Sensex settles on recovery hopes

BSE benchmark Sensex and the 50-stock NSE Niftyhave, so far, resisted deep cuts. Both indices stayed in green briefly and then slipped marginally to trade at 17,098 (down 32 points ) and 5,152 (down 8 points) respectively. The consolidation in market suggests what the experts have been saying -- that the sell-off was overdone and a recovery is on cards.

Philip Roth, Chief Technical Analyst at Miller Tabak told CNBC-TV18 that  “the selling seen post US debt downgrade by S&P seems to be winding up." He expects a temporary rebound with less volume and less volatility.

Defensive sectors like healthcare and FMCG were seeing buying interest. Even select financial stocks like HDFC, HDFC Bank, Kotak, Mahindra Bank and PNB gained 0.5-1%.

Heavyweights Reliance Industries and SBI too were quite supportive.

However, technology, auto, realty and select metal stocks were putting pressure on the market.

Sensex up over 250 points

After three days (Friday, Monday and Tuesday) of bloodshed, the Indian equity benchmarks today continued their upward trajectory. In the last hour of trade the indices were moving towards the day's high as European markets started regaining their losses. Even Dow Jones futures trimmed its losses to 28 points from 135 points. But all markets remained extremely volatile with positive bias.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was trading at 17,120, up 261 points and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 83 points at 5,155. Market breadth remained positive with about six shares advancing for every one share declining.

Apollo Hospitals Q1 net profit up

Apollo Hospitals has announced its first quarter results. The company's Q1 net profit was up at Rs 51 crore versus Rs 39 crore.

Its net sales were up at Rs 641 crore versus Rs 523 crore.

Sensex holds on to early gains

It was green all over the screen today with bulls going full throttle across the globe. The pullback was powered by short covering. The 30-share BSESensex was trading at 17,154, up 296 points and the 50-share NSE Nifty jumped 93 points to 5,166.

Tata Motors was leading the largecap space, gaining 6% as it had beaten quite badly on fears of slowdown in US and Europe.

Among other laregcaps, top gainers like Hindalco, M&M, DLF, Infosys and SAIL surged 3.5-5%.

ONGC lost 1.5% on profit booking. Earlier the stock rallied, when the markets sharply corrected in previous five sessions, on hopes that subsidy sharing burden may come down post more than 20% fall in crude oil prices in last few sessions.

HUL, Bharti Airtel, Sun Pharma, BPCL and GAIL too were under pressure, with falling 0.5-1%.

US to keep interest rates low until 2013

the US central bank has indicated it would take no new steps to stimulate the economy other than to keep interest rates low for at least two years.

The Federal Reserve's much-awaited statement on the economy Tuesday sent the Wall Street into a spin as traders did what the New York Times described as 'a double take' on the announcement to see the stocks climb, then drop, then rocket again.

Finally as 'traders figured out that locked-in interest rates and cheap credit could actually give the economy a more solid footing,' the Dow Jones index rose 429 points, or 3.98 percent, to close at 11,239.77. The broader Standard & Poor's 500-stock index rose 4.7 percent to 1,172.53.

It was, the Times noted the biggest daily gain in both indexes since March 2009, and followed the carnage of Monday's 6.7 percent S&P sell-off, the biggest loss since the height of the financial crisis in late 2008.

Meeting after the historic downgrade of America's top notch AAA credit rating, the central bank also surprised Wall Street with a 'considerably slower' reading on the economy, and a bold statement that the Fed stands ready to enact further stimulus measures if needed, CNN said.

The Fed indicated it plans to keep 'exceptionally low' interest rates in place until at least mid-2013 as a way to continue to prop up the recovery.

The Fed has kept the central bank's key tool to spur the economy near zero since 2008, but has long been ambiguous on its future timeframe, saying it would keep the federal funds rate near zero for an 'extended period.'

The central bank acknowledged that economic growth in the United States is 'considerably slower' than expected. That marks a change from prior statements, when the Fed had said the recovery was chugging along at a 'moderate pace,' CNN said.

The Fed also acknowledged that the job market has recently deteriorated, consumer spending has flattened out and the housing sector remains depressed.

But it indicated it is considering a 'range of policy tools available to promote a stronger economic recovery,' and 'is prepared to employ these tools as appropriate.'