Sensex, Nifty range bound; IT stocks gain

Maruti Suzuki, TCS, Sun Pharma, Hero Motocorp and Coal India are the top gainers

Benchmark indices are marginally lower, amid range bound trading, as the losses in capital goods, select financials and auto shares have capped the gains in information technology and select pharmaceutical stocks.  
 
At 10:28AM, the 30-share Sensex was down 50 points at 29,523 and the 50-share Nifty was flat at 8,904.
 
In the broader market, both the BSE Midcap index, up 0.6% and Smallcap index, up 0.2% have performed better than the front-liners. Market breadth in BSE is marginally negative with 1,069 declines against 986 advances.    
 

Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors were net buyers in Indian equities worth Rs 953.50 crore on Tuesday, as per provisional stock exchange data.  

 
Buzzing Stocks
 
7 of the 12 sectoral indices of BSE are in green. BSE Consumer Durables index has gained 1% and is the top gainer followed by BSE IT index, up 0.82%.  BSE Capital Goods index down 0.6% is the top loser followed by BSE Metal index down 0.4%.   
 
Maruti Suzuki has gained over 1%. According to media reports, Maruti Suzuki aims to dedicate a capacity of up to 100,000 at its Gurgaon plant to a new light commercial vehicle (LCV). Likely to be called the ‘Super Carry’, the LCV will be launched in the April-June quarter.

 
IT shares are trading firm in opening deals. Infosys has gained 0.5% while TCS and Wipro have gained 1.2% and 0.3% each.
 
SBI has gained around 0.3%. According to media reports, the bank plans to raise share capital of up to Rs 15,000 crore through an equity offering to support loan growth and meet capital adequacy requirements.
 
Pharma shares are trading mixed. Sun Pharma has gained over 1%, however, Cipla has declined over 1% on profit-booking and Dr Reddys Lab is up 0.4% ahead of its Q3 results which will be released tomorrow.  
 
Bharti Airtel has declined over 2%.  Bharti Airtel has commissioned Nokia Networks to expand its 4G presence to six new circles. The deal marks India’s first FDD-LTE deployment on 1800 MHz that will witness the launch of super-fast mobile broadband in 6 circles.

 
Profit-booking has dragged stocks like HDFC twins down 0.8%, Tata Motors down 2.2% and L&T down 1%
 
Tata Motors on Tuesday announced the launch of its sporty hatchback, the all-new Bolt, in Chandigarh. Media reports suggest that Tata Motors plans to raise up to Rs 7,500 crore via rights issue of equity shares and DVR shares for expansion and reduction of debt.
 
Among other shares, Titan is up 2% after net profit for the December quarter rose 15% to Rs 191 crore compared to the same quarter last fiscal driven by healthy revenue growth and margin expansion in the jewellery business.

 
Amara Raja Batteries has dipped nearly 5% in early morning trade after reporting 7.3% year on year growth in net profit at Rs 102 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2014 (Q3). The company had posted a net profit of Rs 95 crore in the same quarter last fiscal.