Nifty in narrow range; J&K Bank, Amara Raja surge 6%

The 50-share NSE Nifty continued to move in a tight range of 15 points from 5705-5720 due to lack of global and local cues. Shares of pharmaceutical firm Cipla retained its top position in the buying list, rising 3 percent on strong results while top car maker Maruti Suzuki lost 1.6 percent on media reports that its Manesar workers are planning a peaceful hunger strike to force management to take back 548 sacked employees.

The BSE benchmark rose 29 points to 18,791.40 and the NSE benchmark was up 8.35 points to 5,712.55 while the broader markets gained 0.3-0.5 percent.

Shares of Reliance Industries, Larsen & Toubro, Bajaj Auto, Tata Steel and Hero Motocorp were down 0.7 percent each.

Aluminium major Hindalco Industries extended losses to 1.7 percent ahead of earnings today. Analysts on an average expect the company's profit after tax to go down by 24 percent year-on-year and 10 percent quarter-on-quarter to Rs 382 crore in the July-September quarter of current financial year.

Country's largest private sector lender ICICI Bank was down 0.16 percent while its rivals State Bank of India and HDFC Bank gained 0.45-0.77 percent.

Cigarette major ITC and telecom operator Bharti Airtel moved up 0.5 percent. Housing finance company HDFC rose 1 percent.

Software services exporters Infosys and Wipro climbed just 0.7 percent.

In the second line shares, Jammu & Kashmir Bank and Amara Raja Batteries (post strong earnings) rallied 6 percent each. Chennai Petroleum, Shree Global and Eicher Motors were up 4-5 percent.

Tuni Textile, Voltas, Jubilant Lifesciences, Ybrant Digital and Responsive Industries were down 2-5 percent.