Markets remain range bound with negative bias

Indian stocks continued to remain range bound with a negative bias in late trades on Tuesday as gains in IT shares failed to offset losses in financial, oil and gas shares.

Meanwhile, investors continue to remain cautious ahead of the two-day FOMC meet starting today and Reserve Bank of India's monetary policy later this week.

Meanwhile, the US Federal Reserve Open Market Commitee (FOMC) meet on September 17-18 will be key in terms of any tapering of $85 billion monthly bond purchases that led to significant inflows in the emerging markets especially India so far.

At 2:40 PM, the 30-share Sensex was down 14 points at 19,728 and the 50-share Nifty slipped 11 points to 5,830.

Asian shares eased and the dollar firmed on Tuesday as investors ahead of the FOMC meet in which the US central bank is likely to start withdrawing stimulus.

The weakness in the rupee continues in afternoon trades due to persistent dollar demand by importers.

The rupee was trading at Rs 63.12 compared with previous close of Rs 62.85 per dollar.

The BSE IT index was the top gainer among the sectoral indices up 1.4% followed by Metal, Auto and FMCG indices. However, Power, Bankex, Capital Goods and Consumer Durables shares were down 1-1.4% each.

Major software exporters were among the top gainers in the Sensex amid a weakening rupee. Infosys, TCS and Wipro were up 0.6-4.3% each.

Dr Reddy's Labs was up nearly 4% after the company said it has received an approval from the United States Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) for its Azacitidine for injection 100 mg/vial.

In the FMCG pack, ITC and Hindustan Unilever were up nearly 1% each.

Among the financials, HDFC, ICICI Bank, SBI and HDFC Bank were down 0.4-1.9% each.

In the oil and gas pack, Reliance Industries and ONGC were down 0.6-2.7% each.

Shares of gold finance companies such as Muthoot Finance and Manappuram Finance are trading lower by up to 10% on BSE after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) tightened regulations governing non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) lending against gold jewellery.

Among other shares, Sesa Goa is trading higher by 2.8% at Rs 182, bouncing back nearly 6% from intra-day low ahead of Supreme Court (SC) hearing on Goa mining case today.

The market breath in BSE remains weak with 1,231 shares declining and 975 shares advancing.