Nifty hovers around 7,700; RIL up 3%

Weakness in Infosys, L&T and Hindalco cap index gains

Markets have come off nearly 100 points from morning highs after a firm start owing to profit booking at higher levels. Weakness in heavyweights like Infosys, L&T and Hindalco weighed on the indices.

At 1200 hrs, the Sensex was up 26 points at 25,768 and the Nifty added 34 points to trade at 7,697.

Meanwhile, the broader markets held on to its morning gain. Both the mid and smallcap indices were up 1% each.

IT and Capital Goods indices down 0.3% each were the only sectoral indices in red.

FMCG and Oil & Gas indices up 1% each were the major sectoral gainers.

Hindalco, Infosys, Gail India and Tata Power down 1-2% were the top losers of the hour.

L&T, Wipro, Tata Motors, ONGC were the other notable names in red.

RIL up nearly 3% continued to remain the top gainer along with HDFC, Maruti Suzuki, Axis Bank, ITC and HUL down 1-2%.

RIL and HDFC surged on reporting robust quarterly numbers.

In other stocks, Force Motors rallied 11% to Rs 596, extending its past three days rally, on back of heavy volumes.

Astral Poly Technik was up 3% higher at Rs 674 after reporting a strong 72% year on year growth in standalone net profit at Rs 20.45 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2014, on back of higher sales.

The market breadth was positive on BSE. 1664 stocks advanced while 899 stocks declined.

Asian Markets

Asian stocks were a fraction firmer on Monday as investors set aside geopolitical concerns for the moment to focus on the generally upbeat flow of U.S. corporate earnings ahead of a host of results due this week.

Volumes were light, however, with Japanese markets on holiday. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan added 0.24%, with small gains for most markets across Asia.