Key benchmark indices were hovering near flat line in early afternoon trade. At 12:20 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 10.80 points or 0.03% at 36,150.78. The Nifty 50 index was down 3.35 points or 0.03% at 11,080.35.
The Sensex and the Nifty hit fresh intraday high in early trade. After some profit booking in morning trade, the key benchmarks bounced back in mid-morning trade and were hovering near flat line so far. The Sensex was trading above 36,000 mark and the Nifty was trading above the 11,000 mark.
Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was down 0.40%. The BSE Small-Cap index was down 0.62%. Both these indices underperformed the Sensex.
The broad market depicted weakness. There were almost two losers against every gainer on BSE. 1,815 shares fell and 897 shares rose. A total of 136 shares were unchanged.
Overseas, most Asian shares declined on profit booking after recent gains. Japan's Nikkei 225 settled lower by 0.81%. Japan's trade surplus fell sharply in 2017 despite record high exports to China and Asia, while its surplus with the US edged up. Japan's overall balance of trade fell 25% to 2.991 trillion Yen ($27.1 billion). On a monthly basis, exports increased 9.3% in December from a year earlier, for the 13th straight rise. Japan's surplus with the US rose 3.1% to 7.036 trillion Yen, the highest since 2015 and the 12th largest on record.
US stocks closed mixed on Tuesday, with market focus shifting from politics to corporate earnings after a government shutdown came to an end on Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.1%. The S&P 500 index climbed 0.2%. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.7%.
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Back home, IT stocks were in demand. Hexaware Technologies (up 6.18%), MphasiS (up 4.51%), HCL Technologies (up 3.68%), TCS (up 3.14%), Tech Mahindra (up 3.04%), Infosys (up 2.37%), Oracle Financial Services Software (up 1.90%) and MindTree (up 1.76%), edged higher. Persistent Systems was down 0.49%.
IT major Wipro was up 1.24% after the company said it has secured a multi-year contract from a company headquartered in Denmark. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 23 January 2018.
Wipro announced that it has won a multi-year business process services engagement with Nilfisk, a leading global supplier of professional cleaning equipment and solutions, headquartered in Denmark. As part of this contract, which was signed in June 2017, Wipro will leverage its global delivery network to implement business process services for Nilfisk in the areas of finance and accounting, marketing services as well as select IT services in 45+ client locations, across the world.
Pharmaceutical shares were mixed. Cadila Healthcare (down 1.35%), Wockhardt (down 1.29%), Cipla (down 1.22%), Alkem Laboratories (down 1.21%), Piramal Enterprises (down 1%), Divi's Laboratories (down 0.68%), Aurobindo Pharma (down 0.3%) and GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals (down 0.08%), edged lower. IPCA Laboratories (up 0.45%), Strides Shasun (up 0.73%), Glenmark Pharmaceuticals (up 1.08%), Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (up 1.37%), Lupin (up 1.55%) and Dr Reddy's Laboratories (up 2.36%), edged lower.
Genus Paper & Boards hit 5% upper circuit at Rs 14.74 after the company said that it has taken on lease a kraft paper manufacturing facility for 5 years with effect from 22 January 2018. The company made the announcement after market hours yesterday, 23 January 2018.Genus Paper & Boards said that the facility is located at Kashipur, Uttarakhand and has manufacturing capacity of 75,000 metric tonnes per annum (mtpa). It is an operational plant and the leasing would help to start production on immediate basis and cater to the demand of existing clients of the company.
Commenting on the agreement, Kailash Chandra Agarwal, Managing Director, of the company said that it has witnessed consistent surge in demand and this agreement would enhance its existing manufacturing capacities by 50%. This will help in catering to the demands of the existing clients on immediate basis and help to add new clients. The strategy of asset light expansion would help in improving the profitability of the company and in turn the return ratios, he added.
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