Nifty hovers around 6,300; broader markets outperform

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

By 10:30, the Sensex was down by 7 points at 21,453 mark and the Nifty declined by 5 points at 6,309 levels.

According to Puneet Kinra, AVP Research (Equity Technical), Bonanza Portfolio, “Since Dec 2013, Nifty is trading in 6130-6350 range. Q3 has been mixed so far. Going further we may expect topping of interest rates and inflation coming lower. FIIs may also continue to be bullish.

Chart patterns on weekly and monthly charts are showing bullish structure. Until, Election activity happen in coming May 2014, we may again see a range building even if Nifty decisively starts trading above 6350 levels. In medium term target of 6500-6600 may be seen.”

HDFC, L&T, Dabur India, Biocon, Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services, Raymond, Zee Entertainment Enterprises will announce their third quarter earnings today.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 43.74 crore on Tuesday, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.

On the global front, Asian share markets struggled for inspiration on Wednesday, hampered by expectations of further reductions in the U.S. Federal Reserve's stimulus and ahead of central bank meetings in Japan and Thailand.

The dollar remained broadly supported, trading around its highest level since mid-November against a basket of currencies, with many investors expecting the Fed to trim its bond buying further next week.

Japan's Nikkei was almost flat, while MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was off 0.1%.

Back home, the rupee weakened in early trades today due to month end dollar demand from importers. Bearish sentiments in equity markets also contributed to the weakness.

At 10:20 am, the rupee was trading at Rs 61.96 compared with previous close of Rs 61.88 per dollar.

On the sectoral front, BSE Metal index has gained by nearly 1%. However, defensive sectors like FMCG and Healthcare have dropped by nearly 1% each.

The main gainers on the Sensex at this hour include Bharti Airtel, Tata Steel, Cipla, Hindalco, Sun Pharma, NTPC and M&M.

On the losing side, ITC, SBI, ONGC, HUL and Axis Bank have declined between 0.4-1.4%.

Financial shares are witnessing some selling pressure on account of profit booking at higher levels. The central bank is widely expected to keep interest rates unchanged after inflation cooled last month.

Among other shares, Thermax are trading 2% lower at Rs 653 after the Pune based industrial energy solutions company reported a decline in net profit for the third quarter ended December 2013.     

Finolex Cables has gained 2.98% to Rs 86.10 at 10:12 after the company said it won an advance purchase order of over Rs 200 crore for metal free optical fibre cable of the national optic fibre network backbone project.

The broader markets are outperforming the benchmark indices- BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices are up over 0.3%.

The market breadth in BSE remains positive with 954 shares advancing and 714 shares declining.