Markets turn flat; Index heavyweights weigh

Markets have turned flat in late trades weighed down losses in Index heavy weights. Meanwhile, disappointing Services PMI data has further dampened sentiments. 

At 2:10 pm, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 20 points at 26,863 and the Nifty50 was up 9 points at 8,228.

Top five losers in the Sensex pack include Bharti Airtel, Lupin, SBI, BHEL and ITC down between 1%-2%.  

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(updated at 2:10 pm)
 

Benchmark shares indices continued to trade firm, amid firm European cues, even as profit booking emerged following a private survey which indicated slowdown in the country's services sector during May.

At 1:15pm, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 100 points at 26,944 and the Nifty50 was up 34 points at 8,253. In the broader market, the BSE Midcap was up 0.5% while Smallcap index was up 0.3%. Market breadth remained positive with 1258 gainers and 1122 losers on the BSE.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) were net buyers in equities worth Rs 521.85 crore yesterday as per provisional stock exchange data.

Growth in India's services industry slowed sharply in May to a six-month low, due to a deceleration in new orders, a business survey showed on Friday.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) at its policy meet next week is likely to maintain status quo on interest rates ahead of the US Federal Reserve policy review and the British referendum on EU membership, as per all the 10 economists polled by Business Standard.

Besides, India Meteorological Department (IMD), in an announcement on Thursday, retained its earlier ‘above normal’ forecast for this year’s southwest monsoon, at 106% of the Long Period Average (LPA).

GLOBAL

Although the OPEC meet remained inconclusive on oil output targets Saudi Arabia's stance not to dump the market was taken as positive with global oil prices stabilising around $50 a barrel.

European shares were trading with gains in early trades with major indices such as CAC-40, DAX and FTSE up 0.4%-0.8% each.


STOCKS

In the Nifty pack, Infosys, Asian Paints, Bajaj Auto, Hero MotoCorp, IndusInd Bank, Yes Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Zee Entertainment Enterprises are eight stocks from the Nifty 50 index that hit heir respective 52-week highs in intra-day trade today.

Axis Bank was up over 3% after the bank said that it had allotted senior fixed rate green bonds aggregating to $500 million under the medium term note programme.

NMDC is up over 4% on the Bombay Stock Exchange after the company said that its board will meet next to consider buyback of shares.

Mahindra's South African subsidiary has launched a new compact utility vehicle here with the company trying to reach out to the youth with its latest offering and capture a bigger market share in the country. M&M has gained over 1%.

Hindustan Unilever was up 1%. The country's largest consumer goods company, has separated its food & beverages business into two divisions, appointing a new executive director (ED) for beverages.

Coal India extended gains and was up nearly 2% after the company announced encouraging production and sales numbers for May 2016.

Bajaj Auto gained 1% after reporting a 2% increase in motorcycle sales at 3,07,344 units for May as compared with 3,01,862 units in the year-ago month.

Hero MotoCorp was up over 1% after the country's largest two-wheeler maker further augmented its senior leadership team after appointing Malo Le Masson as the head of global product planning.

Among others, IIFL Holdings surged over 10% after more than two million shares of the company changed hands via block deals on the BSE and NSE in early morning trade.