Sensex volatile, Nifty hovers around 8,200; Realty up for 7th day in row

In a volatile trading session, the benchmark indices scuttled between gains and losses after data showed services industry in December contracted for the second month in a row. However, positive trend seen in global markets on abundance of upbeat global economic data capped losses. 

At 01:36 pm, the S&P BSE Sensex was trading at 26,682, up 39 points, while Nifty50 was ruling at 8,203, up 11 points. 

Broader markets continued to outpace headline indices with BSE Midcap and BSE Smallcap gaining 0.2% and 0.7%, respectively. 

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was strong. On BSE, 1,652 shares rose and 930 shares fell. A total of 121 shares remained unchanged.

BSE Realty index rose for seventh consecutive day and was the leading sectoral gainer (up 2%), led by surge in India Bulls Real Estate (up 4.1%), DLF (UP 3.8%), Sobha (up 2.8%) and HDIL (up 1.9%). Other sectoral gainers included BSE Telecom (up 1.4%) and BSE Information Technology (0.9%).

Among individual stocks, Jubilant Life Sciences moved higher by 7% to Rs 683 after the company announced that its arm signed long term contracts in Radiopharma business.

Denim fabric manufacturer Nandan Denim surged over 13% to Rs 126.85, its highest since November 16 after the Reserve Bank of India raised the company's foreign investment limit.

Bharti Airtel pared all its initial losses to add nearly 2% to Rs 308.35. The company on Tuesday announced it would offer free data to woo new and existing 4G customers, intensifying a price war in the sector.

Among decliners, Just Dial lost over 1% on reports that a foreign brokerage has maintained sell rating on the stock. The brokerage reportedly said that valuation of Just Dial looks good but future of the company looks uncertain. 

Meanwhile, demonetisation took its toll on the Indian services sector in December as the business activity contracted for the second consecutive month amid steeper reduction in incoming new orders, a monthly survey showed today.

The Nikkei India Services Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), which tracks services sector companies on a monthly basis, stood at 46.8 in December, little changed from November's 46.7, indicating a further solid contraction in output.