Nifty in narrow range; Cipla rises for 2nd day

The 50-share NSE Nifty was moving in a narrow range around 5360 level after priced in the news of European Central Bank's new unlimited bond buying programme, which resulted a rally of more than 100 points in previous two sessions. Now investors awaited the decision on fuel price hike along with inflation and industrial output data this week.

Jitendra Sriram, MD & Head of Research, HSBC India says both these things again are going to dictate sentiment for the local bourses as well then. Index of Industrial Production (IIP) will be announced on Wednesday and inflation on Friday, which are very important data points ahead of RBI policy that scheduled for September 17.

The BSE benchmark moved up 10 points to 17,759.80 and the NSE benchmark gained 2 points at 5,360.60. But the broader markets outperformed benchmarks with 0.4% gains as advancers outnumbered decliners by 1242 to 817 on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Country's second largest software services provider Infosys rose 0.5% after the company bought Zurich-based Lodestone Holding AG for 330 million Swiss franc. However, its rivals Wipro and TCS fell 1% and 0.44%, respectively.

Housing finance company HDFC and private sector lender HDFC Bank gained 0.8% and 0.4%, respectively. Top lender State Bank of India was down 1% while its rival ICICI Bank fell 0.4%.

Telecom operator Bharti Airtel, drug producer Sun Pharma, coal mining major Coal India, steel producer Tata Steel and aluminium major Hindalco were up more than 1%.

Cipla added on more gains today as the company won patent case against Roche last week. The stock rose over 1% today after rising more than 2% on Saturday.

Among auto stocks, top car maker Maruti Suzuki was up 0.6% while commercial vehicle major Tata Motors declined 0.6%. India's largest two-wheeler makers Hero Motocorp and Bajaj Auto were up 0.7-1%.

Engineering conglomerate Larsen & Toubro was down 0.4% and state-run power equipment manufacturer BHEL fell 1.4%.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries declined 0.3% and FMCG major Hindustan Unilever went down 1%.