Nifty flat; pharma, oil &gas, FMCG gain

The Nifty has flattened out to remain just above 5700 mark. Buying was seen in pharma, oil & gas and capital goods stocks while auto, realty stocks slipped.

The Sensex was up 11.49 points or 0.06% at 18835.40 while the Nifty gained 4.90 points or 0.09% at 5723.70. About 1610 shares advanced, 1146 shares declined, and 697 shares unchanged.

Top gainers on the Sensex were Dr Reddys Labs at Rs 1,688.30 up 2.61%, HUL at Rs 553.20 up 1.94%, Coal India at Rs 363.45 up 1.56%, Reliance at Rs 844.60 up 1.20% and TCS at Rs 1,318.10 up 1.19%.

Top losers on the Sensex were Jindal Steel at Rs 419.15 down 3.81%, Hero Motocorp at Rs 1,856.00 down 1.34%, ITC at Rs 269.80 down 1.33%, Infosys at Rs 2,577 down 1.23% and Bajaj Auto at Rs 1,792 down 1.12%.

Amit Gupta of ICICI Direct expects Nifty to hover in the broad range of 5,530-5,880 in the October series. Given the flow of foreign funds into midcap stocks, he suggests market participants to follow a stock specific approach.

Meanwhile, Kingfisher Airlines slumped 5%. The DGCA says a call on the airline resuming operations will be taken only if they come up with a credible salary plan. The company has declared a partial lockout till Thursday.

Most active shares on BSE were United Spirits, SBI, Rel Capital, Lovable Lingeri and Reliance.

Top percentage gainers on the BSE - Aditya Birla, RDB Realty, TTK Healthcare, Jetking Info and West Coast Paper were up 17-19%.

Top percentage losers on the BSE - BPL, Asian Granito and Ruby Mills were down 6-7%.