Rangebound trades continue

Markets continued to trade in a narrow range, the Sensex traded in a range of 210 points.

The Sensex was at 18,576 higher by 86 points and the S&P CNX Nifty was higher by 23 points at 5560.

Most of the Asian markets ended the day on a positive note, the Nikkei ended the day at 10,693 higher by 107 points, Taiwan closed higher by 46 points at 8784, Straits Times ended at 3076 higher by 39 points, and the Shanghai shut shop at 2942 higher by 39 points. The Hang Seng was also trading higher by 288 points at 23,410.

Back home, the government has announced to pay Rs 21,000 crore additional oil subsidy and Rs 8,000 crore fertiliser subsidy in the current fiscal.
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(Updated at 12.30 PM)

Markets traded in a narrow range, the Sensex traded in the range of 18,736-18,526 points. The Sensex was at 18,587 up 97 points and the Nifty was at 5564 higher by 27 points.

Hero Honda, Tata Power, HDFC, Bajaj Auto, Mahindra & Mahindra, Reliance Infrastructutre, Jindal Steel, HDFC Bank, NTPC and Infosys were among the top gainers on the Sensex. Meanwhile Larsen & Toubro was the top loser, the stock was trading lower by nearly 2% at Rs 1631, Jaiprakash Associates, Bharti Airtel, ONGC, Hindalco and Cipla were also among the losing stocks.

On the sectoral front, Auto, banking, power and IT stocks witnessed buying while the capital goods stocks reeled under the selling pressure. The BSE Auto index added 102 points or 1.15% to 8982, Bankex was higher by 119 points at 12,498, Power, IT, Healthcare and Oil & Gas indices were also trading higher by 0.4-0.7% each. On the other hand the BSE Capital Goods index was lower by 124 points at 13,098.

Exide Industries was the top gainer among the Auto stocks the stocks was trading higher by 2.6% at Rs 143, Hero Honda, Apollo Tyres, Mahindra & Mahindra, Bajaj Auto, Ashok Leyland and Bharat Forge were also among the gainers, up 1.4-2.4% each. Among the banking stocks Indusind Bank was the top gainer followed by Yes Bank, Union Bank, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and IDBI Bank.

Gammon India led the losers chart among the capital goods stocks followed by Punj Lloyd, Larsen & Toubro, Areva T&D and Crompton Greaves.

The broader markets were trading on a flat note, the BSEmid-cap index was at 6615 higher by 16 points and thesmall-cap index was higher by 26 points at 8046.

The overall market breadth remained positive as 1528 stocks advanced while 1114 stocks declined.