Nifty maintains 8,300; Axis Bank, SBI up over 1%

Auto shares continued to remain top losers amid weak October sales

Markets remained rangebound with negative bias in noon trades on Monday with auto shares leading the decline on the back of weak October sales while bank shares continued to trade firm.

At 13:00hrs, the 30-share Sensex was down 21 points at 27,845 and the 50-share Nifty was trading 8 points lower at 8,314. 

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers in equities to the tune of Rs 1,755 crore on Friday, as per provisional stock exchange data.

Meanwhile, a private survey showed that India's manufacturing activity was marginally up in October. The HSBC Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), compiled by Markit, rose to 51.6 in October from 51.0 in September.

The Indian rupee was trading flat at Rs 61.39 compared to Friday's close of Rs   tracking gains in the US dollar against major Asian currencies.

Asian markets were mixed with shares in Hong Kong trading marginally lower. Meanwhile, financial markets in Japan are closed today on account of Culture Day. Chinese shares firmed up after a private survey indicated that manufacturuing stood at a three-month high in October. The final HSBC/Markit Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) edged up to 50.4 in October, up from the September's reading of 50.2, but unchanged from a preliminary reading. The Shanghai Composite was up 0.3%, Straits Times was up 0.3% and Hang Seng was down 0.4%.

BSE Consumer Durables index was down 1.2% followed by Auto, FMCG, IT and Healthcare indices. Realty, Bankex and Metal indices were among the top sectoral gainers.

Shares of most of the frontline automobiles companies were trading lower after reporting drop in vehicle sales during the month of October. Tata Motors, Mahindra and Mahindra, Hero MotoCorp, Eicher Motors and Maruti Suzuki India were down 1-3% each.

GAIL was down 4% on profit taking after the stock surged 10% last week.

In the banking sector, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, SBI were the top gainers up 0.7-1.6% each.

Metals shares firmed up on upbeat manufacturing data from China. Tata Steel, Hindalco and Sesa Sterlite were up 1-2% each.

Reliance Industries and L&T were among the other Sensex gainers up 0.6-0.8% each.

Among other shares, railway-related stocks are witnessing buying interest and trading higher by up to 10% on back of heavy volumes in an otherwise subdued market. Texmaco Rail & Engineering, Titagarh Wagons, Kalindee Rail Nirman (Engineers), Kernex Microsystems (India) and Stone India are up between 4-10% on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices were up nearly 1% each.

Market breadth was strong with 1,625 gainers and 1,008 losers on the BSE.