The markets have had another quiet morning, continuing from the sideways movemnent seen last week. After ending the previous week with marginal gains of around 25 points, the Sensex is quoting at 18142, lower by 25 points and the Nifty is at 5445, down six points in early trades. The midcap index is quoting at 7678, higher by 36 points and the smallcap index is at 9771, up 60 points.
Asian markets were trading lower in early trades. Hang Seng shed 118 points and Nikkei lost 19 points. And the US markets had closed soft on Saturday; the Dow had weakened by 16 points at 10303 and the Nasdaq slid by 16 points at 2173.
The leading gainers on the Sensex are HDFC Bank (strengthened by 1.1% at Rs 2110), Hindalco (gained 0.8% at Rs 167) and ITC (added 0.7% at Rs 157). The oher significant gainers were Maruti, Hindustan Unilever and NTPC.
The stock debutant of the day, SKS Microfinance has listed at Rs 1,040, a 6% premium to its issue price of Rs 985 per share. The stock has hit an intra-day high of Rs 1,155 and is currently trading at Rs 1,145, 16% higher over its issue price on the NSE. Around 1.47 million shares have changed hands on the counter in opening trades.
RCom weakened by 3.6% at Rs 162 after reporting disappointing June quarter profits. Jaiprakash Associates (shed 1.3% at Rs 119) and Infosys (lost 1% at Rs 2752) were the other key losers.
The market breadth is positive. Out of 1607 stocks gained on the BSE, there are 1156 advancing stocks as against 419 declines.