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Both Sensex and Nifty erased most of their early gains but continue to trade with marginal gains at this hour.
The 30-share Sensex is up 14 points, currently trading at 21,755 levels while the 50-stock Nifty index slipped was up 9 points to 6,492 levels.
Another bigshot has quit the software major Infosys, a day after the country's second largest software company by revenue announced that a top executive will leave the company next month.
Chandrashekar Kakal, a senior vice president and a member of the company's executive council, has conveyed his intention to quit, effective April 18, Infosys said in a filing to the stock exchanges. It did not give a reason for Kakal's resignation. This follows a spate of high profile exits from the software major after Narayan Murthy took over as Executive Chairman last June.
The stock edged 0.5% down to Rs 3,285 levels in morning trades on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). Infosys' revenue for the fiscal year ending March could grow at the lower end of its 11.5 to 12 percent projection, Murthy said this month, sending its shares down as much as 9 percent on a single day.
Other top losers at this hour include Reliance, ONGC, ITC and Sun Pharma while SBI, HDFC, Tata Motors, Wipro and HDFC Bank are the gainers.
(Updated at 1030hrs)
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Market continued to trade on a positive note after opening firm rebounding from lower levels after witnessing selling pressure a day earlier on account of US Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's comments that the Fed may raise interest rates earlier than expected.
The 30-share Sensex is up 50 points, currently trading at 21,798 levels while the 50-stock Nifty index was up 18 points at 6,500 levels.
HDFC, ITC, Tata Motors, Reliance and HDFC Bank are the top Sensex gainers at this hour. Axis Bank plunged over 6% after the government on Friday sold nine per cent stake held by the Specified Undertaking of UTI (Suuti) in Axis Bank. The sale of 42.2 million shares at Rs 1,334/share in the third-largest private-sector bank raised around Rs 5,603 crore. JM Financial, Citibank and JPMorgan handled the share sale.
Suuti, which was created in 2002 after the UTI US-64 fiasco, held 97.22 million shares, or a 20.72 per cent stake, in Axis Bank earlier.
Besides Axis Bank, Suuti has a 11.54 per cent stake in ITC and 8.27 per cent in Larsen & Toubro. The total value of Suuti’s stakes in the three companies was Rs 55,200 crore on Thursday.
Software giants TCS and Infosys are once again under seliing pressure after the duo gave a weak guidance for earnings in the forthcoming January - March quarter. TCS and Infosys were down between 0.1-0.4% in morning deals; other top losers at this hour include ONGC and Sun Pharma.
Among sectors, BSE Realty, consumer durables and metal indices were up 0.9-1.6%, followed by Auto, power and FMCG indices which edged 0.5-0.7% higher. Nearly all indices were trading in green barring IT, TECk and Oil & gas indices.
Foreign investors bought Indian shares worth $117.87 million on Thursday when the benchmark BSE index fell 0.4 percent, provisional exchange data shows.
A day earlier key benchmark indices plunged to their two-week lows tracking the weakness in global markets. Stocks world over remained subdued on Thursday as investors digested the Yellen’s comments that the central bank may raise interested within six months, depending on a host of macro-economic data. However, Asian markets will be hoping for a bounce on Friday after Wall Street shook off concerns about Federal Reserve policy, while a rise in US yields should keep the dollar underpinned near three-week highs. After falling sharply on Thursday, the early signs were that stocks in the region might at least be able to stabilise.
The Australian market edged up 0.3% while MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was dead flat. Investors should find some comfort in Wall Street's ability to bounce with the S&P 500 closing up 0.6% and the Dow 0.67%.
