Markets trading marginally lower, heavyweights drag

Markets continue to remain volatile in a narrow range with negative bias prevailing amid profit taking in select heavyweight shares.

At 11:40AM, the 30-share Sensex was down 40 points at 19,399 and the 50-share Nifty was down 7 points at 5,852.

According to Ravi Nathani, technical analyst at NSEToday, “Nifty is range bound on charts (5905-5760) close above/below would add trigger in direction. Best trading strategy would be stay-away however compulsive traders could sell on rise with a strict stoploss of 5905 as per closing basis.”

On the global front, Asian shares were trading firm but came off their day highs after data indicated that Chinese exports declined for the first time since January 2012, raising worries about that the world's second largest economy is slowing down.

The Nikkei was down 0.1% while the Hang Seng, Shanghai Composite and Straits Times were up 0.4-0.5% each.

Back home, the rupee today rose by 13 paise to 60.01 against the US dollar in early trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market after the RBI took steps to curb volatility in the currency.

The Reserve Bank's order to state-owned oil companies to purchase their dollar requirement from a single public sector bank for every daily transaction to curb volatility in the currency also supported the local unit.

On the sectoral front, BSE Consumer Durables, Healthcare and IT indices are up 1-2%. However, BSE Auto, Metal and FMCG indices are down by nearly 1% each.

Tata Motors is the top Sensex loser, down nearly 2%. SC asks Tata Motors to clarify its stand on its rights over Singur land after the company moved out its proposed car plant from West Bengal.

Infosys was up 0.6% ahead of its first quarter earnings on Friday. TCS was up 0.3% and Wipro gained 0.5%.

In the banking space, SBI and ICICI Bank were among the top Sensex gainers.

FMCG major Hindustan Unilever was down nearly 1% after the stock turned ex-dividend today. The company paid a final dividend of Rs 6/ per equity share for the last fiscal.

Among other shares, Rallis India has surged 5% to Rs 148, in otherwise subdued market, on hopes of strong performance in coming quarters due to good monsoon.

The market breadth in BSE remains positive with 1,054 shares advancing and 791 shares declining.