Nifty in narrow range; Reliance, ONGC, Infosys support

The BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty continued to trade in narrow range around their previous closing values due to lack of trigger globally and locally.

Hemant Thukral of Aditya Birla Money says, 5,240-5,250 are strong support base for the Nifty. "On the higher side, real challenge will start from 5,380, till 5,450," he adds.

The BSE benchmark rose 5 points to 17,562.60 and the NSE benchmark went up 2 points to 5,322.30.

Oil & gas producers Reliance Industries and ONGC moved up 0.6% each. Housing finance company HDFC gained nearly 1%.

Infosys, India's No. 2 IT services exporter was up 0.7% whereas its rival Tata Consultancy Services fell 0.4%.

Telecom operator Bharti Airtel rallied 1.7% on short covering while Reliance Communications was up 1% and Idea Cellular surged 2%.

Country's largest car maker extended gains to 2.3% as the company will decide on Menasar plant reopening today.

Drug producer Sun Pharma gained 1% as the company and its subsidiary Taro entered into a merger agreement.

Private sector lender ICICI Bank dropped over 1% while its rival State Bank of India was up 0.5%.

FMCG majors ITC and Hindustan Unilever went up more than 0.5%. Top commercial vehicle maker Tata Motors tanked 2% and two-wheeler major Hero Motocorp declined 1%.