Markets remain rangebound, IT shares lead

Markets continued to remain range bound as gains in IT and FMCG shares helped offset losses in capital goods and private bank shares.

At 11:30AM, the Sensex gained 69 points at 20,197 whereas the Nifty was up 8 points at 6,046.

On the global front, Japanese shares skidded from a two-month peak on Friday in a sudden reversal sparked by profit-taking ahead of a weekend election that should see Prime Minister Shinzo Abe gain control of the upper house of parliament.

The Nikkei was down 1.8% while Shanghai COmposite and Straits Times were marginally down while the Hang Seng was trading flat with positive bias.

The rupee was down 7 paise to 59.74 against the dollar in early trade at Interbank Foreign Exchange market due to increased demand for the US currency from importers.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said the Indian economy is going through a difficult period and the recent volatility in the forex market is a cause for concern.

The Prime Minister said that RBI steps are not meant to signal rise in long term interest rates and the central bank can consider revising steps once the rupee stabilises.

The BSE IT index continued to remain the lead the sectoral indices on the BSE followed by Auto, FMCG, Oil and Gas indices.

Tata Consultancy Services was up 5.3% at Rs 1,748, also its record high on BSE, after reporting  better- than-expected consolidated net profit at Rs 3,831 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2013 (Q1 FY2014).

Analysts on an average had expected profit of Rs 3,739 crore from India’s largest software services company. The company had profit of Rs 3,616 crore in March quarter and Rs 3,317 crore in a year ago quarter.

Infosys and Wipro have gained between 1-2%.

Auto shares also witnessed buying at lower levels. Tata Motors, M&M and Hero Motors gained between 1-2%.

ONCG and Reliance Ind were up between 0.3-1.7% each in the oil and gas segment.

Among Sensex losers, BHEL, L&T, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank are down between 1-5% each.

Among other shares, Manappuram Finance is locked in upper circuit of 10% at Rs 12.88 after the gold loan company said foreign institutional investor (FII) Baring Private Equity Partners India Ltd has raised its holdings in company through open market purchases.

In the broader markets, the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices were trading mixed.

Market breadth was neutral with 935 gainers and 903 losers on the BSE.