Indian Shares Marginally Higher In Early Trade

(RTTNews) - Indian shares rose marginally on Wednesday, tracking positive global cues after overnight data showed the U.S. economy grew at its quickest pace in more than a decade last quarter.

Meanwhile, with winter session of Parliament ending yesterday, there is speculation that the government will adopt the ordinance route to pass the insurance and coal bills that aim to increase foreign participation in the insurance sector and facilitate auctions of coal blocks de-allocated by the Supreme Court.

Trading in a narrow range, the benchmark indexes Sensex and Nifty are currently up about 0.1 percent each.

UltraTech Cement is rallying 2.5 percent after it agreed to buy Jaypee's two cement plans. Shares of Jjaiprakash Associates are moving up 1.7 percent.

Coal India is rising 1.3 percent. The company's board has given an 'in-principle' approval to form two joint ventures with GAIL and Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers.

Ambuja Cements is gaining 1.2 percent. The company said it has filed a special leave petition in the Supreme Court in a sales tax case in Rajasthan

IFCI is edging up marginally on fund raising reports.

Manappuram Finance is climbing 3.7 percent. The gold loan firm said it would acquire a 70 percent stake in Asirvad Microfinance Pvt. Ltd., which provides micro loans, housing and festival loans to poor women.

IOC is losing 1.7 percent. The state-run oil marketing firm has unveiled plans to invest Rs. 6,800 crore on capacity expansion.

The benchmark indexes Sensex and Nifty erased early gains to end down about 0.7 percent each on Tuesday as investors took some profits off the table following three sessions of sharp gains.