Markets remain sluggish

The markets have been trading in a lacklustre manner this morning. The benchmark indices had opened on a quiet note in the absence of any clarity from their flobal counterparts and have not gone anywhere since. Oscillating in a narrow range of around 80 points on either side of the previous close, the Sensex is quoting at 18058, lower by 19 points and the Nifty is at 5425, down five points.

The leading gainers on the BSE are M&M (strengthened by 1% at Rs 650, Tata Steel (gained 1% at Rs 535) and Maruti (added 0.7% at Rs 1271). Reliance Infra, Tata Motors and HDFC Bank are the other leading gainers.

On the other hand, ICICI Bank has weakened by 1% at Rs 914, Bharti Airtel has shed 0.9% at Rs 319 and RIL has surrendered its early gains and has actually edged lower by 0.7% at Rs 1046.

The broader markets are outperforming the benchmark indices, though. The midcap index is at 7411, higher by 30 points and the smallcap index is at 9408, up 48 points. In the midcap space, State Bank of Mysore has soared by 7.7% at Rs 700, Manappuram General Finance has gained 4.5% at Rs 91 and Blue Dart Express has added 3.7% at Rs 1126. And the smalllcap index has seen the likes of K P R Mill, Geodesic and Kalyani Steels adding anywhere between 6% and 12% each.

And the market breadth is positive; Out of 2291 stocks traded on the BSE, there are 1358 advancing stocks as againt 850 declines.