Nifty holds 8,680 amid rangebound trade

Markets continued to trade firm in late noon trades as gains in financials are offsetting losses amid profit taking at higher levels.

At 2pm , the S&P BSE Sensex rose 168 points at 28,173 and the Nifty50 was up 60 points at 8,684. In the broader market, the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices were up 0.6%-1% each.

Market breadth was positive with 1612 gainers and 864 losers on the BSE.

Meanwhile, minutes from the Federal Reserve's July meeting signalled that policy makers remain divided on prospects for a near-term rate increase.

Gains were led by financials with private lenders gaining the most. ICICI Bank was up over 2% followed by HDFC Bank, Axis Bank and IndusInd Bank among others. Among others, HDFC was up 0.7% and SBI gained 1.2%.

Bharti Airtel was up over 2% on reports that Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) intends to acquire a stake in Thailand's Intouch Holdings and also raise its holding in Bharti Airtel's holding company Bharti Telecom to take advantage of faster growth in emerging markets.

BHEL was up over 1%. The state-owned engineering major announced that it has bagged EPC Order for 30 MW Solar Photovoltaic Power Plants. The company is among seven Indian firms that have made it to a carbon-clean list of 200 largest companies worldwide ranked by their total clean-energy revenues. BHEL was ranked 106 for its wind electric generators and solar cells.

Adani Ports extended gains and was up over 3%. The company last week reported 31% year-on-year (YoY) jump in its consolidated net profit at Rs 836 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2016.

NTPC has gained over 1% ahead of its June quarter earnings on Monday, August 22, 2016.

In the auto segment, four-wheelers stocks were among the top gainers with Tata Motors, M&M and Maruti Suzuki up nearly 1% each.

Infosys extended losses and was marginally down after its key client Royal Bank of Soctland scrapped a key IT project.

Coal India was the top loser down over 2% on profit taking after recent gains.

National Stock Exchange of India Ltd (NSE)

Bombay Stock Exchange - BSE