Nifty trades in a tight range

The Nifty had been trading in tight band of 23 points since this morning. The index had opened in the green at 5,531, touched a high of 5,543 and a low of 5,519 and is currently trading higher by 10 points at 5540, and the Sensex has risen 26 points at 18.482.

The Nifty August futures are trading at 9 points discount at 5539. Nandish Patel, Derivative Analyst, Sharekhan says Nifty is facing a stiff resistance above 5530. And the 5400-5500 put options are seeing good writing, which indicaties that 5450 is very crucial support on lower side. Deepak Singh Tanwar from Sound & Equity consulting says that such a dull movement on the index has been a rare occurance and it is very difficult to predict when the markets will break out of the range.

Among the sectoral indices, Consumer Durables is the top sectoral gainer, up 2.5%; Gitanjali Gems, up 6.6%, Titan Industries, up 5.9%, Videocon Industries, up 4.2%

The PSU space is buzzing in trade, the index is up 0.9% at 9,707; BPCL has surged 9.3%, HPCL has risen 6%, and IOC has also surged 4.1%.

Other prominent gainers from PSU space are ONGC, MTNL, Oil India, United Bank are all trading higher by over 2.5%.

All sectors are trading in green, except FMCG, Bankex, down 0.6% and 0.3% respectively.

HDFC Bank, down 1.3%, Union Bank, down 1%, ICICI Bank, down 0.3% are top losers from BSE Bankex.

ITC, down 1.8%, United Spirits and Godrej Consumers, down 0.6% each are dragging the FMCG pack.

Top gainers on Sensex are Jindal Steel, up 3%, ONGC, up 2.8% and Cipla, up 1.8%

ITC, JP Associates & HDFC Bank are top losers on Sensex, each down over 1%.

The broader markets continue to outperform Sensex; the Midcap index is up 0.7% at 7,821, thwe Smallcap index has risen 1% to 9,875

The market breadth is positive; there are 1835 stocks advancing stocks on the BSE as against 987 declinines.