Sensex trades in narrow range; SAIL, Ranbaxy up 2.5%

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At 10:04 hours IST, the Sensex was trading in a narrow range, around its previous closing value. Buying in technology, metal and select auto stocks along with NTPC, Ranbaxy Labs, Axis Bank, Grasim, ABB and Siemens were supporting the markets.

However, selling in oil & gas, realty and private banking companies' shares along with Sterlite, Reliance Communications, PNB and Suzlon Energy capped the gains to some extent.

Asian markets were also mixed in trade. Taiwan rose 1.77%. Straits Times, Kospi and Shanghai were marginally in the green while Jakarta lost 1.3%. Nikkei was down 0.4%. Hang Seng was flat.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was trading at 15945, up 10 points and the Nifty was at 4765, up 5 points.

Among the frontliners, SAIL and Ranbaxy Labs went up 2.7% each. Hero Honda, Wipro, TCS, Infosys and Tata Steel were up 1-1.8%.

However, DLF, Reliance Communications, Reliance Industries, HDFC, ONGC, Suzlon Energy, BPCL, Unitech and PNB fell 0.4-1.4%.

The broader indices were marginally outperforming the benchmark indices, up 0.3-0.5%. The market breadth was also in favour of advances; about 1556 shares advanced while 1226 shares declined on the BSE. Nearly 370 shares were unchanged.

In the midcap space, Jubilant Org, Emami, SKF India, AstraZeneca and State Bank Mysore gained 3-4.7% while Cox & Kings, Parsvnath, Jai Corp, Jain Irrigation and Motherson Sumi fell 1.8-2.3%.

In the smallcap space, Goodyear was locked at 20% upper circuit, the company would consider delisting of shares today.

Vindhya Telelink, Gati, Oil Country and Money Matters rallied 5-8.8%. However, Swaraj Mazda, Maharashtra Polybutenes, Hinduja Foundries, Simplex Project and OCL Iron lost 4-6.8%.