Nifty is trapped in a narrow range of 5,200 and 5,400

Gains in the second half of trade, despite unsupportive global cues, helped the market close nearly 1% higher on Friday. The gains were also supported by Goldman Sach’s latest Asia-Pacific Quarterly Outlook report, which upgraded Indian stocks to ‘marketweight’ from ‘underweight. However, the sentiment remains guarded with the market still under pressure. The Nifty is expected to remain trapped in the narrow range of 5,200 and 5,400. The National Stock Exchange (NSE) saw a comparatively low volume with 66.70 crore shares traded today.

Recovering from the steep losses seen on Thursday, the domestic market opened higher on renewed institutional buying at lower levels. However, global cues were not very supportive as the US markets settled lower overnight on concerns about global economic growth. The US trend was reflected in the Asian pack, which was mixed in morning trade.

Back home, the Nifty gained 28 points to open trade at 5,256 and the Sensex resumed trade at 17,228, up 62 points over its previous close. Across-the-board buying helped the indices stay in the green till 10.05am. However, the market came off the highs as investors resorted to profit booking at higher levels. The benchmarks dipped into the red to their intraday lows at around 10.25am. At that point, the Nifty stood at 5,220 and the Sensex touched 17,179.

The fall was short-lived as fresh buying soon lifted the indices into to positive. Fluctuating in the green, the upmove expanded as trade progressed. Early gains in the key European indices also supported the sentiments in the post-noon session.

Goldman Sachs, in its  latest Asia-Pacific Quarterly Outlook report released on Thursday, upgraded Indian stocks to ‘marketweight’ from ‘underweight’, saying domestic growth will pick up, while stock valuations remain "relatively attractive."

The market hit its intraday high in the last hour with the Nifty rising to 5,312 and the Sensex touching 17,458.  However, volatility resulted in the indices paring some of the gains at the close. The Nifty closed 50 points higher at 5,278 and the Sensex settled 165 points up at 17,362.

The advance-decline ratio on the NSE was 756:662.

Among the broader indices, the BSE Mid-cap index gained 0.61% and the BSE Small-cap index rose 0.40%.

BSE TECk (up 1.62%); BSE Realty (up 1.61%); BSE IT (up 1.38%); BSE Bankex (up 1.27%) and BSE Fast Moving Consumer Goods (up 1.16%) were the top sectoral gainers while BSE Metal (down 0.51%) and BSE Consumer Durables (down 0.11%) settled lower.

Hero MotoCorp (up 4.08%); Bharti Airtel (up 3.69%); Sun Pharma (up 2.71%); GAIL India (up 2.39%) and HDFC Bank (up 2.24%) were the toppers in the Sensex list. The losers were led by Jindal Steel (down 1.90%); Maruti Suzuki (down 1.68%); ONGC (down 1.26%); Coal India (down 1.25%) and Hindalco Industries (down 1.02%) were the main losers on the index.

The top performers on the Nifty were Jaiprakash Associates (up 4.31%); Ambuja Cements (up 3.90%); Hero MotoCorp (up 3.59%); Bharti Airtel (up 3.57%) and Cairn India (up 2.77%). The top laggards were Jindal Steel (down 2.13%); Maruti Suzuki (down 1.75%); Siemens (down 1.09%); Coal India (down 1.05%) and ONGC (down 1%).

Markets in Asia closed mixed on growth concerns as German and French manufacturing activity witnessed a sharp decline in March. The news follows similar grim news from China yesterday. Meanwhile, Singapore’s Straits Times index gained as a report showed the city-state’s inflation rate unexpectedly slowed for a third month in February.

The Jakarta Composite gained 0.13%; the KLSE Composite rose 0.16%; the Straits Times advanced 0.36%; the Seoul Composite added 0.04% and the Taiwan Weighted climbed 0.21%. On the other hand, the Shanghai Composite declined 1.10%; the Hang Seng dropped 1.11% and the Nikkei 225 tanked 1.14%. At the time of writing, the key European indices, which opened higher, slipped into the red and the US stock futures were mixed.

Back home, foreign institutional investors were net buyers of shares totalling Rs246.56 crore on Thursday. On the other hand, domestic institutional investors were net sellers of equities amounting to Rs133.13 crore.

Manappuram Finance today said it will reduce the loan amount to 60% of the gold value, at par with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) directions. Currently, the average Loan-to-Value (LTV) offered by Manappuram Finance on its gold loan is at 66%. RBI earlier this week had directed all NBFCs not to sanction loan beyond 60% of the value of gold jewellery. The stock declined 1.63% to close at Rs36.30 on the NSE.

ING has selected Finacle to transform its core banking software and Infosys will power multiple business areas of the bank such as deposits and loans, savings and current accounts amongst others. With this transformation, ING aims to modernise its growing customer base in Belgium. Infosys settled 1.65% higher on the NSE at Rs2,875.10 apiece.

German carmaker Audi has chosen Steel Strips Wheels (SSWL) for the supply of steel wheel rims for its A6 platform. The business has a potential of exports worth over 20.28 million euros (equivalent to around Rs137 crore) over a period of four years. The company expects to start supplies in 2012-13. SSWL climbed 1.16% to close at Rs227.10 on the NSE.