Sensex facing resistance above 27,600; ONGC down 2%

Benchmark share indices turned choppy and remained range bound as gains in FMCG majors and financials helped offset losses in oil shares and IT major Infosys.

At 10:30AM, the 30-share Sensex was up 2 points at 27,587 and the 50-share Nifty was up 15 points at 8,338.   

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers in Indian equities worth Rs 245 crore on Monday, as per provisional stock exchange data.

The Indian rupee continued to firm up against the US dollar and was up at 62.07 compared to the previous close of Rs 62.16 post encouraging November IIP data.

Asian markets are trading mixed. Nikkei which opened for trading after holiday on Monday was down 1.5% while Straits Times was down 0.2%. The Shanghai Composite was up 0.3% after China's exports and imports exceeded market expectations in December and Hang Seng was up 0.5%.

The BSE FMCG index was the top gainer among the sectoral indices up 0.8% followed by Healthcare, Metal and Bankex among others.

Among the FMCG majors ITC was up 0.6% while Hindustan Unilever witnessed profit taking and was marginally down after sharp gains in the previous few sessions after recent upgrades by several brokerages including Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse and JP Morgan.

Financials witnessed a mixed trend with SBI and Axis Bank were among the top Sensex gainers while private banking majors such as ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank were trading with marginal losses.

Capital goods were also trading mixed despite encouraging November industrial growth. L&T pared early gains and was down 0.3% while BHEL was up 0.5%.

Infosys witnessed profit taking and was down over 1% after strong gains in the previous sessions post the third quarter earnings. TCS was marginally down ahead of its results on Thursday.

Oil shares were down tracking weak global crude oil prices. ONGC and Reliance Industries were down 0.2-1.4% each. According to reports, the government's stake sale plan in ONGC and Coal India could be called off because of the depressed share prices of the state-owned companies.

Among other shares, BEML is trading higher by 2% at Rs 892, extending its 10% rally on NSE, after foreign institutional raised their stake in the state-owned company through open market.

Asian Paints has rallied nearly 4% to Rs 838 on National Stock Exchange (NSE) as the company is likely to benefit from weakening global crude oil prices. Crude oil fell 5% to its lowest in nearly six years on Monday.

Crompton Greaves is trading higher by 1% to Rs 193 on NSE in otherwise subdued market after the company announced that has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with French enterprise Arelis that specialises in design and manufacturing of high-tech electronic solutions.

In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices were up 0.5% each.

Market breadth was strong with 1,345 gainers and 811 losers on the BSE.