Sensex listless; Reliance, ICICI, Tata Motors move up

The BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty continued to move in a narrow range around their previous closing values. The market may be waiting for inflation, which HSBC expects around 7.4% for July as against 7.25% in previous month. HSBC feels core inflation is likely to be unchanged at 4.9%.

The BSE benchmark fell 8.98 points to 17,624.47 and the NSE benchmark was down 3.65 points to 5,344.25, but the broader markets were outperforming benchmarks as the BSE Midcap Index was up 0.3% and Smallcap up 0.6%.

The India rupee has been moving in a range of 55-56 since last two weeks, which fell today by 28 paise to 55.62 against the US dollar.

Sun Pharma, country's largest drug producer by market cap and Sterlite Industries, a part of Vedanta Group topped the selling list with 2% losses.

Cigarette major ITC, housing finance company HDFC and software services exporter Infosys were down 0.5-0.7%.

Engineering and construction major Larsen & Toubro and private sector lender HDFC Bank declined over 0.3%.

Top car maker Maruti Suzuki slipped 1.6% on profit booking as it had rallied 2% yesterday.

Country's largest lenders State Bank of India and ICICI Bank moved up 0.2% and 0.6%, respectively. Index heavyweight Reliance Industries rose 0.8%.

Shares of Tata Steel and Coal India gained nearly 2% after first quarter results. Top commercial vehicle manufacturer Tata Motors and utility vehicle maker M&M went up 1% each.