Sensex ends up 376 points, Bank Nifty up 2%; TCS, ONGC rise

03:55 pm Opinion:
Robert Doll of Nuveen Asset Management is cautious on emerging markets (EMs) due to inflation problems. In an interview to CNBC-TV18 he said that unless inflation recedes EMs including India will not pick up.

Brazil, India, Indonesia, South Africa and Turkey – the fragile five economies are facing headwinds related to elections and fear of sudden withdrawal of foreign cash due to Federal Reserve's decision reduce money-printing.

Doll is betting on developed markets over emerging markets this year and is bullish on US, Europe and Japan. Meanwhile, he added US economic growth continues to pick up and the jobs data is a blip.

He expects equities to outperform other asset classes this year. ''A year ago I was arguing equities should be 10-20 percent above normal allocation. Given New Year I am arguing equities should be 5-10 percent higher than normal, bonds 5-10 percent lower than normal,'' he said.

03:40 pm Market closing:
It was a stellar rally on Dalal Street as the Sensex gains over 350 points. The Sensex ended up 375.72 points or 1.81 percent at 21134.21, and the Nifty closed at 6272.75, up 101.30 points or 1.64 percent. About 1327 shares advanced, 1361 shares declined, and 325 shares were unchanged.

Bank Nifty rose around 2 percent with support from ICICI Bank , SBI , HDFC twins and Axis Bank . Other main gainers in the Sensex are ONGC and Reliance.

Tata Power , Sun Pharma , HUL , Maruti Suzuki and Bajaj Auto are laggards in the Sensex.

03:30 pm CCEA meet:
The fate of 32 coal blocks remained undecided as the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), which met today, sought more time. The CCEA was expected to take a decision after the Supreme Court observation last week that 32 coal blocks were lying idle for more than stipulated time given for their development.

Sources told CNBC-TV18 that the government will look at each coal block individually before replying to the Supreme Court. On Thursday, attorney general Goolam E Vahanvati has admitted before a three-judge bench headed by Justice RM Lodha that something went wrong with the coal blocks allocation.

"We can say something has gone wrong and some correction is required to be done."

03:20 pm Outlook: The government is maintaining fiscal discipline before the general elections, which is supporting the country's credit ratings, a Fitch Ratings analyst said on Monday.

"I think the authorities generally have resisted the temptation to engage in fiscal pump-priming ahead of the elections this year, which is supportive for the credit profile," said Andrew Colquhoun, Head of Asia-Pacific Sovereign Ratings for Fitch Ratings, said in a teleconference.

Fitch has rated India "BBB-minus" with a "stable" outlook.

03:10 pm SpiceJet: Promoters' stake in low-cost carrier SpiceJet will rise to 58.5 percent if they decide to convert the 6.4 crore warrants issued recently, into equity at par.

Sun Group Chief Financial Officer told CNBC-TV18 in an interview that the warrant issue was aimed at arresting the erosion in the company's networth. Losses at SpiceJet have been mounting, as the company grapples with high fuel price and fierce competition. The company has reported a net loss of Rs 508 crore for the first half of this financial year, on the back of a Rs 191-crore loss for 2012-13. The company's networth as on September 30, 2013 is negative Rs 603 crore.

Competition in Indian skies is expected to intensify as Air Asia and Tata SIA commence operations in the coming months. There are media reports that SpiceJet is in talks with strategic investors to sell a minority stake and raise equity capital. However, Narayanan refused to comment on this aspect.

03:05pm Ranbaxy Labs under pressure, down 6%
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has raised concerns about the manufacturing practices at a factory owned by Ranbaxy Laboratories , the drugmaker said on Monday, sending its shares down to nearly a one-month low.

All of Ranbaxy's India-based factories are currently banned by the FDA from exporting medicines to the United States, the company's largest market, after the regulator's inspection found violation of its so-called good manufacturing practices.

The company, India's biggest drugmaker by sales, said the FDA had now filed "certain observations" about its Toansa pharmaceutical ingredients plant in Punjab.

Failure to address these concerns would result in the FDA banning all exports to the United States from the factory.

"The company is assessing the observations, and will respond to the FDA in accordance with the agency's procedure to resolve the concerns at the earliest," Ranbaxy said in a statement. It did not give further details, reports Reuters.

02:57pm MTNL talks to CNBC-TV18
Telephone operator MTNL intends to cut its debt from over Rs 13,000 crore currently to about Rs 5,000-6,000 crore by next March, the firm's CMD AK Garg told CNBC-TV18.

