Trades In Narrow Range, Maruti Up 2%

The Indian markets had a muted start and are trading marginally in the green zone. Both the broader indices, Sensex and Nifty, are trading higher by around 0.10%. Among the sectoral indices, Realty and Oil & Gas are trading up by over 1%, and others like Power, Consumer Durables, Capital Goods and Metals are also in gains. Bankex, IT, Auto and FMCG are trading lower in the red zone.

The other Asian markets are trading in the negative territory, with the Hang Seng, Nikkei and Shanghai down in the range of 0.02%-0.60%. This is after media reports which said that Japan’s economy has grown at an annualised rate of 1.4% in the Jun 2012 quarter, well below the forecast and a sharp cooling from the previous quarter, with the Yen headwinds also weighing heavy.

Back home, Maruti Suzuki is the leading index gainer and is trading higher by 2.18% at Rs 1188.85. It is reported that the Manesar unit, which was shut for around 26 days on account of labour unrest, is expected to resume work from today. Bharti Airtel is also trading 1.74% up at Rs 260.20. Investors are seeing some buying opportunity in the counter after it was beaten down heavily last week. Other stocks like GAIL India, ONGC, Sterlite Industries, BHEL and Tata Power are in gains of over 1% each, while HUL, L&T, Hindalco, Hero MotoCorp, etc. are trading marginally in the green zone.

Tata Motors is the leading index loser, down by 1.79% at Rs 227.85. ICICI Bank, ITC, TCS and Coal India are trading lower in the range of 0.75%-1%. Other stocks like Wipro, Infosys and Dr Reddy’s Labs are marginally in the red.

Subex is trading 6.82% higher at Rs 14.26. The company made an announcement that it has bagged a 5-year contract from MTNL. Welspun Corp is trading up by 0.73% at Rs 103.75 after the company received new orders worth Rs 819 crore, which took its order book to Rs 10000 crore.

The market breadth, which indicates the overall health of the market, is strong as of now. On the BSE, 1252 shares advanced, while 878 shares have declined and 93 shares are unchanged.

We expect the markets to remain to remain volatile for the day, with a negative bias.