The benchmark indices have been stagnating in this morning's trades. The Sensex has been confined to a narrow range of about 100 points and is currently placed at 18,281, lower by 19 points and the Nifty is at 5476, down four points. There is outperformance on the broader market front, though; the midcap index is at 6759, up 24 points and the smallcap index is at 8296, up 49 points.
Bharti Airtel has jumped by 1.5% at Rs 333 to emerge as the leading gainer on the BSE. HDFC has gained 1.2% at Rs 637 and DLF has added 0.8% at Rs 240. And Tata Steel is seeing follow-up buying after the stellar gains of the previous session on the back of strong Q3 results; the metal major had added another 0.6% at Rs 645.
On the other hand, Wipro has slipped by 1.5% at Rs 430 to top the losers list on the BSE. Jaiprakash Associates is witnessing profit-booking after the stellar gains of the previous session; the stock has shed 1.6% at Rs 88 and ICICI Bank has weakened by 1.2% at Rs 1040.
And the ADAG group shares are out of favour as group chairman Anil Ambani was questioned by the CBI on Wednesday in connection with the widening probe into the 2G spectrum scam. RCom has weakened by 0.8% at Rs 98 and Reliance Infrastructure has lost 0.9% at Rs 625 and Reliance Power has dropped as much as 1.1% at Rs 120. And index heavyweight RIL has edged lower by 0.4% at Rs 940.
On the macro front, one would have to keep an eye on the food inflation data for the year ended February 5, to be unveiled by the government around noon time.
The market breadth is positive. Out of 2169 stocks traded on the BSE, there are 1262 advancing stocks as against 823 declines.