Markets remain lacklustre

Markets continued to trade on a lacklustre fashion in late morning deals, with the Sensex gaining 33 points to 18,795 and Nifty was up 11 points at 5,715 levels.

BSE mid and small cap indices outperformed and gained half a per cent each to 6,667 and 7,085, respectively.

Asian Markets were trading on a weak note in trades today with investors' risk appetite curbed by uncertainty over the outcome of the tight US presidential election and renewed doubts over Greece's political ability to push through severe fiscal reforms.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister P Chidambaram has said that India’s economic growth could slow to as little as 5.5 per cent this financial year, signalling the possibility that Asia’s third largest economy will expand at its slowest pace in a decade.

Among the sectoral indices, BSE realty index has surged 1.6% to 1,840. Power, healthcare and IT shares are also showing strength. However, BSE auto index is down marginally followed by oil & gas and metal indices.

Cipla has gained 3.3% at Rs 393 - its highest in 52 weeks after the company reported better-than-expected 62 percent year-on-year jump in July-Sep quarter net profit at Rs 500 crore, helped by strong growth in exports and a decline in raw material costs. Quarterly revenue rose 24 percent to Rs 2,220 crore.

HDFC and Infosys are the key movers - accounting for 26 points upmove on the Sensex. Gail, Jindal Steel, SBI and NTPC are some of the other key gainers.

On the other handm Maruti Suzuki has slipped 1.5% at Rs 1,458. Hindalco, Bajaj Auto, Hero MotoCorp and Dr Reddy's are down 0.5-1% each.

Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL) on Monday decided to pull out of the upcoming 2G spectrum auction, leaving no takers for spectrum in the CDMA 800-MHz band. Shares of Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) are down 1% at Rs10.94 this morning.

Jet Airways has slipped 1% at Rs 373 after it said it  it would repay $600 million of debt by the end of this financial year through the sale and of some of its aircraft. Chief Financial Officer Ravishankar Gopalakrishnan said, “We have been steadily repaying our debt, both working capital and working capital loans.

BSE market breadth is positive so far. Out of 2,349 stocks traded, 1,275 shares have advanced while 960 shares have declined.