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After a flat start, market turned choppy as key stock indices swing between gains and losses.
Losses in metal, realty and heavyweight IT stocks capped the gains in banking and financial stocks.
At 10:40am, the 30-share BSE Sensex shed 57 points at 21,877 levels, and at the same time NSE Nifty index was down 18 points at 6,519.
ICICI Bank, TCS, Tata Motors, L&T and Infosys are the BSE top gainers this hour while ITC, Reliance, M&M, Sun Pharma and HDFC Bank are the top losers.
Market breath remains flat as 1072 stocks advanced while 927 declined on the BSE.
The rupee appreciated for a fifth sixth trading session, and earlier ended at a seven-month high on Monday, on the back of heavy dollar flows into both equities and debts. Besides, dollar sale by companies also helped the domestic currency gain against the greenback. After opening on a strong note, the rupee strengthened to Rs 60.68-a-dollar today.
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Market participants remain jittery ahead of key economic data slated to be released later in the week. International concerns too play on the sentiment and largely responsible for capping the gains.
At 9:50am, the 30-share BSE Sensex gained 35.09 points at 21,970 levels, at the same time NSE Nifty index was up 6 points higher at 6,538.
ICICI Bank is up 2.5% and currently the top BSE gainer followed Tata Motors, HDFC, L&T and SBI at this hour. ITC, Infosys Bharti Airtel, Reliance and Sun Pharma are top losers at this hour.
Foreign investors are flooding the market with liquidity bolstered by India's fiscal consolidation , relative stability of the rupee etc.
FIIs pumped in Rs 2,672.70 crore in stocks on March 10, 2013, according to provisional SEBI data.
Foreign investors pumped in over Rs 3,000 crore in the past week mainly on hopes of a strong mandate for the government to be elected in polls starting next month.
Markets participants seem cautious ahead of IIP numbers that will slate to come out later in the week. On Monday, markets extended gains in the last hour of trade and registered fresh all time high on account of active buying witnessed in rate sensitive sectors followed by power and oil & gas indices whereas sectors like FMCG and technology counters remained under selling pressure.
The Nifty is now testing resistance in the zone above 6,500 and it's hit successive all-time highs in the previous four sessions. This is entirely new territory so target-setting is likely to be very inaccurate. But a target of 6,700-6,800 looks possible in the short-term, computed purely on the basis of the breakout from a trading range of 6,000-6,400," says technical analyst and market expert -Devangshu Dutta.
US indices edged lower, dragged down by weak China data; China's exports fell 20% yoy. The Dow Jones fell 34.04 points or 0.21 percent, to 16,418.68, while S&P 500 shed 0.87 points or 0.05 percent, to 1,877.17 and the Nasdaq Composite was off 1.775 points or 0.04 percent, at 4,334.448.
The face-off between Russia and West over Ukraine continues and act as a drag on global markets. Russia is trying to take control of Crimea region from Ukraine.
Asian stocks are up as investors await the conclusion of the Bank of Japan’s policy meeting. Nikkei was up 1%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was down by 2%. South Korea's Kospi index was trading 0.16 per cent lower at 1,951. China's Shanghai index was trading lower.
