Equity benchmarks began steady Monday, with realty, and oil and gas shares leading early gainers. The Sensex was up 41 points at 19724 and the Nifty up 13 points at 5958.

The benchmarks rallied around 4 percent each last week, but experts feel the pace of the uptrend could moderate as the share market lacks fundamental triggers at this point. Technical analysts see profit booking setting in at 6000 on the Nifty.

Third quarter corporate earnings were broadly below market expectations, and the trend is expected to persist in the current quarter as well, according to analysts. A likely positive trigger for the market could be the RBI cutting policy rate by 25 basis points at its review meet next Tuesday.

Jet Air, GMR Infra, Lanco and Berger Paints were among the key gainers, up 3-4 percent. Neyveli Lignite, United Breweries and L&T figured among laggards, down 2-3 percent
Dollar near highs vs yen on jobs

The dollar held near multi-year highs against the yen on Monday after surprisingly strong U.S. labour data, but demand for riskier assets was curbed by a mixed bag of economic data from China painted a patchy economic recovery in the world’s second-largest economy.

Commodities prices were caught between growing optimism about more solid demand as the global economy improves and the strengthening dollar which makes dollar-denominated commodities expensive for non-dollar holders.

LOCAL MARKETS PREVIOUS CLOSE
* BSE index 19,683.23 (+1.4 pct)
* NSE index 5,945.70 (+1.41 pct)
* Rupee 54.285/2950 per dollar (54.56/57)
* 10-year bond yield 7.84 pct (7.86 pct)
* 5-year OIS rate 7.22 pct (7.21 pct)
* 1-year OIS rate 7.55 pct (7.58 pct)
* Call money 7.70/7.80 pct Fri (7.80/7.85 pct)