Buying is seen in Indian sharemarket as Finance Minsiter Arun Jaitley gears up for Budget speech. The Sensex is up 230.54 points or 0.8 percent at 29450.66 and the Nifty is up 61.90 points or 0.7 percent at 8906.50. About 1339 shares have advanced, 698 shares declined, and 165 shares are unchanged.

Oil marketing companies (OMCs) are under pressure. CLSA sees the Budget to be negative for refiners as every 1 percent increase in duty will pull down gross refining margins by USD 0.3 per barrel.

Both HPCL and BPCL are down 1-2 percent. Brent is up around 15 percent this month from January’s close of USD 52.99, on course for its biggest monthly gain since May 2009. Disruptions to production and exports from Libya and Iraq in recent weeks have contributed to tightness in the physical market in the Mediterranean, while in the North Sea, Statoil has shut its Statfjord C platform after discovering cracks in the flare tower.

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