India steel market situation

Indian stock markets continued their positive performance on Thursday, with benchmark indexes Se-nsex and Nifty hitting fresh record highs in early trade, on the back of positive global cues and solid earnings results from the likes of HCL Technologies and Zee Entertainment Enterprises.

The benchmark BSE Sensex was up 63 points or 0.21 percent at 30,311 after rising about 1 percent in the previous session. The broader Nifty index was up 25 points or 0.28 percent at 9,433.

Zee Entertainment Enterprises rallied 3.5 percent after its quarterly profit jumped six-fold.

Hindalco jumped more than 4 percent as its subsidiary Novelis reported record results for the fourth quarter.

HCL Technologies gained half a percent after its Q4 profit beat analysts' estimates.

Asian Paints was marginally higher ahead of its quarterly results due today.

Kotak Mahindra Bank added half a percent on fund raising reports.

Tech Mahindra edged up marginally after reports that it is all set to lay-off about 1500 employees, f-ollowing in the footsteps of bigger rivals such as Infosys, Wipro and Cognizant.

Hero MotoCorp slid half a percent after the country's largest two-wheeler manufacturer reported a- 14 percent decline in fiscal-fourth quarter profit amid lower volumes and liquidation of Bharat State- IlI stocks.