Key indices were firm in early trade Monday, with realty and capital goods share markets figuring among the key gainers. The Sensex was up 46 points at 18,881, and the Nifty up 11 points at 5693.India was among the better performers in Asia this morning, and brokers said the recovery was being driven partly by technical factors.

Hindustan Copper, BHEL and ABB were among the big gainers in early trade, rising around 3 percent each. Auto shares will be in focus as the companies announce their sales for March. Most analysts are not expecting any major surprise in sales numbers, which has been under pressure for the last couple of months.

JSW Steel, Havells India, Sterlite Industries and Sesa Goa were among the big laggards, down around 3-4 percent. Dhiraj Agarwal of Standard Chartered Securities expects the market to remain challenging near term. He says the earnings performance for the January-March quarter may not meet market expectations. Also, the macro-economic situation has been worsening despite the reform measures by the government.

However, Saurabh Mukherjea of Ambit Capital is of the view that the overall mood in the market is so negative that many investors are missing signs of improvement in the economy.He does not expect the Nifty to fall below 5500, and says that the economy is turning around. This and a declining interest rate environment should provide a solid base for the market to rally here on, he says.

Technical analyst Sudarshan Sukhani is bullish on Reliance Industries and Coal India and is recommending his clients to go long on these stocks. He says the correction in Reliance Industries is done for now, and expects the stock to rise to Rs 785 near term. Sukhani has a target of Rs 320 for Coal India. He is very bearish on Tata Motors, saying that the technical chart indicates weakness. He is advising clients to sell the stock with a target of Rs 255.