Nifty in narrow range; SBI, ICICI, USL most active

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade lower with a narrow range of 5210-5230 since early trade. State-owned power producer NTPC topped the buying list with gain of 3% whereas Sterlite Industries, Tata Motors and Cairn India tanked 2% each.

The 30-share BSE benchmark declined 68 points to 17,189.46 led by fall in 20 stocks. Meanwhile, the 50-share NSE benchmark fell 23.35 points to 5,217.15. The Indian rupee depreciated by 33 paise to 55.80 against the US dollar.

Country's largest oil & gas producers Reliance Industries and ONGC were down more than 1%. Lenders State Bank of India and HDFC Bank too declined over 1%.

Among metals, Tata Steel and Sterlite Industries dropped 1-2% whereas Jindal Steel rose over 1%.

Housing finance company HDFC, FMCG major Hindustan Unilever and software services exporter Infosys were down between 0.5% and 0.65%.

Cigarette major ITC went up nearly 1%. Engineering and construction major Larsen & Toubro and state-owned power equipment manufacturer BHEL moved up 0.6% each.

Most active shares on exchanges were NIIT Tech, NTPC, SBI, United Spirits (USL), ICICI Bank, L&T and Reliance Industries.

In the second line shares, Schneider Electric, Alstom T&D, Page Industries, GSFC and CRISIL gained 3-4% while NIIT Tech, Glodyne Tech, Shree Global, BASF and Religare Enterprises lost 3-6%.

European shares were mixed ahead of a key European Central Bank (ECB) meeting. Traders say the meeting must result in fresh stimulus measures to fight the region's sovereign debt crisis if equity markets are to avoid a sharp retreat.