The loss-making state-owned firm has started renting out part of its huge land bank in a bid to monetize its assets, Garg said, adding that he expects rentals to the tune of Rs 150 crore.

The company will also use Rs 4,534 crore it will get from the government for surrendering 4G spectrum to reduce its debt, he said. ''We expect money from the refund to come in this fiscal year.''

02:47pm Market Update
The market extended gains in last hour of trade with the Sensex rising more than 300 points.

The Sensex climbed 308.76 points or 1.49 percent to 21,067.25, and the Nifty rose 82.35 points or 1.33 percent to 6,253.80.

Consumer price index will be announced later in the day today and WPI inflation will be declared on Wednesday.

Jayesh Mehta, MD, Bank of America says today's consumer price index (CPI) number for December is crucial and is likely to be lower. He sees it in the range of 9.5-10%. Moreover, he says even if the number were to come in a bit more than 10 percent, the expectation for next CPI is at 9.5% percent.

At least for the next 15 days, he sees the rupee ranging between61-61.75/USD unless there is a huge equity sell off.

Meanwhile, for the rupee to break 61/USD level there would have to be huge equity inflows, says Mehta in an interview to CNBC--TV18

02:37pm Exide Industries falls over 5%
Automobile battery manufacturer Exide Industries missed street expectations on every parameter with the third quarter (October-December) net profit falling 25.5 percent year-on-year to Rs 77.5 crore, impacted by weak demand.

P K Kataky, MD and CEO said continued sluggish demand had its impact on the performance of the company.

"In the replacement market, the demand for heavy duty and light duty commercial vehicles including passenger cars used for commercial application (taxi) remained subdued. Automobile original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) had a degrowth. In industrial batteries, the demand for infrastructure, motive power, telecom and inverter batteries continued to be sluggish," Kataky elaborated.

Revenue for the quarter declined to Rs 1,301.4 crore from Rs 1,462.1 crore in corresponding quarter of last fiscal.

According to CNBC-TV18 poll, analysts had expected it to report net profit of Rs 126 crore on revenue of Rs 1,462 crore.

02:27pm Infosys on buyers' radar
Infosys stock jumped to a record high of Rs 3,674.40 as brokerage houses raised target price on the stock after third quarter earnings reported on Friday.

JP Morgan is overweight on the erstwhile IT bellwether and raised target price to Rs 4,000 from Rs 3,800 citing the company can exceed earnings per share expectation for next two quarters. However, the brokerage house said Infosys is not a story without risks.

Barclays maintained overweight rating with a target price of Rs 4,150 apiece.

"Infosys continued with its string of 'beat and raise' quarters with another guidance increase post Q3 results. We maintain earnings per share estimates (13 percent/20 percent ahead of pre-result consensus FY14/15 numbers)," Barclays report said.

Meanwhile, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank too raised target price on the stock to Rs 3,800. Latter asked investors to hold the stock, but says improving sales growth remains a challenge.

The stock rose 3.22 percent to Rs 3,663 apiece on the BSE.

02:17pm: Equity benchmarks maintained strong momentum in afternoon trade supported by Infosys and Reliance Industries . TCS , ONGC and ICICI Bank too played supportive role today; all these majors gained 2-3 percent.

The Sensex climbed 289.29 points or 1.39 percent to 21,047.78, and the Nifty rose 76.65 points or 1.24 percent to 6,248.10, but the broader markets continued to underperformed benchmarks.

The BSE Midcap Index remained flat and Smallcap gained 0.3 percent. Declining shares outpaced advancing ones by a ratio of 1345 to 1225 on the BSE.

Sandeep Bhatia, Kotak Institutional Equities believes the market will remain rangebound until April-May due to political uncertainty.

According to him, the Indian election is difficult to predict. Anyone who wants to look at it, knows there are multiple variables that keep impacting the eventual outcome, he adds.

"The polling is expected to start by mid-April and so, everyone will be focused on that mid-April onwards. Until then, the focus has to be on the earning season that has started," Bhatia says.

The gains in Reliance Industries and ONGC are after oil secretary Vivek Rae said that the quantum of gas price hike will be known by March-end. He sees no demerit in ONGC and Oil India buying stake in IOC . He said ONGC and Oil India will be free to sell ioc stake if the stock rallies.

1:50 pm Buzzing: Shares of  Anant Raj jumped around 5 percent intraday on reports that it is selling two properties. Reports indicate that the realty firm is planning to sell two hotel properties in the Delhi-NCR region for an estimated Rs 900 crore.

