Markets listless as focus shifts to Union Budget

Broader markets traded mixed with small-caps gaining nearly 0.4% in noon trades.

Markets continued to trade range-bound with a positive bias in afternoon trades this Wednesday ahead of the Union Budget on February 28 and government's road-map to bridge current account deficit and fiscal deficit that will help decide the pace of growth recovery in Asia's third-biggest economy.

At 1PM, the Bombay Stock Exchange's 30-share index Sensex fell 4 points to trade at  19,641  while the National Stock Exchange's 50-share Nifty gained 2 points at 5,941.

Meanwhile, Asian markets traded higher on hopes of global growth recovery. Japan's Nikkei gained  0.84% to 11,468, Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.5% to 23,257, Singapore's Straits Times was up 0.3% to 3,305, while China's Shanghai Composite added 0.6% to 2,397.

Back home, barring real-estate, IT and oil & gas indices, rest all fell with consumer durables, metals, FMCG , banking sectors leading drop on BSE.

Among key Sensex stocks, Reliance Industries gained 2%, Hero MotoCorp added 0.8%, Coal India and GAIL rose 0.7% and 0.6% respectively while Wipro and TCS gained 0.6% each on BSE.

Among losers,  Cipla and Dr Reddy's fell 1% and 0.4% respectively, Tata Motors is down 0.8%, HUL and ITC fell 1% each ,  SBI and ICICI Bank declined 0.2% and 0.6% respectively  on BSE.

The other key notable movers include,  Pidilite Industries gained nearly 3% at Rs 262 in an otherwise flat market. The stock opened at Rs 255 which was also the low for the day. In the noon trades the stock touched a high of Rs 265. Around two and a half lakh shares changed hands on the BSE and NSE.

Jaiprakash Power Ventures has slumped in noon deals after the company announced the opening of qualified institutional placement to raise up to Rs 3500 crore.

The broader markets traded mixed with mid-caps inching down by 0.03% while small-caps gained 0.4% on BSE.

The market breadth is positive. Out of 2,624 stocks traded, 1,351 stocks gained compared to 1,139 declines on BSE.