Sensex, Nifty remain choppy; Stelite, Maruti drop 2%

The 30-share BSE Sensex was trading flat to higher due to lack of global and local cues. The volume has been increasing ahead of F&O expiry on Thursday.

The BSE benchmark went up 33.5 points to 18,706.87 and the NSE benchmark rose 9 points to 5,678.60. The broader markets gained nearly 0.5 percent.

London Stock Exchange-listed Vedanta Resources' subsidiary Sterlite Industries and country's largest car maker Maruti went down 2 percent each.

Commercial vehicle major Tata Motors and state-owned oil & gas producer ONGC fell 1 percent each.

Shares of Jindal Steel & Power and Tata Steel were down 3.8 percent and 1.7 percent, respectively.

FMCG majors ITC and HUL were up 1-1.5 percent. State-owned power equipment maker BHEL and drug producer Cipla rallied over 2 percent.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries, private sector lender HDFC Bank and software services exporter TCS gained over 0.5 percent.

Housing finance company HDFC and utility vehicle maker Mahindra & Mahindra went up 1 percent each.

In the second line shares, Aurobindo Pharma surged 6 percent and Pantaloon Retail extended gains to 10 percent.

Advancing shares outnumbered declining by 750 to 680 on the National Stock Exchange.