The Delhi-based firm has 11 hotels, out of which, 6 hotels are completed while 5 other hospitality projects are under construction.

Anant Raj has leased out some of its hotels t to hospitality firms - Mapple Group and Royal Orchid .

1:40 pm FII view: Robert Doll of Nuveen Asset Management is cautious on emerging markets (EMs) due to inflation problems. In an interview to CNBC-TV18 he said that unless inflation recedes EMs including India will not pick up. Brazil, India, Indonesia, South Africa and Turkey – the fragile five economies are facing headwinds related to elections and fear of sudden withdrawal of foreign cash due to Federal Reserve's decision reduce money-printing.

Doll is betting on developed markets over emerging markets this year and is bullish on US, Europe and Japan. Meanwhile, he added US economic growth continues to pick up and the jobs data is a blip. He expects equities to outperform other asset classes this year. ''A year ago I was arguing equities should be 10-20 percent above normal allocation. Given New Year I am arguing equities should be 5-10 percent higher than normal, bonds 5-10 percent lower than normal,'' he said.

1:30 pm Big fall: Shares of Exide Industries tanked to two-year low at Rs 106.65, down 5 percent intraday on dismal December quarter earnings. The battery manufacturer missed street expectations on every parameter with the third quarter (October-December) net profit falling 25.5 percent year-on-year to Rs 77.5 crore, impacted by weak demand.

According to CNBC-TV18 poll, analysts had expected it to report net profit of Rs 126 crore on revenue of Rs 1,462 crore.

Revenue for the quarter declined to Rs 1,301.4 crore from Rs 1,462.1 crore in corresponding quarter of last fiscal.

The market maintains upmove in afternoon trade as the Sensex holds 21000-levels. The Sensex is up 277.67 points or 1.34 percent at 21036.16, and the Nifty is at 6244.30 up 72.85 points or 1.18 percent. About 1223 shares have advanced, 1241 shares declined, and 344 shares are unchanged.

Oil & gas stocks are among the gainers after the government notified gas price hike.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) will decide today the fate of 32 coal blocks lying idle due to clearance issues. The Supreme Court has asked the government to take action on these blocks which are yet to start mining. The 32 coal blocks include JSPL, JSW Energy , Ultratech, Hindalco and Tata Power .

Tata Power, Hindalco, Maruti Suzuki, HUL and Sun Pharma are major losers in the Sensex.

Ranbaxy is weak in trade today. The USFDA has conducted inspections at its Toansa plant in Punjab. The plant is critical to Ranbaxy since it accounts for 70-75 percent of the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) used in Ranbaxy's formulations.

Among the gainers are Infosys , TCS , ONGC , ICICI Bank and Reliance .

12:52pm Exide falls 4%
Automobile battery manufacturer Exide Industries missed street expectations with the third quarter (October-December) net profit falling 25.5 percent year-on-year to Rs 77.5 crore, impacted by weak demand.

P K Kataky, MD and CEO said continued sluggish demand had its impact on the performance of the company.

"In the replacement market, the demand for heavy duty and light duty commercial vehicles including passenger cars used for commercial application (taxi) remained subdued. Automobile original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) had a degrowth. In industrial batteries, the demand for infrastructure, motive power, telecom and inverter batteries continued to be sluggish," Kataky elaborated.

Revenue for the quarter declined to Rs 1,301.4 crore from Rs 1,462.1 crore in corresponding quarter of last fiscal.

12:42pm Goa Carbon rises over 2%
Goa Carbon turned profitable with the third quarter (October-December) net at Rs 56 lakh as against loss of Rs 1.6 crore in a year ago period.

The company earned foreign exchange income of Rs 1.9 crore in the quarter gone by versus forex loss of Rs 2.1 crore in corresponding quarter of last fiscal.

Net sales rose 26.2 percent year-on-year to Rs 72.3 crore in the quarter ended December 2013.

12:32pm McNally Bharat in focus
MBE Coal and Minerals Technologies GMBH, a 100 percent subsidiary of MBE Mineral Technologies Private Limited, Singapore, a wholly owned subsidiary of McNally Bharat Engineering Company has received an order for works relating to flotation equipment package for euro 5.95 million (Rs 50 crore).

However, the stock fell 0.87 percent to Rs 56.75 on the BSE.

