Nifty quiet: RIL, Texmo Pipes, Educomp most active

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At 11:52 hours IST - the 50-share NSE Nifty continued to see volatile trade today as well. On one hand, while banking & financial and cement stocks along with Bharti Airtel, ITC, Sterlite Industries, Wipro, DLF and Jaiprakash Associates were putting pressure on the benchmark indices, buying in oil & gas, power, pharma, select technology, metal and capital goods stocks along with HUL, Tata Motors and Hero Honda stocks was helping the markets.

Portfolio Manager, PN Vijay said the markets might be rangebound for the next 5-6 sessions. "Right now there is a bit of liquidity crunch because of advance tax, corporate India has taken out about Rs 30,000 odd crore and the NMDC issue has taken out some Indian institutional money. So immediately there is lack of buying interest domestically and going forward we have this inflation number which is stubbornly close to 10%. So these are some immediate concerns."

Asian markets were also quite mixed in trade. Shanghai, Hang Seng and Nikkei went down 0.3-0.44% while Taiwan Weighted gained 0.8% and Straits Times was up 0.3%.

The Sensex was trading at 17182, up 17 points and the Nifty was at 5135, up 6.6 points. Among the broader indices, the BSE Midcap Index was up 0.5% and Smallcap up 0.8%.

Top gainers - Reliance Industries was trading at Rs 1,049, up 2.04%; BPCL was at Rs 537.50, up 1.76%; L&T was at Rs 1,578, up 1.56%; HCL Tech was at Rs 374.85, up 1.54%; Sun Pharma was at Rs 1,645.80, up 1.40%; Tata Power was at Rs 1,370, up 1.26% and Tata Motors was at Rs 777.05, up 1.12%.

However, HDFC Bank was trading at Rs 1,772.25, down 2.15%; ITC was at Rs 255.20, down 1.69%; Bharti Airtel was at Rs 294.95, down 1.54%; ACC was at Rs 969.05, down 1.32%; Sterlite Industries was at Rs 816.15, down 1.23% and Jaiprakash Associates was at Rs 147, down 1.14%.

Reliance Industries, Educomp Solutions, Jai Corp, Core Projects, SBI and Texmo Pipes were the most active shares on the bourses.

In the midcap space, Jai Corp, REI Six Ten, Apollo Tyres, Andrew Yule and Carborundum gained 4-10% while Godfrey Phillip, ING Vysya Bank, Essar Shipping, HMT and Bannariamman fell 2-3.7%.

In the smallcap space, Ruchinfra, Graviss Hospital, Graphite India, Sanwaria Agro and Carol Info rallied 8-12% while Richa Industries, Thinksoft, Maharashtra Ele, Mah Polybutenes and Gee Kay Finance lost 5-6%.