Markets continue to trade in green

Metal and Reliance gains

Markets traded in the green but was choppy in a narrow range with the Sensex up 50 points at 17,652. Nifty added 16 points at 5,352.

Meanwhile in Asia, Nikkei gained 0.6% to 8,857. However Chinese and Hong Kong markets slipped marginally ahead of key economic data.

BSE metal index jumped 1.5% to 10,514 as global metal prices took the London Metal Exchange higher. BSE auto and IT indices were up 0.5-1% each. BSE realty index, however, has slipped 0.4% at 1,677.

Among individual stocks, Reliance Industries gained 1% at Rs 791 after it got conditional approval to invest over a billion dollars to arrest the sagging output at its KG-D6 gas block.

IT heavyweight - Infosys has jumped 1% to Rs 2,281 - and has contributed 15 points to the Sensex's upmove. Metal shares Jindal Steel, Hindalco and Sterlite have added 2% each. Among other gainers are HUL, Coal India and SBI.

On the other hand, Bharti Airtel has slipped 3% to Rs 285. Bharti Airtel reported its 10th straight quarter of profit decline as competition squeezed margins despite gaining subscriber market share from some of its smaller rivals.

IDFC says at first impression Bharti Airtel's headline numbers are weak with domestic volume growth of just 3.9 percent while pricing fell 2.6 percent, sequentially.

Gail India has declined 2.2%, followed by ONGC, TCS and Larsen & Toubro.

UltraTech Cement is trading flat at Rs 1,636 on reports that one of its promoters, Umang Commercial Company, has sold 1.37 lakh shares in the firm for Rs 22.42 crore.

Promoters of EIH Limited, which runs the Oberoi and Trident chain of hotels, are likely to increase their stake in the company to more than 40 per cent. The stock is up 1% at rs 8340.

Coal India has agreed to a hefty penalty of up to 40 per cent if it fails to supply the committed quantity of the fuel to power firms. CIL is trading higher by 0.7% at Rs 347.