Markets continue to remain range bound

Investors remain cautious ahead of RBI's third quarter monetary policy review l

Markets remained rangebound after the first hour of trade as investors remained cautious ahead the RBI’s third quarter monetary policy review later today.

At 10:30AM, the 30-share Sensex was up 43 points at 20,751 and the 50-share Nifty was up 14 points at 6,150.

Benchmark share indices recorded their highest percentage fall yesterday since September 3, 2013, amid a sell-off in emerging markets, with rate sensitive shares leading the decline.

Asian stock were trading with marginal gains after sliiping to near five-month lows in early trades on Tuesday as turmoil in emerging markets and concerns about an economic slowdown in China took their toll. The Nikkei was up 0.2%, Shanghai COmposite edged up 0.1%, Hang Seng rose 0.1% and Straits Times was up 0.2%.

Rate sensitive shares which had witnessed a sell-off on Monday rebounded on short covering at lower levels. BSE Realty, Auto, Bankex and Capital Goods indices were among the top gainers while FMCG and IT indices were the top losers.

In the financial segment, ICICI Bank, HDFC, HDFC Bank, SBI and Axis Bank were up 0.5-1.5% each.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries witnessed short covering after retreating in the previous few sessions. The stock was up 1.1% at Rs 852.

Tata Motors was up 1.3%. The stock had crashed 6% yesterday on news that Karl Slym, managing director, died after falling from a hotel room in Bangkok.

Capital goods shares extended gains with both L&T and BHEL up 1-1.5% each.

Among other shares, Styrolution ABS (India) has surged 6% to Rs 422 after nearly 75% of total equity of the company have changed hands in a single block deal on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

Idea Cellular has dipped 4% to Rs 140, extending its previous day’s 5% fall, after reporting a lower-than-expected consolidated net profit at Rs 468 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2013 (Q3) against an average analyst estimate of Rs 504 crore. The company had profit of Rs 448 crore in previous quarter.

Just Dial has fallen by nearly 6% to Rs 1,388 on BSE after net profit rose 3.80% to Rs 29.75 crore on 6.39% increase in total income from operations to Rs 119.86 crore in Q3 December 2013 over Q2 September 2013

The broader markets outperformed the benchmark indices with both the Mid-cap and Small-cap indices up 0.7% each.

Market breadth was positive with 1038 gainers and 635 losers on the BSE.