Markets turn choppy in late morning deals

IT heavyweights rally

Markets turned volatile in a narrow range in late morning deals with the Sensex touching a high of 17,167. The BSE benchmark is up 58 points at 17,155. Nifty is at 5,211 - up 10 points.

US stocks fell on Monday as political turmoil in Europe cast doubts on the euro zone's ability to push through measures to end its debt crisis and as Wal-Mart sank following a report it stymied a bribery probe.

Asian markets were also impacted by the negative sentiment with Japan's Nikkei average slipping 0.8% a 9,463 and Shanghai Composite dropping nearly 1.5%.

BSE IT index held on to gains and is up 2% at 5,407. IT heavyweights - TCS and Wipro have gained 10% and 1.5%, respectively.

TCS reported better-than-expected a 3.28% quarter-on-quarter (q-o-q) rise in net profit at Rs 2,895 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2012. Analysts expected the company to report a net profit of Rs 2,861 crore in the recently concluded quarter. TCS had reported a net profit of Rs 2,803 crore in the previous quarter.

"Infy looks clearly the weaker stock among the pack. TCS is showing some bit of outperformance today, short term charts indicate strength, however, I think one should wait for atleast a couple of days before taking fresh long positions. Stocks like Wipro seem to be on a lower high lower low kind of a short term trend, which again indicates bearishness to creep in the stock," says Kunal Bothra, Technical Analyst, LKP Securities

Tata Power, Hindalco, Hero MotoCorp and Hindustan Unilever are the other top gainers in the noon deals.

However, Bharti Airtel has slumped 4% to Rs 301 in late morning deals. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has proposed a high reserve price for telecom spectrum to be auctioned, at nearly Rs 3,622 crore per MHz in the 1,800-MHz band for GSM services.

Jindal Steel and Infosys have shed 1.6% each, followed by Larsen & Toubro, Maruti Suzuki, Bajaj Auto and Mahindra & Mahindra. Market heavyweight, Reliance is down 0.7% at Rs 731 after Monday's smart gains.

Aviation stocks are under pressure on the bourses on concerns of delay in government clearance on foreign direct investment (FDI) in the sector. Kingfisher is down 17%, Spice Jet has dropped 5% and Jet AIrways has slipped 1.3% in trades.

BSE market breadth is marginally negative. Out of 2,107 stocks traded, 1,108 shares have declined while 895 shares have advanced in trades.