Sensex, Nifty up; DLF gains on earnings hopes

The BSE Sensex closed up 0.15 percent and the 50-share Nifty ended trade higher 0.18 percent, recovering after hitting their 2013 lows on Friday.

According to technical analyst Sudarshan Sukhani of s2analytics.com, the week itself could see choppy markets. "We could see further rallies, further gains and an eventual decline. The overall trend is down. We should be careful of any buying that we carry forward for a long period. It should be just for a day or two," he told CNBC-TV18 in an interview.

Shares in DLF gain 5.15 percent after an executive indicated earnings would improve and said net debt would fall, according to analysts who attended the company's first ever post-results analyst meeting on Friday.

Public sector companies such as MMTC and Hindustan Copper gain 9.5 percent and 4.5 percent respectively on hopes of good demand in the upcoming stake sales by the government.

The government has not yet given a time frame for the stake sales.

Top Sensex gainers: Tata Steel (2.19 percent), HUL (1.82 percent), Sterlite Ind (1.61 percent), HDFC (1.59 percent) and Hero Motocorp (1.44 percent).

Shares in Jet Airways fell as much as 8.68 percent, a day after the chairman of Etihad Airways said the Abu Dhabi-based carrier needed to revise the terms of a pending deal to buy a stake in the Indian airline. (Full report)

Top Sensex losers: Jindal Steel (-2.02 percent), Coal India (-1.73 percent), ONGC (-1.52 percent), TCS (-1.09 percent) and Bharti Airtel (-0.76 percent).

For market expert Ambareesh Baliga, chances of a pre-Budget rally are slim. "The downside for the market is clearly 5840-5850. It was not really going below that and we have bounced back from there but we will surely not have a rally right now,'' he told CNBC-TV18.

Indian market has been lacking investors' interest. The Sensex was up 49.10 points or 0.25% at 19517.25 while the Nifty gained 9.60 points or 0.16% at 5897.00.

Shedding around 1% each, Coal India, Jindal Steel, TCS and Tata Power were the major losers on the Sensex today. Shares of Jet Air tumbled around 5.2% percent to Rs 583 after Etihad Airways' chairman announced that he needs time to complete due diligence before picking up stakes in the carrier.

SpiceJet also lost around 3.3%.

Meanwhile, on the gainers side were HDFC, HUL and Tata Steel. Investors were betting on most of the oil and gas companies as ONGC, Reliance and Cairn India gained around 0.8% each.

Surprisingly, some of the realty stocks were in the positive terrain today. Real estate major DLF rose more than 4 percent after brokerage houses upgraded the stock despite weak performance in third quarter.

In Asia markets were trading sideways but Nikkei was up 2% at 33-month high on the G20's decision not to single out Japan for undertaking policies that have weakened its currency.

Key indices were up slightly in thin trade early Monday, as buyers continued to be wary. Brokers said the mood was nervous as indices have been trending lower for the past three weeks. Also, many heavyweight traders are said to have suffered huge losses in the sell-off in small and midcap shares recently, curbing their ability to take on big position afresh.

The Sensex was up 15 points at 19483, and the Nifty was up 2 points at 5890.

Jet Airways shares were down nearly 6 percent to Rs 584 after Etihad Airways' Chairman said on Sunday that the deal to pick up stake up stake in Jet Airways would have to be revised, and it would be signed only in March or April.

Shares of Kingfisher Airlines rose over 4 percent to Rs 10 on speculation that Etihad may be still considering an investment in the bankrupt airline.

State-owned MMTC and Hindustan Copper were the big gainers in early trade, rising 11 percent and 6 percent respectively.In sectorwise trends, realty, capital goods and oil & gas shares were steady, while IT shares were under pressure.