Sensex, Nifty close marginally higher in range-bound trade, IT, oil& gas stocks advance

Mumbai: Benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty cut short two days of losses and settled with marginal gains in a range-bound trade on Monday as IT, oil and gas and telecom shares advanced amid optimism in the global markets. The 30-share BSE Sensex rose by 99.08 points or 0.16 per cent to settle at 62,724.71. During the day, it gained 179.26 points or 0.28 per cent to 62,804.89.

The NSE Nifty advanced 38.10 points or 0.21 per cent to end at 18,601.50. From the Sensex pack, Infosys, HCL Technologies, Infosys, NTPC, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Consultancy Services, Nestle, Tech Mahindra and Bajaj Finance were the major gainers. Power Grid, Larsen & Toubro, Maruti, Titan, HDFC Bank, Wipro, HDFC and ITC were among the laggards. "The domestic indices are moving with caution as investors step up to a data-loaded week both in domestic and global markets. However, the expectations are optimistic, like the Indian CPI is forecast to moderate and the Fed & Bank of Japan (BoJ) are expected to maintain their policy rates.

"Other major events on the centre stage are domestic IIP, WPI inflation, and policy announcements from European Central Bank (ECB)," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services. Markets traded dull but managed to end marginally in the green, thanks to firm global cues, Ajit Mishra, VP - Technical Research, Religare Broking Ltd said. The movement on the sectoral front kept traders busy wherein IT and realty posted decent gains while banking and financials remained under pressure, Mishra added.

"Markets were extremely range-bound to end with a positive bias on the back of firm global markets, as investors were cautiously optimistic ahead of the US FOMC meeting later this week. "Although there are indications that the Fed may pause on rate hikes this time, any uptick in key rates could fuel pessimism over global growth and trigger a short-term correction," said Shrikant Chouhan, Head of Research (Retail), Kotak Securities Ltd. In the broader market, the BSE smallcap gauge climbed 0.72 per cent and midcap index gained 0.54 per cent.

Among the indices, realty jumped 1.48 per cent and IT climbed 1.47 per cent while teck (1.42 per cent), telecommunication (1.06 per cent), oil & gas (1.05 per cent) and energy (0.80 per cent) also advanced. Power emerged as the only laggard among the indices. "Nifty broke a two-day losing streak and ended mildly in the positive. Global stocks were largely up on Monday ahead of key inflation data as investors cautiously await several interest rate decisions this week," said Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research, HDFC Securities. In Asian markets, Tokyo and Hong Kong ended in the green, while Seoul and Shanghai settled lower. Equity markets in Europe were trading in positive territory. The US markets ended in positive territory on Friday. Global oil benchmark Brent crude declined 2.54 per cent to USD 72.91 a barrel. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 308.97 crore on Friday, according to exchange data.