The Sensex pared gains while the Nifty turned almost flat in early afternoon trade. At 12:23 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 59.25 points or 0.15% at 39,090.80. The Nifty 50 index was up 4.05 points or 0.03% at 11,752.20.
Indices opened lower, but bounced back in morning trade. After some range bound trading in mid-morning trade, the indices sharply pared gains in early afternoon trade.
Broader market reversed intraday gains. Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was down 0.12%. The BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.13%.
The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, once again turned negative from positive. On BSE, 1035 shares rose and 1177 shares fell. A total of 148 shares were unchanged.
Most telecom shares advanced. Vodafone Idea (up 5.45%), Reliance Communications (up 4.68%), Bharti Airtel (up 2.33%) and Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) (up 0.69%), edged higher. MTNL was down 0.33%.
Most cement shares declined. UltraTech Cement (down 0.42%) and ACC (down 0.29%), edged lower. Ambuja Cements was up 0.52%.
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Grasim Industries was down 0.78%. Grasim has exposure to cement sector through its holding in UltraTech Cement.
On the economic front, the Nikkei India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) declined from 52.6 in March to 51.8 in April.
Meanwhile, the total gross GST revenue collected in the month of April 2019 is Rs 1,13,865 crore. The revenue in April 2018 was Rs 1,03,459 crore and the revenue during April 2019 is a growth of 10.05% over the revenue in the same month last year. The revenue in April 2019 is 16.05% higher than the monthly average of GST revenue in FY 2018-19 (Rs 98,114 crore). The total number of GSTR 3B Returns filed for the month of March up to 30th April 2019 is 72.13 lakh.
Overseas, Asian shares were mixed on Thursday with two major centres - Japan and China - shut for holidays. Trading in Japan will resume next Tuesday while China will be back in action on Monday.
US stocks fell on Wednesday after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell acknowledged a slowdown in business and household spending, but described low inflation as "transitory" and denied there was a "strong case" to expect an interest-rate cut in the near term.
The US Federal Reserve on Wednesday kept its benchmark interest rate in a range of 2.25% to 2.5%. Senior officials sounded more upbeat about the economy after a slow start in early 2019 and pointed to a recent decline in inflation as reasons to stand pat.
On the US-China trade front, a trade deal between the two economic powerhouses could reportedly be announced by next Friday.
Among the US economic data, payroll firm ADP released its estimate of private-sector job growth in April, showing the US economy added 275,000 new jobs. Markit's manufacturing purchasing managers index for April came in at 52.6, a slight uptick from the near two-year low seen last month. The more closely watched Institute for Supply Management manufacturing index came in at 52.8%, below the March reading of 55.3%. The Commerce Department said construction spending fell by 0.9% in March, compared with February.
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