Markets remain range bound

Markets continue to trade in a narrow range in late morning deals. Index heavyweight RIL and banking shares are lending positive support to the markets. However, weakness in Bharti Airtel and Hindustan Unilever have capped the upside.

Meanwhile, India's gross domestic product (GDP) is estimated to grow an annual 6.9% in the 2011-12 fiscal year, a government statement said on Tuesday, citing provisional estimates.

At 11:30 hrs, the Sensex was up 40 points at 17,747 and the 50-share Nifty rose 11 points at 5,373.

On the global front, Greek resistance to the strict conditions attached to a bailout fund capped the recent strength in Asian shares on Tuesday, as renewed fears of a messy debt default gave pause to mounting hopes the global economy is improving. Nikkei, Hang Seng and Shanghai are trading marginally in red whereas Strait Times, Taiwan and Kospi have gained marginally.

Back home, index heavyweight Reliance Industries has surged 2% to Rs 849 after the foreign brokerage house Goldman Sachs upgraded the company to buy from neutral, citing a potential lift in margins on increased refining and recovering oil demand.

From the banking space, private banking majors HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank have gained by almost 1% each. SBI has increased marginally.

IT stocks have gained on recent news of positive economic data in the US. TCS was up 1% after the company inked a multi-year, multi-million euro contract with European car rental company Europcar for deployment of IT services in France. Wipro was also up over 1%.

However, Bharti Airtel has dropped nearly 2% ahead of its third quarter numbers tomorrow and HUL has declined nearly 2% on earnings quality concerns post its December quarter results.

The broader markets are trading flat with the Mid-cap index up 0.1% and the Small-cap index up 0.3%.

The overall market breadth in BSE remains marginally positive with 1,209 shares advancing and 1,192 shares declining.