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Mumbai: Indian stocks edged up 0.15 per cent on Tuesday, surrendering early gains of as much as 1.5 per cent as nervy investors decided it was best not to take aggressive positions given uncertainty about the global outlook.
Drug maker Ranbaxy Laboratories ended up 4.8 per cent after its board approved the spin-off of its drug discovery research unit, a move which it said would generate savings of $25 million in the current year.
Second-ranked motorcycle maker Bajaj Auto closed 5.6 per cent higher after said it had court approval for a plan to split its manufacturing and finance operations.
"Markets are in a consolidation mode. There is no clear signal from the international markets," said Gajendra Nagpal, CEO at Unicon Financial in New Delhi.
"We rose in the morning tracking Asia, but that could not be backed up when Europe opened."
The benchmark BSE 30-share index rose 27.61 points to 18,075.66, with 19 components rising. The index ended 14.8 per cent below a record high of 21,206.77 hit on January 10.
"The budget is the most important event the market is now looking to. I don't think we will see any major upside or downside before the budget," Nagpal said. The government will announce its 2008-09 (April/March) budget on February 29.
Equity markets elsewhere in Asia rose on Tuesday as investors put January's global slump behind them and ventured into banking stocks, daring to trust that the US economy would not throw any more ugly surprises, but European equities fell more than one per cent.
Volatile months
Merrill Lynch equity strategist Vijay Gaba said the uncertain external environment and risk aversion among global fund managers could keep Indian markets volatile for the next few months, even though India offered a safe haven in uncertain times.
"There is no sign of it crash landing. It is though expected to soft land into a healthy eight per cent-plus real GDP growth region in 2008 and 2009, against over nine per cent real GDP growth in 2007," he said in a report.
Top software exporter Tata Consultancy gained 2.7 per cent to Rs874.85 as the rupee slipped to a four-month low against the dollar.
Reliance Energy, which owns 45 per cent of utility Reliance Power, fell 4.4 per cent to Rs1,622.15.
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