Markets gain led by rate sensitives

The benchmark indices ended Monday's trading session on a positive note led by rate sensitive shares on hopes that lower inflation would help the central bank ease key policy rates. The Sensex ended higher by 76 points at 17,633 and the 50-share Nifty advanced 27 points to close at 5,348 levels. For the most part of the day, the markets traded in a narrow range.

The government will release inflation data for July 2012 on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, weak Japanese economic data on Monday tempered European investors' optimism about ECB plans to tackle the euro zone crisis, with most of the European markets trading on a flat note. The CAC 40 index was up 3 points at 3,438, DAX jumped 1 point to 6,945 and the FTSE 100 was down 8 points at 5,839.

Fears were growing that the German economy could fall into recession in the second half of this year, crippled by the three-year euro zone debt crisis.

Japan's economy grew 0.3% in April-June from the previous quarter, half as much as expected, and slowing from 1.3 percent growth in January-March as a rebound in consumer spending started to lose momentum and as Europe's debt crisis weighed on export demand.

Following this development Asian shares ended lower. The Hang Seng slipped 55 points to 20,081, Shanghai slipped 33 points to 2,136 and the Nikkei slipped 6 points to 8,885.

Gains were led by banks, capital goods and auto shares along with index heavyweight Reliance Industries. The Realty Index was the top gainer on the BSE which ended up 2.4%.

Back home, HDFC was the top gainer among the Sensex stocks, it jumped nearly 4% to close at Rs 715. Sterlite Industries, Maruti Suzuki, Bajaj Auto, BHEL, Bharti Airtel, Wipro, Larsen and Toubro, State Bank of India, Reliance Industries, Tata Power and HDFC Bank also advanced 0.7-2.6% each.

On the other hand, Tata Motors was the top loser, down 1.5% to end at Rs 228. HUL, Hero MotoCorp, Hindalco, Tata Steel, TCS, Jindal Steel and ICICI Bank also ended weaker by 0.5-1.4% each.

Realty stocks witnessed buying in trades today. The BSE Realty index was the top sectoral gainer, up 2.4% or 39 points to end at 1,673. Consumer durables, capital goods, power, PSU and oil & gas indices also advanced 0.6-1.7% each. At the same time, auto index was the only loser on the sectoral front.

DLF was the top gainer from the realty space. It advanced 3.5% to Rs 217 on reports that India's biggest property developer has agreed to sell a 17.5 acre plot of land in central Mumbai to private developer Lodha. HDIL, Sobha Developers, Unitech, Phoenix Mills, Indiabulls Real Estate and Godrej Properties also advanced in trades today.

Among the individual stocks, Bharat Forge dipped about 3% to Rs 303 on reporting 8% year-on-year (yoy) growth in net profit at Rs 105 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2012 due to higher interest cost and de-growth in Indian automotive industry.

Ashok Buildcon ended higher by 5.5% at Rs 269 after the company said two private equity funds managed jointly by SBI and Macquarie Bank of Australia will invest $150 million (Rs 825 crore) in select infrastructure projects.

Subex Limited advanced 10% to Rs 14.67, bouncing back 21% from intra-day low after the company said that it has been awarded a five-year deal to deploy its industry leading revenue operations centre (ROC) fraud management and revenue assurance solutions across 14 networks of the MTN Group.

The broader markets were in-line with the benchmark indices. The BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices advanced 0.45% each.

The overall breadth was neutral as 1,474 stocks advanced while 1,280 declined.