Markets end higher led by banks

Markets ended marginally higher on Tuesday, amid a volatile trading session, led by banks and index heavyweight Reliance Industries.

The Sensex closed higher by 56 points at 17,441 and the 50-share Nifty advanced 20 points to end at 5,274.

The Asian markets ended lower in trades today. The Hang Seng slipped 129 points to close at 19,430, Shanghai Composite slipped 15 points to 2,043 and the Nikkei ended weaker by 8 points at 8,775.

European shares fell on Tuesday as investors turned cautious in the run-up to a European Central Bank (ECB) meeting. CAC 40 index was down 12 points or 0.3 per cent at 3,441, DAX ended weaker by 13 points at 7,002 and the FTSE was down 43 points or 0.7 per cent at 5,715 levels.

Back home, index heavyweight Reliance Industries was among the top Sensex gainers on the back of short covering at lower levels. The stock advanced nearly 2 per cent to close at Rs 778.

Bank shares firmed up after global investment bank Goldman Sachs upgraded Indian banks to "neutral" from "cautious" citing favourable risk/reward in public sector bank stock prices, as the gap between state-owned and private banks widens to a 10-year high.

ICICI Bank ended up 1 per cent at Rs 912 while SBI gained 1.2 per cent to end at Rs 1,872.

GAIL India, Jindal Steel, Tata Motors, Tata Steel, HUL, Maruti Suzuki, BHEL, Bharti Airtel, Dr Reddy's Labs and Larsen & Toubro were also among the gainers.

On the other hand, HDFC, Cipla, Tata Power, Bajaj Auto, Wipro, Sun Pharma, ONGC, ITC and Infosys were among the laggards from the heavyweight space.

Most of the sectoral indices ended on a flat note. The BSE realty index was the top sectoral gainer, up 1.6 per cent or 24 points to end at 1,521. Oil & gas index also advanced 1.2 per cent to end at 8,243.

Power, consumer durables, metal, capital goods, auto, PSU, bankex, teck and FMCG indices advanced 0.2-0.9 per cent each.

While, IT and healthcare indice closed marginally lower.

Among the individual stocks, Kingfisher Airlines gained around 5 per cent to Rs 10 after the airlines Chairman Vijay Mallya gave guarantees worth Rs 5,904 crore for the carrier's loans and other liabilities in 2011-12, but did not get any commission for the same because of lenders' opposition.

Textile major S Kumars Nationwide dropped 5 per cent to Rs 18.30 after the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) received complaints about alleged violation of corporate governance and other norms. Currently the matter is examined by the Registrar of Companies (RoC), Ministry of Corporate Affairs has said.

Courier and logistics company Blue Dart Express slipped nearly 13 per cent to Rs 1,672 after an announcement that its foreign promoter plans to cut stake in the company from the current 81 per cent to comply with the SEBI norms on minimum public share holding requirements.

Shares of Reliance Communications India's second-biggest telecoms carrier by customers, were up more than 5 per cent after its chairman, Anil Ambani said it will explore options, including selling a stake in its tower arm to pare debt.

The broader markets ended on a flat note. The BSE mid-cap index closed higher by 0.5 per cent at 6,042 and the small-cap index ended higher by 0.4 per cent at 6,422.

The overall breadth was positive as 1,503 stocks advanced while 1,207 declined.