Nifty in narrow range; Maruti extends gains to 3%

The 50-share NSE Nifty was hovering in a narrow range of 5550-5580 owing to lack of global and local cues. Traders may be waiting for the winter parliament session that will begin on November 22, 2012.

Gautam Chhaochharia of UBS India feels one can expect another turbulent winter session . According to him, the key bill to watch out for, would be the Land Acquisition Bill and as to how the parliament reacts to that, because that can go a long way in helping reviving corporate sentiment and investment cycle.

The BSE benchmark was down 9 points to 18,300.33 and the NSE benchmark went down 12 points to 5,562.15 while the broader markets were down over 0.5 percent.

Index heavyweights: Private oil & gas producer Reliance Industries, housing finance company HDFC, software services exporter TCS and FMCG major Hindustan Unilever gained 1 percent each.

Engineering conglomerate Larsen & Toubro declined 0.5 percent. Country's largest lenders State Bank of India, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank were down 0.1-0.4 percent.

Car maker Maruti Suzuki extended gains to 3.16 percent while utility vehicle maker Mahindra & Mahindra rose over 1 percent. Two-wheeler majors Hero Motocorp and Bajaj Auto went up 0.6 percent.

Cigarette major ITC and top telecom operator Bharti Airtel were up 1 percent and 2.5 percent, respectively.

Most active shares on exchanges were United Spirits, L&T Finance, Tata Coffee, SBI, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Industries.