Mkts lacklustre: Midcaps, bank up; IT, realty down

Mumbai: It is subdued for the frontliners but the broader markets have outperformed the benchmark indices. The market breadth is positive as both the midcap and smallcap indices are in green. NSE advance: decline is at 2:1. Asian markets were trading mixed with Hang Seng and Strait Times in red and Shanghai in green. On Friday, Wall Street ended flat; Dow was down 28 points.

At 1136 hours (IST), the Sensex is down 42.02 points or 0.23% at 18073.23, and the Nifty down 21.15 points or 0.40% at 5281.75.

About 1904 shares have advanced, 1049 shares declined, and 67 shares are unchanged.

Reliance Energy, Bajaj Auto, Siemens, GAIL, Tata Steel, ICICI Bank and Nalco were among the top gainers on the indices.

Tata Motors, ITC, ONGC, Idea Cellular, DLF, BHEL, Sterilte Ind and HCL Tech are among the top frontline losers.

Reliance pack stocks are among the most active stocks on the bourses. The ADAG stocks are hogging all the limelight after the bonus issue news Reliance Power is holding rock solid at Rs 419 with 11,094,397 shares.

Reliance Natural is also holding out in green at Rs 141 with 19,584,418 shares followed by Reliance Energy at Rs Rs 1,744.00 with 872,046 shares. Relianc Petroleum is also among the most active shares at Rs 167 with 3,703,668 shares.

Rupee is trading strong at 39.66 against the dollar.

Market cues:

> Rel Power board meet on Feb 24 to mull bonus issue to all shareholders excluding promoters

> FIIs net sell $293.3 million in equity on Feb 14

> NSE F&O Open Interest up by Rs 2,469 crore at Rs 73,686 crore

> Among global peers, Asian markets are trading mixed; Nikkei up 174 points.

> On Friday, Wall Street ended flat; Dow was down 28 points.

F&O cues:

> Futures Open Interest up by Rs 1,470 crore

> Options Open Interest up by Rs 998 crore

> Nifty Futures shed 2.8 lakh shares in Open Interest

> Nifty Open Interest Put-Call ratio at 0.92 Vs 0.93

> Nifty Puts add 7.1 lakh shares n Open Interest

> Nifty Calls add 9.9 lakh shares in Open Interest

> Nifty 5200 Put adds 1.7 lakh shares in Open Interest

> Nifty 5100 Put adds 1.7 lakh shares in Open Interest

> Nifty 5400 Call adds 4.1 lakh shares in Open Interest

> Nifty 5300 Call adds 3.2 lakh shares in Open Interest

> Stock Futures add 1.38 cr shares in Open Interest