Markets flat with positive bias; FMCG & power shares gain

Top gainers on the Sensex are GAIL, BHEL, NTPC, Coal India, M&M, HUL, Bharti Airtel & ITC

Benchmark indices continue to trade in a narrow range with positive bias led by FMCG shares.

At 11:30AM, the 30-share Sensex was up 46 points at 27,424 and the 50-share Nifty was up 17 points at 8,243.

Among broader markets, BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices are up 0.4-0.5%.

The top gainers on the Sensex are GAIL, BHEL, NTPC, Coal India, M&M, HUL, Bharti Airtel and ITC.


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Updated at 10:30

Benchmark indices have remained marginally higher, amid range bound trading, as losses in select index heavyweights have kept the gains capped at higher levels.
 
At 10:30AM, the 30-share Sensex was up 46 points at 27,417 and the 50-share Nifty was up 15 points at 8,240.

 
In the broader market, both BSE midcap and smallcap indices have performed better than front-liners with gains of around 0.7% and 0.6% each. Market breadth in BSE is positive with 1,223 advances against 805 declines.
 
Meanwhile, selling by foreign institutional investors continued unabated and they were net sellers in Indian equities worth Rs 668.85 crore on Friday, as per provisional stock exchange data.
 
Buzzing Stocks
 
BSE FMCG index has gained over 1% and is the top gainer followed by BSE Metal index, up 0.8% and BSE Auto index, up 0.5%. BSE IT and Teck indices have lost around 0.5% each.

 
IT shares are under pressure led by the losses in Infosys which has lost around 0.8% followed by TCS, down 0.7%. Wipro is trading flat after paring early gains.
 
Oil and gas shares are trading mixed as oil prices rose in Asia today, extending a sharp rebound at the end of last week, with analysts predicting the sector has bottomed out after plunging almost 50% since June.  ONGC and GAIL have gained around 1% each. However, RIL is trading down by 0.8%.
 
Auto stocks have witnessed fresh buying. Maruti Suzuki has gained around 1.5%, M&M is up 1.2%, Hero Motocorp has gained around 1%. Tata Motors, however, is trading flat.

 
Bajaj Auto is trading higher by 0.4% after trimming early gains on bagging an order for 1.25 lakh units of Discover-125M motorcycles from Sri Lankan government.
 
Among financials, Axis Bank and SBI have gained around 0.5% each while ICICI Bank has lost around 0.8%.
 
Among others shares. R Systems International has rallied 11% after the company said its board approved the buyback of equity shares of the company at a maximum price of Rs 100 per share.
 
Asian Markets

Japanese stocks came under pressure after hitting a two-week high which was led by oil-related shares on rebounding crude prices. Nikkei is trading marginally lower by 0.1%.

 
China stocks rose on Monday in a volatile morning session, as investors ploughed funds into electrical utilities shares on hopes of reform, while banks saw a dramatic spike before a sell-off ensued. Hang Seng and Shanghai Composite indices are trading with gains of around 1.2% and 0.4% each.