12:22pm Market Expert
Sandeep Bhatia, Kotak Institutional Equities believes market will remain range bound until April-May due to political uncertainty. In the meantime sectors like energy, oil and gas, if the diesel/petrol hike continues like last week, they will be good sectors to play in, he adds.

Bhati remains bullish on Infosys after the company posted a better-than-expected result for the third quarter ended December 31. According to him, Narayana Murthy's participation is a strong signal despite the churn that happened in senior management. He believes with the current rally waiting for a big trigger, it is safe to be in technology and Infosys is a top pick in this segment given its cheaper valuations than some of its peers.

Meanwhile, Bhatia does not expect any major disappointment from the earnings season apart from the public sector banks which may face increased pressure to put their non-performing assets (NPAs) and to start reflecting the real picture on asset quality.

12:12pm Rupee at one-month high, CPI in focus
The rupee was at an over four-week high against the dollar tracking positive overseas cues and firm local share indices. It appreciated 38 paise to 61.52 against the US dollar. Gilts rose tracking fall in US treasury yields post weaker-than-expected US jobs data for December..

Ahead of the Reserve Bank's policy meet on January 28, the crucial retail inflation data for December will be released today. CNBC-TV18 poll sees consumer price index in double digits at over 10 percent, but lower than last month's reading of 11.24 percent.

12:02pm The market is on strong footing in noon trade with the equity benchmarks rising more than a percent helped by banks, oil & gas and technology stocks.

The Sensex climbed 261.58 points to 21,020.07, and the Nifty rose 67.65 points to 6,239.10, but the broader markets underperformed benchmarks.

The BSE Midcap Index is flat and Smallcap gained 0.6 percent. About 1241 shares have advanced, 1036 shares declined, and 362 shares are unchanged.

Infosys topped the buying list, hitting a record high of Rs 3,674.40 apiece. The stock gained 3.5 percent as brokerage houses raised earnings per share guidance for FY15 and FY16 after third quarter earnings. They also raised target price on the stock in the range of Rs 3,800-4,150 apiece.

However, Tata Power is top loser, falling over 2 percent. Hindustan Unilever and Sun Pharma fell 1 percent each while Maruti Suzuki and Dr Reddy's Labs slipped 0.5 percent each.

11:50 am Brokerage views: HSBC initiates coverage of Britannia Industries with an "overweight" rating and a price target of Rs 1,100, citing the company's strength in the fast-growing mid-to-premium segment in biscuits/bakery.

HSBC also extols Britannia's "sharp focus on tackling costs and gaining market share is likely to keep the earnings growth momentum strong" in a report dated Monday.

Without including HSBC's rating, Britannia has racked up 14 "buys" or "strong buys" recommendations, with 3 "holds" and 1 "strong sell", according to Thomson Reuters data.

11:40 am Experts' view: After the US jobs data for the month of December came in lower-than-expected, experts believe the US Federal Reserve will hold on to its tapering programe for now but the continuity will depend on the subsequent jobs data going ahead.

Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Laureate and Economist told CNBC-TV18 the tapering will be very mild. The US Fed is likely to keep the interest rates very low, close to zero until labour markets improve.

Adair Turner, former chairman, Financial Services Authority believes the tapering timetable will be maintained. "Lot of people don't make an adequate distinction between the reduction of the pace of increase of extra bonds owned by the Federal Reserve and its fund decisions, the policy interest rates," he adds. He also believes that it is quite possible for the Fed to complete this year in-line with the stated program, the whole of tapering and stop buying more long term bonds.

11:30 am Oil Secretary speaks: Defending the Government's decision to make cash-rich public sector units (PSUs) buy stake in each other, thereby reining in the government's fiscal deficit, Vivek Rae, Oil Secretary says the move is perfectly fine.

Rae says the company that has bought a sister company's stocks is free to sell it in the open market once the stock prices rise. Also read: PSU heads meet FM to discuss dividend payouts, capex plans ''I expect that some of the uncertainties that have been surrounding the IOC stock would get cleared in the next few months. Once those are cleared then the stock price will certainly move up," he says while suggesting that ONGC can cash-in on IOC's better stock price later in the year.

11:20 am  Results poll: Battery manufacturer Exide Industries will announce its third quarter (October-December) results today. According to CNBC-TV18 poll, analysts expect profit after tax of the company to rise 21 percent year-on-year to Rs 126 crore in the quarter gone by.

Revenue for the quarter is expected to be flat at Rs 1,462 crore as against Rs 1,463 crore in a year ago period. This is on top of the 6 percent Y-o-Y degrowth in September quarter due to continued slowdown in the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) segment.

