)
At 12:20 PM, the 30-share Sensex was down 69 points to trade at 20,814 and the 50-share Nifty was down 14 points at 6,176 levels.
-------------------------------------
Updated at 11:13 AM
Benchmark indices continue to remain volatile in a narrow range with Sensex and Nifty swinging between negative and positive zone.
Sensex reversed direction after hitting its highest level in more than 35 months. The 50-unit CNX Nifty reversed direction after hitting 22-week high.
At 11:15 AM, the 30-share Sensex was up 2 points to trade at 20,886 and the 50-share Nifty was up 10 points at 6,200 levels.
According to Chetan Jain, Dy Manager (Derivatives Desk) at Anand Rathi Fin Services, “Nifty future which was facing major hurdle around 6170-6200 zone has breached and closed above this area, now if it holds these levels then next round of rally could not be ruled in coming days. Now any dip till 6150-6170 zone is a good buying opportunity with stop loss below 6070 and upside target of 6300-6350 levels. Option Traders can simply buy 6200 call at any dip with 30 point stop loss on premiums.”
On the global front, Australian shares climbed to a five-year peak on Monday, taking cues from the US S&P 500's record high as investors bet the Federal Reserve will not start winding back its cheap money policies until next year.
The change in expectations followed a 16-day shutdown of the US government that could cloud the economic outlook and make the Fed wary of scaling back its $85 billion-a-month bond-buying programme this year as many had expected. This kept the dollar on the defensive.
Back home, the rupee extends fall to a second session with the USD/INR pair at 61.41/42 vs Friday's close of 61.27/28, tracking mild weakness in Asian FX.
On the sectoral front, BSE Capital Goods, Realty, Auto, Metal and Bankex indices have surged between 1-3%. However, BSE IT, Consumer Durables, FMCG and TECk indices have declined by 1% each.
Larsen and Toubro (L&T) is trading higher by 4% at Rs 906, extending its Friday’s over 4% rally, after construction and engineering giant has reported a good set of numbers for the quarter ended September 2013 (Q2).
Hindalco Industries has gained by 3% after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's office says he is satisfied with the outcome of the process of allocating coal blocks to certain companies, dealers say.
Other notable gainers are Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, Sesa Sterlite, Tata Steel, Cipla, ICICI Bank and M&M.
On the losing side, TCS, ITC, JSPL, HDFC and Infosys have gained between 1-2%.
Among other shares, Motherson Sumi Systems has moved higher by over 5% at Rs 262 after the company said it is planning to issue free shares to existing shareholders.
Persistent Systems has rallied nearly 5% at Rs 754, also its record high on BSE, after reporting a 8.6% quarter-on-quarter (qoq) growth in dollar revenues at $68.5 million for the quarter ended September 2013 (Q2) led by robust 38% qoq growth in IP-led revenues.
The broader markets are outperforming the benchmark indices- BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices are up by nearly 1% each.
]The market breadth in BSE remains positive with 1,087 shares advancing and 604 shares declining.
