Lacklustre trade continues

Markets gained in noon trades to touch its intra-day high, while select sectors moved up. The Sensex after trading in the negative zone for some time, managed to rebound and touched a high of 18,007. The index was up 44 points at 17,923. Nifty was at 5,386 - up 2 points.

The BSE realty index remained in red - down 0.5% at 2,044. IT index was down marginally at 3,520. Meanwhile, the healthcare index jumped 0.5% to 5,812, followed by auto and oil & gas.
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(Updated at 1124 hrs)

Markets posted marginal gains led by buying in auto shares. However, further upside remained capped on concerns of rising crude prices as tensions in Libya escalated.

The Nifty opened in the green, and touched a high of 5413 in the opening trade tracking firm global but pared all the gains and touched a low 5,348 on back of rise in crude. The S&P CNX Nifty was up 15 points, at 5389 and the benchmark, Sensex advanced 52 points, at 17,917.

Brent Crude surged to $116/bbl, 1.5% after International Coalition forces commenced air strike on Libya, while leader Gadhafi vowed to continue fighting.

BSE mid and small-cap indices traded in a lacklustre fashion, underperforming the broader markets. The mid-cap index was flat at 6,513 while small-cap index traded unchanged at 7,806.

BSE auto index jumped 0.6% to 8,541. Top gainers were Mahindra & Mahindra, up 1.9%, Tata Motors climbed 0.9% and Hero Honda was up 0.6%.

The healthcare, consumer durables and FMCG indices also moved up between 0.3-0.4%.

Top losers on the Sensex were Hindalco, down 2.2%, Cipla declined 0.8% and Reliance Communication was off 0.7%. Top gainers on the Sensex were Mahindra & Mahindra advanced 1.6%, HDFC surged 1.4% and Jindal Steel fell 1.2%.

Market breadth was negative, 1296 stocks declined for 1220 stocks which advanced.