Markets consolidating in narrow range

BSE Oil & Gas and Metal indices down 1%

Markets seem to consolidate ahead of expiry of Jan futures and options later today with the Nifty hovering around 6,050 levels. The Sensex was down 41 points at 19,964. Nifty is down 10 points at 6,045.

On the global front, Asian shares paused amid concerns over US growth recovery after world's biggest economy experienced the first quarter of negative GDP growth (-0.1% quarter-on-quarter at an annualized rate) since the Great Recession.

Meanwhile,  US Federal Reserve did not announce any policy change on Wednesday . It did change its assessment of the economy and acknowledged that “economic activity paused in recent months", but added that it was “in large part because of weather-related disruptions and other transitory factors".

"Nifty future is trading near its VWAP (volume weightage avg price) 6045 levels. For the the day it moves above 6060 then it may head towards 6085-6090 levels." says Chandan Taparia, Derivatives Analyst at Anand Rathi Financial Services.

The rupee pared some of its initial gains against the US dollar but was still up by 9 paise to 53.21 per dollar on mild selling of dollars from banks and exporters in view of persistent capital inflows from foreign funds.

Sensex pack was led by ITC followed by BHEL, SBI, ONGC and ICICI Bank. ICICI Bank was up 0.2%. The private bank posted a net profit of Rs 2,250 crore for the December quarter.

Among the Sensex losers, Reliance Industries witnessed profit booking after recent gains. The stock was down 1.2%. HDFC Bank also witnessed profit taking at higher levels and was down 1.3%.

Among other shares, Union Bank of India has moved higher by over 6% to Rs 255 after the public sector lender reported a slight decrease in non-performing assets (NPAs) during the quarter ended December 2012 (Q3).

Punjab National Bank has surged 6% to Rs 881 after the public sector bank reported better-than-expected 14% year-on-year jump in net profit at Rs 1,306 crore for the third quarter ended December 2012 (Q3) due to lower provisioning and higher total income.

Meanwhile, BSE Midcap index is marginally up whereas BSE Smallcap index is down 0.1%.

The market breadth in BSE remains unhealthy with 1,324 shares declining and 1,188 shares advancing.