Metal stocks shine in a weak market; Tata Steel up over 4%

Benchmark indices are trading in tight range with a negative bias ahead of the October industrial production data, which is scheduled to be released later today. The downside is on the back of selling pressure witnessed in capital goods, realty and banking shares.

At 11:30am, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 100 points at 25,145 and the Nifty50 was down 34 points at 7,649.

The broader markets are showing a divergent trend with BSE Midcap trading 0.1% down while BSE Smallcap trading 0.1% up.

The government will release the index of industrial production (IIP) data for the month of October after market hours. Indian industrial output was forecast to rise 7.8% annually in October, its strongest pace in more than three years and much faster than the 3.6% seen in September.

The Indian rupee was trading marginally lower at 66.75 to the US dollar compared to the previous close of 66.72 as markets prepare themselves for the US Fed rate hike next week.

BSE Capital Goods index is trading 0.5% lower. L&T, BHEL, SKFIndia, Thermax are down between 1-1.5% each.

Texmaco Rail has announced that it along with Hitachi India, Hitachi Japan has won a contract for design and construction of signal and telecom works. The stock has zoomed over 6%

Cement stocks were up after the Competition Appellate Tribunal set aside the Rs 6,300 crore on 11 cement companies. ACC,UltraTech cement, Ambuja Cements and India Cements were up 0.4%-2.4% each.

From the Sensex 30 pack, Infosys has gained 1.3% after positive comments from CEO Vishal Sikka at a Barclay's conference saying that the strategies are working and the company is on track to industry leading growth.

Metal pack is shinging bright in an otherwise weak markt with Tata Steel shining the brightest as it has soared 4%. Hindalco, Vedanta, JindalSteel, JSWSteel, have all gained between 1-3% each

Sun Pharma has inched up 0.1% after the drug maker announced that it has entered into an agreement with Israel based Weizmann Institute of Science and Spain's Health Research Institute of Santiago de Compostela to develop products for treating neurological diseases like brain stroke and glioblastoma, a lethal brain cancer.

Maruti Suzuki has advanced 0.2%. The auto major will hike prices of its vehicles across models by up to Rs 20,000 from January to offset impact of rising costs and weakening of rupee against dollar, joining rivals in making such a move.

On the losing side, banking shares are under pressure. Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, SBI, HDFC Bank, have all dropped between 0.2-1% each.