Markets trade rangebound

The markets have turned choppy in the past one hour and are trading in a narrow range. The Sensex traded in the range of 188 points and was at 18,880 up 20 points and the Nifty was unchanged at 5654.

HDFC was the top gainer among the Sensex stocks, the stock gained 2.1% and was trading at Rs 655. TCS has gained 1.7% ahead of results and was trading at Rs 1138. ITC, Infosys, Wipro, Cipla and HDFC Bank were also trading higher by more than 1% each.

On the other hand ADAG stocks Reliance Infrastructure and Reliance Communicaton were among the top losers, the stocks shed 5.2% and 3.4% respectively on back of the Sebi order which barred the promoter Anil Ambani and four other directors from investing in listed securities until December this year. Jaiprakash Associates, Hero Honda, DLF, Hindalco Industries, Jindal Steel and Sterlite Industries were also trading in the red, down 1.8%-2.4% each.

On the sectoral front BSE IT index was the top sectoral gainer, the index gained 1.25% or 80 points at 6519, FMCG and Terck indices were also higher by 0.7% each. Banking stocks witnessed some recovery, BSE banking index was up 67 points at 11,917. Meanwhile, BSE Realty index was the top loser, the index was lower by 1.7% at 2481. Power and Metal indices were down 0.9% each. Capital Goods, Auto, Oil & Gas, PSU and Healthcare stocks reeled under the mild selling pressure.

Among the IT stocks, TCS was the top gainer followed by Wipro, Infosys and Tech Mahindra. ITC was the top gainer among the FMCG stocks up 1.54% at Rs 172 followed by United Breweries, Marico, Tata Global Beverages and Godrej Consumer Products. Indiabulls Real Estate shed 3.7% at Rs 116 and was the top loser in the realty pack, followed by Parsvanath Developers, Orbit Corp, Sobha Developers, Anant Raj Industries and HDIL down 3.2%-1.9% each.

The broader markets were trading in the red with BSE mid-cap index losing 0.7% or 56 points at 7167 and small-cap index was down 65 points at 8928.

The overall market breadth was negative as 1649 stocks declined while 994 stocks advanced.