Choppy trades continue

Markets continued to be choppy in trades even as Asian stocks gained. Sensex was up 75 points at 18,079.

Nifty gained 15 points at 5,410.

BSE small and mid-cap indices under-performed the benchmark. Mid-cap index slipped 0.25% to 6,718. Small-cap index dropped 0.36% to 8,300.

FMCG and realty index continued to shine in trades. BSE FMCG index was up 1.2% at 3,254. Realty index was up 1.2% at 2,226.

Unitech gained 3.3% at Rs 44. HDIL, Phoenix, Indiabulls Real Estate and DLF were in green.

"I think infrastructure as a theme from the business perspective will be much bigger. The dynamics of the business are very different. There is competition, long capital cycle, the recoveries, uncertainties on input prices etc. The businesses do become big, but very few companies will be able to bring profitability to the sector," says Motilal Oswal, chairman and managing director, MOFSL.

Meanwhile, the healthcare index shed 1.2% at 5,993.

Hero Honda, Bharti AIrtel, ITC, HDFC Bank and Jaiprakash Associates jumped 2-3% in trades.

Reliance Communications added 1.5% to Rs 116. DLF, Infosys, BHEL and SBI were up around 1% each.

Meanwhile, Cipla continued to slump and was down 3.6% at Rs 312. Hindalco, Wipro and Bajaj Auto dropped 1.2% each.

Other losers in the index included Tata Motors, Tata Power and Larsen & Toubro.