Nifty trades in narrow range; RIL, Bharti, ITC, SBI slip

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At 11:51 hours IST, the 50-share NSE Nifty was trading in a narrow range of 5430-5450; it has been consolidating around the range of 5350-5450 for the fourth consecutive week.

On the one side, oil & gas exploration, metal, financial (except Kotak Mahindra Bank), cement, PSU power and select healthcare companies' shares were pulling the markets down. Bharti Airtel and ITC were also under pressure.

However, technology and capital goods companies' shares along with Reliance Communications, DLF, Hero Honda, Idea, Reliance Infra, Ranbaxy and Maruti were helping the equity benchmarks.

Indian markets shrugged off one percent fall in Shanghai and 2% decline in Nikkei. The Sensex was trading at 18134, up 19 points and the Nifty was at 5441, up 2.2 points. However, the Nifty August future was trading at 8.6 points discount.

Buying continued in technology stocks post stellar numbers from Cognizant. Cognizant reported 15% jump in revenue and 13.7% rise in net profit of Q2CY10, (QoQ). The company increased FY10 revenue guidance to 36% at USD 4.46 billion while earlier guidance was 25%. Infosys, TCS and Wipro gained 2-3%.

Jagran Prakashan was trading at Rs 119.30, down 3.17%. In a block deal, 1.7 crore shares of Jagran Prakashan changed hands at Rs 118/share. INM sold entire stake, which was 5.69%, in Jagran Prakashan via block deal.

Today's listing - Midfield Industries was trading at Rs 164.20 as against issue price of Rs 133.

Jagran Prakashan, VIP Industries, ICICI Bank, Jubilant Foodworks, Reliance Industries and Infosys were the most active shares on the exchanges.

Top gainers on the BSE Midcap - Indiabulls Financial, Hathway Cable, Bayer Cropscience, Hindusthan National Glass and Thermax were up 3.8-5.4%.

Top losers on the BSE Midcap - Punj Lloyd, MVL, Jubilant Foodworks and Kansai Nerolac lost 2.5-4.5%.

About 1676 shares advanced while 1503 shares declined on BSE. Nearly 183 shares were unchanged.