Positive signals from the Asian markets and European indices trading mixed helped the domestic equities market stay on the higher side today. Nevertheless, the indices gave up some gains in the post-noon session. The market was supported by buying in IT, oil & gas, technology and metal stocks, while all sectoral gauges were on the higher side.

State-owned oil marketing companies – Indian Oil Corporation, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum – are likely to go slow on investments in foreign countries in wake of the ongoing global economic downturn and cash crunch.

The three companies plans to invest $600 million in Brazil towards ethanol production which was supposed to be used in mixing with fuels in India. However, the investment proposal has been put on hold for now.

There is a buzz that the government has offered a 10% stake in India’s LNG importer, Petronet LNG, to the Qatari government. The move, if fructified, will help the country source additional gas from the Gulf nation.

The BSE Sensex traded at 9,305.92, up 234.56 points or 2.59% over its previous close. The index touched a high of 9,387.60 and a low of 9,207.52, so for.

The broader S&P CNX Nifty advanced 68.20 points or 2.48% at 2813.15 at this point in time. The benchmark witnessed a high of 2832.20 and a low of 2748.40, intra-day.

The market breadth on the BSE was decent. Out of 2335 stocks that were traded so far, 1330 advanced, 905 declined and 100 were unchanged. The Nifty had 44 advances to 6 declines.

Among the broader sectoral indices, the BSE Mid-cap index was up 1.25% while the BSE Small-cap index surged 0.99%.

NTPC traded with gains on the bourses on news that the company’s board has approved investments of Rs 6,037 crore. The stock was up 1.90 points or 1.13% at Rs 170.05 per share on the BSE.

Petronet LNG surged 2.40 points or 6.97% and was trading at Rs 36.85 on the BSE after Union petroleum minister Murli Deora offered a 10% stake in the company to the Qatari government.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Reliance Industries up 5.46%, Infosys Technologies up 5.27%, Tata Steel up 4.76%, Reliance Infra up 4.58% and M&M up 4.46%.

The draggers of the index were Sun Pharmaceuticals down 1.53%, Maruti Suzuki down 0.25%, Ranbaxy Laboratories down 0.07% and Hindustan Unilever down 0.04%.

The top gainers on the Nifty included HCL Technologies up 8.18%, Reliance Industries up 5.79%, Infosys up  5.34%, M&M up 4.90% and Reliance Capital up 4.86%.

The top losers on the index were Sun Pharma down 1.30%, GAIL India down 0.82%, National Aluminium down 0.79%, Reliance Power down 0.51% and Ambuja Cement down 0.21%.

The top gainers in the BSE sectoral space were IT up 4.50%, Oil & Gas up 3.78%, TECk up 3.72%, Metal up 3.68% and Realty up 2.99%,

There were no red ticks in the sectoral segment at this point in time.

On the global front, markets in Europe were trading mixed. UK’s FTSE 100 down 0.21%, Germany’s DAX was up 0.22% and CAC of France gained 0.57%.

Markets in Asia were firm towards the close of trades. Shanghai Composite was up 3.52%, Hang Seng gained 0.27%, Nikkei 225 surged 0.29%, Straits Times advanced 1% and Seoul Composite rose 1.28%.

However, Taiwan Weighted bucked the trend and was down 0.24%.