Nifty in narrow range; ITC, Cipla, SBI gains further

The NSE Nifty has been moving in a narrow range of 5640-5670 since early trade ahead of expiry tomorrow, though it was down 17.5 points to 5,656.5. Today's fall attributed to global weakness as the uncertainty continued over Spain bailout. France's CAC, Germany's DAX and Britain's FTSE fell 1-1.5 percent.

Meanwhile, the 30-share BSE benchmark declined 67.5 points to 18,627, weighed down by Tata pack, telecom, HDFC pack, metals and capital goods stocks.

FMCG majors ITC and Hindustan Unilever gained nearly 1 percent. Country's largest lender State Bank of India rose 1.4% while its rival HDFC Bank tanked 1.5%. Housing finance company HDFC slipped 1.3%.

Private sector lender Axis Bank gained 3 percent on short covering. Drug producer Cipla, and cement stocks ACC and Ambuja Cements rallied 3-4 percent.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries was up 0.2 percent. Two-wheeler majors Hero Motocorp and Bajaj Auto were up 1.1 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively.

Telecom operator Bharti Airtel dropped over 4 percent and commercial vehicle maker Tata Motors tumbled 1.75 percent.

Shares of Infosys, Larsen & Toubro, ONGC, Tata Steel, Sun Pharma, Sterlite and BHEL were down 0.5-0.9 percent.