Stocks held positive zone in afternoon trade. At 13:16 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 72.39 points or 0.2% at 36,655.13. The Nifty 50 index was up 26.05 points or 0.24% at 10,938.30.
After trading almost flat in early trade, indices inched up in morning trade. Indices traded in a narrow range near flat line in mid-morning trade. Key benchmarks firmed up and hit fresh intraday high in early afternoon trade.
Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was down 0.27%. The BSE Small-Cap index was down 0.39%.
The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was weak. On BSE, 846 shares rose and 1468 shares fell. A total of 129 shares were unchanged.
IndusInd Bank (up 3.38%), M&M (up 2.51%), Bajaj Auto (up 2.24%), Hero MotoCorp (up 2.1%) and Bajaj Finance (up 1.58%) edged higher from the Sensex pack.
Tata Motors (down 2.44%), Tata Steel (down 0.83%), ICICI Bank (down 0.79%), ITC (down 0.78%) and Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (down 0.75%) edged lower from the Sensex pack.
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Coal India was down 1.55% to Rs 218.60. The company said that its board of directors has approved the buyback proposal of equity shares not exceeding 4.46 crore equity shares at Rs 235 per share for an aggregate consideration not exceeding Rs 1050 crore on a proportionate basis through the tender offer route. Coal India has fixed record date as 15 February 2019 for the purpose of ascertaining the eligibility of the shareholders to participate in the buyback. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 4 February 2019.
Bharti Airtel was down 0.36%. Moody's Investors Service has downgraded the senior unsecured rating for Bharti Airtel to Ba1, or junk, from Baa3 as well as the backed senior unsecured notes issued by Bharti's wholly owned subsidiary, Bharti Airtel Int'l (Netherlands) B.V. Moody's has assigned a Ba1 corporate family rating (CFR) to Bharti and withdrawn the company's Baa3 issuer rating. The investors' service company in a statement on Tuesday said that its ratings outlook is negative.
On the economic front, business activity growth in the Indian service sector cooled further at the start of 2019, amid the weakest upturn in new work since last September. The seasonally adjusted Nikkei India Services Business Activity Index fell for the second straight month in January, from 53.2 in December to 52.2, indicating a softer expansion in output.
Meanwhile, fiscal deficit for the first nine months of the current fiscal, that is April-December, crossed 112.4% of the Budget Estimate (BE). Fiscal deficit for the first nine months is more than Rs 7.01 lakh crore as against the BE of Rs 6.24 lakh crore.
According to the data released by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA), the revenue receipts of the government totalled Rs 10.84 lakh crore or 62.8% of BE in 2018-2019 till December, compared with 66.9% during the same period last year.
Tax revenue was 63.2% of BE, compared with 73.4% in the comparable period of the previous year. The total expenditure of the government at December-end was Rs 18.32 lakh crore or 75% of BE.
Overseas, most Asian markets remained closed for public holidays. US stocks closed higher Monday, as investors looked ahead to another week of high-profile earnings and developments in US-China trade talks.
US-China trade talks will remain in focus as a March 1 deadline to avoid an increase on tariffs on Chinese imports looms. On the US data front, US factory orders fell by 0.6% in November.
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