Infact, sharp weakness in the OEM and home UPS segment will offset marginal 5 percent growth in the replacement segment, say analysts.

The market is holding on firmly supported by IT and oil & gas stocks. The Sensex is up 260.93 points at 21019.42, and the Nifty gains 68.90 points at 6240.35. About 1276 shares have advanced, 804 shares declined.

Infosys is up 3.5 percent, followed by TCS, Tata Motors, ONGC and Reliance. HUL is weak while Tata Power, Sun Pharma, Dr Reddy's Labs and Maruti Suzuki are other top losers in the Sensex.

The rupee is at an over four-week high against the US dollar tracking positive overseas cues and firm local share indices.

Government bonds rose tracking the fall in yields on US Treasury bonds after weaker-than-expected US non-farm payroll data eased. Asian markets are mostly higher as a weaker-than-expected US jobs data raised the possibility that the Fed could rollback its bond-buying programme more slowly than expected.

Gold prices rise to a four-week high on optimism of a slower pace of fed tapering. Brent jumps above USD107 a barrel aided by reports of fresh production problems at the North Sea's buzzard oilfield.

10:57am Ashoka Buildcon gains 5% to Rs 66
Ashoka Buildcon has received letter of acceptance for the project in the state of Karnataka from NHAI.

The project is for collection of user fee through fee collecting agency on the basis of competitive bidding at Kognoli toll plaza located at km 591.300 for the section from Maharashtra Border - Belgaum (Km 537.000 to Km 592.240) of NH - 4 in Karnataka.

The estimated value of the contract is Rs 24.09 crore. Company has been engaged by NHAI to collect user fee for the period of 1 year.

10:47am Economists on Fed tapering
Capital account management conference organized by the Reserve Bank of India's think tank CAFRAL or Centre for Advanced Financial Research and Learning in New Delhi highlights how to mange capital flows especially by the emerging markets.

After the US jobs data for the month of December came in lower-than-expected, experts believe the US Federal Reserve will hold on to its tapering programe for now but the continuity will depend on the subsequent jobs data going ahead.

Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Laureate and Economist told CNBC-TV18 the tapering will be very mild. The US Fed is likely to keep the interest rates very low, close to zero until labour markets improve. ''Given their focus on the labour market, the likelihood that interest rates will rise in 2014, is very small.

Adair Turner, former chairman, Financial Services Authority believes the tapering timetable will be maintained. ''Lot of people don't make an adequate distinction between the reduction of the pace of increase of extra bonds owned by the Federal Reserve and its fund decisions, the policy interest rates,'' he adds.

He also believes that it is quite possible for the Fed to complete this year in-line with the stated program, the whole of tapering and stop buying more long term bonds.

10:37am Tata Motors on buyers' radar
Shares in Tata Motors rose 2.4 percent to Rs 377 apiece after its British subsidiary Jaguar-Land Rover said it sold 425,000 vehicles in 2013, up 19 percent from last year and the best ever performance in its history.

In 2013, Land Rover sales rose 15 percent to 348,383 units while Jaguar nearly doubled its sales to 76,668 units.

The Jaguar F-Type, the company's new sports car, and Land Rover's Range Rover Sport and Range Rover Evoque were favourites among buyers.

10:27am ONGC talks to CNBC-TV18
AK Banerjee, Director-Finance, ONGC believes gas price revision will improve the company's revenues and net profit. He expects gross revenues to be around Rs 4300-4500 and net profit at around Rs 2,300-2,400.

He clarified ONGC has not received any official communication to buy stake in IOC .  Sources in the finance ministry had said that they have been given an in-principle approval to cross holdings in various PSUs. Hence, it is likely that PSUs buy stake in each other, thereby giving the government some money.

10:17am Market Expert
In an interview to CNBC-TV18 Jaideep Goswami, Head of Equity, ICICI Securities shared his outlook on the market and cherry picked his favorite stocks across sectors. He expects the Nifty to trade in the broad range of 6,000-6,700 and sees general elections as key determinant for market going forward.

From the oil and gas sector, Goswami is positive on Cairn India and RIL . He expects earnings growth for Cairn India to be strong in the near-term and finds valuations of RIL attractive, he is betting on the stock from a long-term perspective. However, he cautions that RIL is likely to report subdued Q3 earnings and its gross refining margins (GRMs) may be flat.

10:07am The market gained strong ground today after seeing consolidation in past three weeks. The buying is taking place across the board; oil & gas, technology and banks stocks led gainers.

