Sensex, Nifty rangebound; banks lead, oil stocks drag

Moneycontrol Bureau12:58 pm Market Update: Equity benchmarks continued to be volatile in afternoon trade after maintaining status quo in policy by RBI.The Sensex rose 23.61 points to 24848.44 and the Nifty was up 0.05 points to 7556.12:40 pm Asia Update: Asia markets closed mostly lower, weighed by declines in the energy sector as oil prices continued to tumble.
Japan's Nikkei 225 lost 114.55 points, or 0.64 percent, to close down at 17,750.68, while South Korea's Kospi slipped 18.22 points, or 0.95 percent, to 1,906.60.

Down Under, the ASX 200 fell 50.28 points, or 1 percent, to 4,993.30, extending declines after the Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA) decision to keep interest rates on hold at a record low of 2 percent. The energy sector saw the biggest loss, slipping 3.24 percent, following extended losses in oil prices.12:20 pm Earnings: Mumbai-based real estate company Godrej Properties' third quarter profit increased 10.2 percent to Rs 52 crore compared to Rs 47.2 crore in year-ago period despite sharp fall in revenue. Bottomline was supported by operational performance.

Revenue declined 18.7 percent to Rs 422.3 crore in quarter ended December 2015 compared to Rs 519.3 crore in same period last year.

Operating profit (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) surged 25 percent year-on-year to Rs 80.1 crore and margin expanded by 660 basis points to 18.9 percent in quarter gone by.Also read - Seeing technical rebound; don't rush to buy banks: Vibhav Kapoor12:00 pm Market Check: The market recouped morning losses with the Sensex rising 93.16 points to 24917.99 and the Nifty up 17.25 points to 7573.20. Banks and technology stocks supported the market while oil stocks dragged.The market breadth was marginally positive as about 1176 shares advanced against 1091 declining shares on the BSE.As expected by economists, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) today left the key repo rate unchanged at 6.75 percent, saying it would want to wait for more inflation data and the Union Budget before taking action, even as it said it would continue to remain "accommodative".It also left the cash reserve ratio and statutory liquidity ratio unchanged, despite concerns that liquidity is tight in the system.Infosys, L&T, SBI, Axis Bank, Lupin, Bharti Airtel, Dr Reddy's Labs and Bajaj Auto gained 1-2.5 percent while ONGC, Tata Steel, NTPC and Coal India were down 1-3 percent.