Sensex, Nifty edge higher on RIL boost, FII inflows

Mumbai: Benchmark Sensex and Nifty advanced in a volatile trade on Monday, driven by heavy buying in index major Reliance Industries and unabated foreign fund inflows.

Bouncing back from Friday's decline, the 30-share BSE Sensex gained 63.72 points or 0.10 per cent to settle at 65,344.17. During the day, it climbed 353.04 points or 0.54 per cent to 65,633.49. The NSE Nifty advanced 24.10 points or 0.12 per cent to end at 19,355.90. Correction in IT counters ahead of their quarterly earnings announcements restricted the gains. From the Sensex pack, Reliance Industries jumped the most by 3.78 per cent, helping the index close in green. Tata Steel, Bharti Airtel, IndusInd Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, UltraTech Cement, ICICI Bank and Tata Motors were the other biggest gainers. Titan, HCL Technologies, Power Grid, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, Hindustan Unilever, Axis Bank and Nestle were among the major laggards. "Indian equities faced broad-based weakness, but the benchmark managed to stay marginally positive with the support of strong buying in heavyweight stocks. The weakness was led by IT stocks, as the sector is set to kick off the Q1 result season with expectations of soft earnings.

Additionally, cues from the US markets are unfavourable, as concerns about another rate hike persist despite expectations of a fast cooling of future US CPI inflation data, said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services. "Markets oscillated in a narrow range and ended marginally in the green amid mixed cues. The tone was positive in the early hours, thanks to the strong up move in Reliance however pressure in the other heavyweights capped the upside and trimmed the gains as the session progressed," Ajit Mishra, SVP- Technical Research Religare Broking Ltd, said. In the broader market, the BSE midcap gauge declined 0.45 per cent and smallcap index dipped 0.26 per cent. Among the indices, metal jumped 1.82 per cent, energy climbed 0.64 per cent, services (0.34 per cent) and commodities (0.24 per cent). Consumer Durables went lower by 1.57 per cent, IT declined by 1.17 per cent, utilities dipped 1.08 per cent, power fell by 0.89 per cent and realty (0.82 per cent). In Asian markets, Shanghai and Hong Kong settled in the green while Seoul and Tokyo ended lower. Equity markets in Europe were trading in positive territory. The US markets ended with losses on Friday. Global oil benchmark Brent crude dipped 0.80 per cent to USD 77.84 a barrel. According to exchange data, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) continued their buying activity as they bought equities worth Rs 790.40 crore on Frida