Markets end higher amid range-bound trades

ITC, banks lead gains

Key share indices ended marginally higher on Monday, amid a rangebound  trading session, as investors turned cautious ahead of the Reserve Bank of India's fiscal year's monetary policy tomorrow.

The 30-share Sensex provisionally ended up 77 points at 17,171 and the 50-share Nifty ended up 19 points at 5,226.

__________________________________

(Updated at 14:25 hrs)

Markets continue to remain flat with the Sensex and the Nifty oscillating between negative and positive zone. The Sensex slipped 5 points at 17,089 and the Nifty gained 4 points to 5,211.

On the global front, Japan's Nikkei share average fell 1.7% on Monday as investors cut their exposure to risky assets in response to fresh concerns over the euro zone debt crisis after Spanish bond yields soared.

Exporters dependent on the European market were heavily sold, with TDK Corp, Konica Minolta Holdings Inc and Nikon Corp shedding between 2.2 and 3.9% as the euro slipped below 105 yen.

European markets have opened higher with CAC, DAX and FTSE gaining between 0.1-0.5%.

Back home, Infosys is trading lower by 3%at Rs 2,342, extending it’s record single day fall of around 13% on Friday, after the IT bellwether reported disappointing fourth quarter earnings and offered lower dollar revenue and earning per share (EPS) guidance for FY13. TCS is down by nearly 1%.

Telecom major Bharti Airtel has extended the losses, down by over 2%.

Among Oil & Gas pack, Reliance Inds and ONGC have declined marginally.

On the gaining side, sectors like FMCG, Capital Goods, Realty and Banks have gained by nearly 1% each.

ITC is the top Sensex gainer, up by over 1.5%. Other gainers include Tata Motors, SBI, L&T, Maruti Suzuki, Jindal Steel, Bajaj Auto and BHEL.

The broader markets were outperforming the benchmark indices, with the BSE Midcap and the Smallcap indices gaining between 0.3-0.4%.  The overall market breadth in BSE remains positive with 1,385 stocks advancing and 1,259 stocks declining.