Lacklustre trades continue

Oil & gas, Banks gain in afternoon deals

Markets continued to move sideways in afternoon trades with gains in select sectors. The Sensex, after touching a high of 16,929 - is trading up 26 points at 16,908. Nifty is up flat at 5121.

Asian markets are mostly in red, with the Nikkei dropping 0.8% at 8664. Kospi and Taiwan Weighted have delcined 0.4% each.

BSE oil & gas index has jumped 1% to 7,948. Bankex, power and PSU indices are up around half a per cent each.

Meanwhile, selling pressure could be seen in FMCG stocks. The BSE FMCG indices has dropped 1% to 4,827. Consumer durables and IT shares are also down marginally.

Hindustan Unilever has dropped 2% to Rs 450. Metal shares - Tata STeel and Sterlite are down 1% each. From the IT space - Infosys has dropped 1% to Rs 2,445.

Meanwhile, Gail India has added 2.3% to Rs 351. ONGC is up 2% at Rs 279. HDFC Bank, TCS and Reliance have together contributed 35 points to the Sensex's upmove today.

Among individual stocks, Tata Communications is trading higher by 2% at Rs 229, extending Monday’s over 2% gain after the company said that it has partnered with Turkey's innovative operator Turkcell Superonline, to provide Turkish carriers and other European and Middle Eastern carriers in Istanbul connectivity to Tata Communications' Tier-1 internet backbone.

Reliance Power has added 1.5% to Rs 101 following announcement that the company has synchronised the first of the two units of its 600 megawatts Butibori thermal power project near Nagpur in Maharashtra.

On the other hand, Essar Oil dipped 3% to Rs 53.40 after Gujarat High Court rejected the company's writ petition with respect to the repayment of sales tax liability.

BSE market breadth is neutral. Out of 2582 shares traded, 1266 shares have advanced while 1173 shares have declined in trades.