The Sensex rose 288.12 points or 1.39 percent to 21046.61, and the Nifty climbed 79.25 points or 1.28 percent to 6,250.70. More than two shares advanced for every share declining on the BSE.

Reliance Industries and ONGC gained 2-3 percent after oil secretary Vivek Rae said the new domestic gas pricing set to be applicable from April is likely to be around USD 8 per mmbtu.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs had earlier cleared the new gas pricing formula based on the Rangarajan committee recommendations, which was expected to double domestic natural gas prices from USD 4.2 to USD 8.4 per mmbtu.

Shares of Infosys rallied more than 3 percent to touch a record high of Rs 3664.85 apiece, in addition to a 2.84 percent upmove on Friday. Brokerage house JPMorgan is overweight on the stock and raises target price to Rs 4,000 from Rs 3,800 earlier.

10:00 am Oil Ministry: Under pressure from his party, Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily has said the government is considering increasing the quota of subsidised LPG cylinders to 12 per household per year. Moily, who last week said there was no proposal to increase the quota from 9 cylinders per household to 12, on Sunday said the final decision on the issue will be taken by the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA).

He said 89.2 percent of the 15 crore LPG consumers use up to 9 cylinders in a year and only 10 percent have to buy the additional requirement at the market price.

9:50 am Buzzing: Shares in Tata Motors rose over 1 percent in early trade Monday after its British subsidiary Jaguar-Land Rover said it sold 425,000 vehicles in 2013, up 19 percent from last year and the best ever performance in its history.

The performance met with accolades from British Prime Minister David Cameroon who termed it ''great news for Britain and for jobs''. The UK-based company, owned by Tata Motors since 2008, was spurred by growth in the Chinese market and a slew of new launches.

The UK-based company, owned by Tata Motors since 2008, was spurred by growth in the Chinese market and a slew of new launches.

9:40 am Market data: Overseas investors have pumped in over Rs 3,500 in the Indian debt market so far in January, when the US Federal Reserve is scheduled to start reducing its monthly bond purchases by USD 10 billion.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were gross buyers of debt securities worth Rs 8,155 crore and sellers of bonds to the tune of Rs 4,609 crore till January 10, resulting in a net inflow of Rs 3,546 crore (USD 572 million), according to Sebi data.

FIIs also invested Rs 545 crore in the equity market. Their total investment in debt and equity was about Rs 4,091 crore.

9:30 am Poll: Ahead of the Reserve Bank's policy meet on January 28, the crucial retail inflation data for December will be released today. A CNBC-TV18 poll sees CPI in double digits at over 10 percent, but lower than last month's reading of 11.24 percent. In another key macro, India's factories are gasping for breath, November industrial production (IIP) shows a contraction of 2.1 percent, way below street expectations.

The market has opened on a strong note. The Sensex is up 201.94 points at 20960.43, and the Nifty gains 52.15 points at 6223.60. About 480 shares have advanced, 133 shares declined, and 235 shares are unchanged.

Oil and gas, technology and banking stocks are lending strong support to the market. Both ONGC and Infosys are up 3 percent each. Reliance, Tata Motors and ICICI Bank are other gainers in the Sensex.

Among the losers are Dr Reddy's Labs, Hero Motocorp, HDFC Bank, Hindalco and Maruti Suzuki.

The Indian rupee gained in early trade against the dollar. The Indian rupee opened higher by 30 paise at 61.59 per dollar against 61.89 Friday.

The US dollar nurses broad losses early this morning after surprisingly soft employment data raised doubts about how quickly the Federal Reserve can scale back stimulus.

Agam Gupta, Standard Chartered said, "Dollar-rupee will open significantly lower due to dollar weakness after the shocking US jobs report. Opening levels for rupee could be around 61.50/USD but expect that level to get supported as importers buy at these levels."

"The market will trade cautiously ahead of the CPI data. Expect rupee to trade between 61.40-61.80/USD as FIIs will continue to supply dollar in any uptick," he added.

Oil prices rose on Friday as new reports of production problems at a major UK oilfield and weaker-than-expected US jobs data raised expectations that the US Federal Reserve may slow the winding down of its commodity-friendly stimulus program.

From precious metals space, gold prices extended gains to a third session this morning to hit its highest in nearly a month after a surprisingly weak US jobs report stoked expectations that the federal reserve could temper the pace of its stimulus tapering.
Meanwhile, Asian markets opened on a cautious note today.