Markets slowly regaining strength

The markets were witnessing volatile movements in early trade tracking volatility in Asian markets. Asian markets had opened higher taking cue from overnight gains in US stocks but most of them slipped into the red later, on fresh selling.At 12.10 hrs IST, the Sensex is up 161.60 points at 15097.37, and the Nifty up 44.75 points at 4390.50.

IT stocks were subdued in firm market.Infosys (down 0.76% to Rs 1914.90), TCS (down 0.16% to Rs 1114), Satyam Computers (down 0.06% to Rs 470), and Wipro (down 0.65% to Rs 472.60), edged lower.

Cement stocks showed strength on fresh buying. India’s second largest cement producer ACC advanced 3.69% to Rs 1001.15.Ambuja Cements (up 3.50% to Rs 133.50), India Cements (up 5.99% to Rs 216) and Grasim (up 3% to Rs 2937) also edged higher.

India's top bus and truck maker Tata Motors slipped 2.13% to Rs 652.90 on 2.96 lakh shares. Its vehicle sales fell 6.6% in July 2007 to 42,098 units over July 2006. Sales of commercial vehicles dropped 3.8% to 20,705 units in July 2007 over July 2006. Exports fell 17% to 4,382 units.

HDFC Bank, the country’s second largest private sector bank in terms of net profit, slipped 1.07% to Rs 1149 while the country’s largest cigarette manufacturer ITC declined 0.65% to Rs 166.

India’s largest private sector company Reliance Industries (RIL), extended early gains, and was now up 1.75% to Rs 1829.20.

Nitco Tiles rose 1% to Rs 223 after the central bank approved raising foreign fund investment in the company to 49%. The Reserve Bank of India announced the approval yesterday, 1 August 2007.

IFCI surged 7.55% to Rs 56.35 on reports Citigroup, Lehman Brothers, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank and Barclays are interested in buying 26% in the financial services firm.