Markets remain rangebound, Nifty hovers near 6,060

Markets pared most of the early gains and were trading in a very narrow range in late morning trades on Monday as gains in Reliance Industries and pharma shares helped offset most of the losses in FMCG and select financials.

At 11:30AM, the 30-share Sensex was up 12 points at 20,388 and the 50-share Nifty was down 2 points at 6,061.

The rupee appreciated in morning trade due to dollar sale by exporters. The rupee was trading at Rs 62.21 compared with previous close of Rs 62.29. The rupee is seen trading rangebound during the day as currency dealers believe dollar demand from oil marketing companies may emerge. There may also be dollar demand for defense related purchases, said dealers.

Stocks in Asia continued to trade with firm gains on Monday tracking gains in US stocks on Friday which saw major indices rallying over 1% each. Further, the weakness in the Japanese yen also boosted sentiment for Japanese stocks. The Nikkei was up 1.4%. Chinese shares also witnessed robust gains with the benchmark Shanghai Composite up nearly 2%. However, the Hang Seng and Straits Times were trading flat with negative bias.

BSE Realty index continues to be the top gainer among the sectoral indices on the back of strong gains in realty major DLF which was up 5% after the realty major announced the sale of its luxury hospitality chain Aman resorts to its original founder Adrian Zecha for $358 million (about Rs 2,200 crore). Healthcare, Metal, Oil and Gas indices were the other gainers while FMCG index was the top loser down 0.5%.

In the Oil and Gas space, Reliance Industries firmed up after sliding 2% last week while ONGC was up 0.8%.

Pharma companies were in action after commissioner of the USFDA Margaret A Hamburg first official visit to meet heads of domestic pharma companies. The event assumes great significance as it comes in the wake of the increasing international enforcements faced by domestic pharma companies. Sun Pharma, Dr Reddys Labs, Cipla were up 1-1.5% each.

Other Sensex gainers include, Tata Motors and ICICI Bank.

IT majors witnessed a mixed trend despite a stronger rupee. TCS was down 1.1% while Infosys and Wipro were up 0.3-1% each.

FMCG shares witnessed profit taking ahead of consumer price inflation data due Wednesday. Higher inflation reduces the purchasing power of consumers. Hind Unilever and ITC were down between 0.5-1.8%.

In the financials space, HDFC group shares, HDFC and HDFC Bank were down 0.6-1% each.

Telecom shares remained under pressure on concerns of rising acquisition costs of spectrum after the spectrum auction today entered the 43rd round of bidding on seventh day after starting off from Rs 56,554 crore in terms of value. Bharti Airtel was down 1.7% and Idea slipped 3%.

Among other shares, Piramal Glass is locked in upper circuit of 20% at Rs 92.80 on BSE after its board approved voluntary delisting of equity shares of the company from the stock exchanges.

Avanti Feeds has soared nearly 20% at Rs 343, also its record high on BSE, after reporting nearly five-fold jumped in net profit at Rs 22.44 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2013 (Q3) on back of strong operational income. The company had profit of Rs 4.73 crore in a year ago quarter.

In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices were down 0.4-0.6% each.

Market breadth was strong with 1,176 gainers and 843 losers on the BSE.