Nifty in tight range; ONGC, SBI, ITC, Tata Motors gain

At 11:30 hours IST, the 50-share NSE Nifty was trading in a narrow range of 5,470-5,481 with a positive bias led by rate sensitives. ONGC, ITC, L&T, Tata Steel, Bharti, JSPL, Ranbaxy Labs, Sun Pharma and Hindalco were the other gainers in trade.

However, Reliance Industries, Cairn, Sterlite Industries, Idea, Reliance Communications, Cipla, Tata Power and HUL along with cement and technology companies' shares were witnessing selling pressure, which capped the gains.

The benchmarks were volatile in trade ahead of expiry today. The Sensex was trading at 18229, up 50 points and the Nifty was at 5476, up 14 points. The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices gained 0.6% each.

In banking & financial space, SBI and PNB were up 1.3% & 2.2%, respectively. HDFC Bank, HDFC and Axis Bank went up 0.5-0.66%.

DLF from the realty segment went up 1.4% and Unitech was up 0.44%.

In auto pack, Tata Motors was up 1.4%. Maruti rose 1% as the company may set up third manufacturing unit in Manesar, which may see Rs 1,700 crore investment, reports CNBC-TV18 quoting NW18. M&M was up 0.7% and Hero Honda was up 0.3%.

In the midcap space, Eicher Motors, IndusInd Bank, Essar Shipping, AstraZeneca and DB Corp were up 4-7.6% while State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Travancore, State Bank of Bikaner, Wockhardt and MVL fell 3-9%.

In the smallcap space, Sujana Towers, Entertainment Network Ind, Smartlink Network, MSP Steel and Hanung Toys went up 9-15% while EIH Associated Hotel, Subhkam Capital, Maharashtra Ele, Sterling Holiday and Mount Everest slipped 4-6%.

About 1746 shares advanced while 1444 shares declined on BSE. Nearly 194 shares were unchanged.