Markets remain rangebound; hotel, railway stocks gain

Benchmark shares remained rangebound in late noon trades as gains in capital goods and select bank shares helped offset losses in IT and FMCG majors.

At 2:25PM, the 30-share Sensex was up 88 points at 22,717 and the 50-share Nifty was up 25 points at 6,804.

The rupee is trading marginally lower at 60.33 versus its Thursday's close of 60.29/30, in cautious trading as several markets remained closed for the Easter holiday.

Asian stocks also remained subdued as traders remained cautious over the emerging crisis in Ukraine. Meanwhile, stocks in Japan pared gains to end marginally lower. The Nikkei ended down 0.03%, while the Shanghai COmposite was down 1.5% and Straits Times was up 0.1%. Hang Seng was closed for Easter holidays.

Major European stock markets are closed today on account of Easter holiday.

BSE Capital Goods index was the top gainer up 2.9% followed by Metal, Auto, Bankex, Power and Consumer Durables indices was up 0.5-2.9%.

L&T was the top Sensex gainer up 3.9% while BHEL was up 3.4%.

In the banking space, SBI, Axis Bank and ICICI Bank were up 0.4-2.4% each.

Among the auto majors, M&M was up 3.6% and Maruti Suzuki gained 2.2%.

ITC, HUL from the FMCG pack and Infosys, Wipro from the IT pack were among the major Sensex losers.

Rail-related shares also firmed up in late noon trades. Transformers and Rectifiers was up 3.5% while Kalindee Rail, Kernex Micro and Texmaco Rail were up 7-18% each.

Hotel shares also witnessed demand. Hotel Leela was up nearly 14% after the company said it is in talks with sovereign wealth funds of Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Malaysia to sell its prime properties in Delhi and Chennai for around Rs 1,850 crore to pare debt. Indian Hotels, EIH were up 2-3% each.

In the broader market, BSE Mid-cap and Small-Cap indices outperformed the benchmark indices up 0.8-1.3% each.

Market breadth was positive with 1,659 gainers and 990 losers on the BSE.