The Indian equity benchmarks were trading in a narrow range on Tuesday with gains in Tata Steel, Reliance Industries, Infosys, Larsen & Toubro and Bajaj Finance were offset with losses in HDFC Bank, Hindustan Unilever, ICICI Bank and Mahibdra & Mahindra. The Sensex was trading in a bancd of 250 points and Nifty 50 index touched an intraday high of 18,134 and low of 17,967.
As of 1:21 pm, the Sensex was up 107 points at 60,673 and Nifty 50 index rose 41 points to 18,056.
"Nifty has an immediate resistance at 18,100. If Nifty closes above that, further upside can be expected towards 18,240-18,300 mark. On the flip side 17,900-17,770 will act as strong support levels," brokerage firm Nirmal Bang said.
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Nine of 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading higher led by the Nifty Metal index's over 3 per cent gain. Metal shares were witnessing buying interest after China eased Covid-related restrictions. China is the world's largest consumer of metals and big market for Indian metal manufacturers.
China announced it will stop requiring inbound travellers to go into quarantine starting from January 8, moving further away from a strict "zero-COVID" policy that had disrupted its economic activity.
Auto, IT, PSU Bank Real Estate, Consumer Durables and Oil& Gas indices were also trading with a positive bias.
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On the other hand, after staging a massive upmove in the previous session banking stocks were facing selling pressure on account of profit booking. The Nifty Bank, FMCG and Financial Services indices were trading with a negative bias.
Hindalco was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose nearly 5 per cent to Rs 464. Tata Steel, JSW Steel, Tata Motors, ONGC, Asian Paints, Eicher Motors, Divi's Labs, Bajaj Finance, Larsen & Toubro and Wipro also rose between 1-5 per cent.
On the flipside, Hindustan Unilever, Apollo Hospitals, HDFC Bank, UPL, Britannia Industries, Mahindra & Mahindra, NTPC, dr Reddy's Labs and Nestle India were among the losers.
The overall market breadth was positive as 2,446 shares were advancing while 978 were declining on the BSE.
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