined 0.15 percent. Housing finance company HDFC slipped over a percent.

Hero Motocorp fell 1.4 percent ahead of first quarter earnings today. Analysts believe Hero Motocorp may fare better than Bajaj Auto due to better volume growth and margin improvement. India's largest two-wheeler maker is expected to report a 15.2 percent growth year-on-year at Rs 632 crore in the quarter gone by.

10:00 am FII view: Mahesh Nandurkar, CLSA says the results season so far has been on the expected lines on the whole. ''The good news for domestic recovery was visible in demand growth uptick for autos and cement. Asset quality trends in PSU banks have also held up well. Telecom has been the stand out sector with positive surprises. On the negative side, capital goods sector including L&T was the big disappointment,'' he adds.

He further says the brokerage believes better evidence of economic recovery would be visible in September and more so in December quarter.

9:50 am Buzzing: Shares of SRF surged 20 percent, hitting record high at Rs 702.45 per share intraday on Tuesday. Higher sales doubled the company's net profit in April-June quarter to Rs 99 crore, registering a jump of 127 percent on yearly basis.

''The PAT jumped on the back of robust sales in most of its businesses and ramp up
of production from newly commissioned units,'' it said in a statement.

During the first quarter, net sales increased by 14 percent to Rs 936 crore as against Rs 819 crore year-on-year.

9:40 am FM speaks: There may be signs that the economy is taking a turn for the better, but finance minister Arun Jaitley says the only way to ensure India's return to the path of high growth is to push ahead with the reforms process, and infuse confidence in investors. To this end, Jaitley is pushing for the Insurance Bill, which proposes hiking the FDI limit in insurance from 26 percent to 49 percent.

In an exclusive chat with CNBC-TV18, Jaitley says he hopes the bill will be taken up in Parliament soon, and will get passed without having to call for a joint session of Parliament.

"There is a revival of interest in India. The world is again looking at us, the investors are making inquiries and people want us to go ahead with the reform process. I would like doggedly to only pursue one course. At times it may be slow but the direction should only be in one course and that is the policy of the government," he said.

9:30 am Poll: India's largest two-wheeler maker Hero Motocorp will declare its first quarter (April-June) earnings on Tuesday. According to CNBC-TV18 poll estimates, analysts expect profit after tax to grow by 15.2 percent year-on-year to Rs 632 crore and revenue to increase by 15 percent to Rs 7,080 crore during the quarter.

Operating profit (EBITDA) may jump 12.5 percent to Rs 1,030 crore in the quarter ended June 2014 from Rs 915.2 crore in the year-ago period. Margin may decline 30 basis points on yearly basis to 14.5 percent in the quarter gone by but that may see 80 bps rise on sequential basis due to better volumes, operating leverage, cost reduction and lower marketing spends.

Analysts believe Hero Motocorp may fare better than Bajaj Auto due to better volume growth and margin improvement. It reported a 10 percent year-on-year (8 percent sequential) growth in sales volume during the quarter while Bajaj Auto's volume growth was 0.9 percent Y-o-Y.

After making a smart recovery, the market has opened on a flat note. The Sensex is up 94.68 points at 25817.84 and the Nifty is up 23.00 points at 7706.65. About 447 shares have advanced, 96 shares declined, and 24 shares are unchanged.

All eyes will be on the credit policy today. A CNBC-TV18 poll expects the RBI to maintain status quo on interest rates in its bi-monthly review today.

Tata Steel, ITC, Tata Power, Tata Motors and HDFC Bank are top gainers in the Sensex. Among the laggards re HDFC and NTPC.

The Indian rupee opened flat at 60.94 per dollar versus 60.93 Monday. The dollar is stuck below a ten and a half month peak against a basket of major currencies. The dollar index stood at 81.32 levels.

Recovering from four-month lows, the Indian rupee yesterday rose 25 paise in its biggest gain in three weeks to end at 60.93 against the greenback as shares soared ahead of the RBI policy meet and exporters offloaded dollars.

US stocks climbed with the S&P 500 bouncing back from its biggest weekly drop since 2012, as companies including Berkshire Hathaway reported results.

In commodities, crude prices rose as last week's steep drop attracted buyers, investors shifted their attention from worries about swelling supplies to concern about ongoing violence in north Africa in the Middle East. From precious metals space, gold prices stayed below 1300 dollars an ounce levels following rise in US equities.