Markets remain volatile in a narrow range

Benchmark indices continue to remain extremely volatile in a narrow range with Sensex and Nifty swinging between negative and positive zone.

By 1125 AM, Sensex was up by 8 points at 18,549, and the Nifty up 10 points at 5,600 levels.

According to Chetan Jain, Deputy Manager (Derivatives Desk) - Equity Research, Anand Rathi Financial Services, "Nifty has been witnessing sustained selling pressure in this entire month with making lower lows on weekly charts, It has lost more than 400 points in this month. Looking at the Option concentration data, maximum Pu OI stands at 5500 & 5600 stirke prices whereas on higher side 5700 calls having maximum OI of around 10 mn shares suggesting immediate support at 5500 and hurdle around 5680-5700 area. "

On the global front, China’s Shanghai index slid nearly 4 per cent deepening their slump into a bear market amid concerns elevated money-market rates will worsen the country’s economic slowdown.

Global investor sentiments also remained edgy after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke hinted towards tapering off the bond-buying programme popularly known as ‘quantitative easing’ sooner-than-expected once US economy shows sustainable signs of recovery.

The Fed may trim its monthly bond purchases by $20 billion to $65 billion in September, a Bloomberg survey showed.

Mirroring the concerns, Asian stocks traded lower with Nikkei falling 1.6% to 12,847, Singapore Straits Times gained 0.3% to 3,081, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng declined 1.4% to 19,533 while China’s Shanghai Composite index was down 2.9% at 1,908.

Back home, erasing all its early gains, the rupee today fell by four paise in the late morning trade due to fresh dollar demand from banks and importers on the back of firm global cues.

On the sectoral front, BSE Consumer Durables index has plunged by nearly 2% followed by counters like Auto, Metal, Capital Goods, Healthcare, IT and Power, all gaining between 0.6-1.2%. However, BSE Oil & Gas index has gained by nearly 1%.

The main losers on the Sensex at this hour include Tata Motors, Wipro, Maruti Suzuki, JSPL, BHEL, ICICI Bank, Sterlite, SBI and Infosys, all dropping between 1-3%.

On the gaining side, Hindalco, ONGC, Bharti Airtel, ITC and HDFC Bank are up 1-2%.

Among other shares, Jet Airways were down over 1% at Rs 438 on reports that the airline plans to submit a revised deal on Etihad Airways' stake buy in the domestic airline.

Parsvnath Developers were trading at a 52-week low of Rs 27.35 after the company faced with land acquisition problems surrendered its IT special economic zone in Haryana.

The market breadth in BSE remains weak with 1,216 shares declining and 580 shares advancing.