Markets remain rangebound

Reliance Industries and banking shares lead gains

Key share indices continue to remain range bound with positive bias led by Reliance Industries and banking shares.By 11:30, the 30-share Sensex was up 49 points at 18,049 and the 50-share Nifty gained 12 points at 5,443.

On the global front, Asian shares steadied in choppy trade on Thursday ahead of the US Federal Reserve's decision later in the day, as investors remained cautiously optimistic for further stimulus action to bolster the world's largest economy.

Back home, the rupee depreciated by 20 paise to 55.41 against the dollar in early trade today on fresh demand for the American currency.

On the sectoral front, BSE Oil and Gas, PSU, Banks and Capital Goods indices have gained by almost 1% each. However, BSE Healthcare index is down by almost 1%.

Index heavyweight Reliance Inds is up by 1% whereas ONGC has gained by nearly 2%.

In the banking space, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank are up 1% each on hopes that cut in key policy rates by the central bank would boost credit growth going forward.

Shares of select public sector undertaking companies (PSU) were in focus ahead of Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) meeting today to consider the disinvestment plan.

National Aluminum Company (Nalco), MMTC, Hindustan Copper, Oil India and Neyveli Lignite Corporation were trading higher by 2-5% on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

From the Capital Goods space, L&T and BHEL have gained between 1-2%. L&T Construction has bagged orders worth Rs 1,065 crore which include two major engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) projects in the Petroleum, Chemicals, Petrochemicals Investment Region (PCPIR) of Dahej, Gujarat.

Other notable gainers include GAIL, Bajaj Auto, Wipro, Dr Reddy’s and Coal India.

On the losing side, Cipla, JSPL, Bharti Airtel, Sterlite, HDFC and M&M have declined between 1-2%.

Among other shares, Apollo Tyres is trading higher by 2% at Rs 101, extending its previous day’s 6% rally after Bank of America-Merrill Lynch (BoA-ML) raises target price to Rs 135 from Rs 115.

Shares of  Kalindee Rail, Texmaco Rail and Engineering, Kernax Microsystems (India), Stone India and Titagarh Wagons have rallied up to 14% in morning trades after the state-owned coal miner Coal India Ltd (CIL) on Wednesday said it may spend additional Rs 14,500 crore as part of capital expenditure on augmenting rail infrastructure.

Shares of National Aluminium Co Ltd surged as much as 5.5 percent on Thursday on media reports that the cabinet would meet on Friday to consider selling some of the government stake in five companies.

The broader indices are outperforming the benchmarks – BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices are up by 0.40%.

The market breadth remains positive with 1,309 advancing and 1,028 shares declining.