Benchmark indices remained marginally weak, amid range bound trade, subdued by losses in select index heavyweights like ITC and HDFC.
At 11:24 AM,the 30-share Sensex was down 56 points at 27,740 and the 50-share Nifty was down 15 points at 8,326.
In the broader market, both BSE midcap and smallcap indices have outperformed their larger peers with gains of around 0.3% and 0.4% each. Market breadth in BSE is positive with 1,312 advances against 1,020 declines.
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Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors were net sellers in Indian equities worth Rs 221.52 crore on Tuesday, as per provisional stock exchange data.
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BSE Consumer Durables index has gained the most and is up by 0.7% followed by BSE Power index which has gained 0.6%.
BSE FMCG index has lost the most and is down around 1% followed by BSE IT and Healthcare indices down 0.1% each.
ONGC has gained over 1.5%. Yesterday, finance minister, Arun Jaitley informed the parliament that the government has finalized plans to sell a part of its stake in Coal India, ONGC and NHPC under its disinvestment programme for the current fiscal year. Coal India is marginally up by 0.2%
Amid concerns about Chinese economic growth, metal shares are trading firm. Sesa Sterlite has gained close to 2%. Tata Steel and Hindalco have gained 0.6% and 1.3% each.
Meanwhile, India’s steel exporters of hot- rolled carbon steel flat products to the United States got a major relief after an appellate body of the World Trade Organization (WTO) asked Washington to amend a law on the basis of which it imposed countervailing duty (CVD) up to 577 per cent on these products.
The case involved US duties imposed because a portion of the iron ore used to produce Indian steel pipe came from NMDC, a public sector company. NMDC supplies raw material to steelmakers such as Tata, Essar and Jindal.
BHEL has gained around 0.6%. According to media reports, the company would set up an integrated solar photo-voltaic manufacturing facility of around 500 MW per annum in Maharashtra,
Among auto stocks, Hero Motocorp has gained over 1%. According to news reports, the company is tying up with Snapdeal to sell motorcycles on the online platform.
Maruti Suzuki and Bajaj Auto have lost 0.6% and 0.8% each.
Index heavyweights, HDFC and ITC have lost 1.2% and 1.4% each.