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At 11.30am, the Sensex was quoting at 26744, higher by 27 points, while the Nifty was at 8093, down three points.
The broader markets are underperforming the benchmark indices, with the midcap and smallcap indices shedding around half a percent each.
The market is witnessing choppy movements this morning, with the Sensex gyrating between an intra-day high of 26,850 and a low of 26,570 as it seeks for direction post the 2% carnage witnessed in the previous session. The benchmark indices plunged by over 2% on Wednesday, with the Sensex breaking its crucial psychological level of 27,000 and the Nifty slipping below its crucial 200-DMA mark, amid a global bond rout. The weak cues from the Asian front are also keeping the market participants on tenterhooks.
Meanwhile, the Lok Sabha yesterday, 6 May 2015, passed the Constitution Amendment Bill in respect of goods and services tax (GST). GST, touted as the single biggest indirect taxation reforms since independence, will simplify and harmonise the indirect tax regime in the country. Central taxes like Central Excise Duty, Additional Excise Duties, Service Tax, Additional Customs Duty (CVD) and Special Additional Duty of Customs (SAD), etc. will be subsumed in GST. At the state level, taxes like VAT/Sales Tax, Central Sales Tax, Entertainment Tax, Octroi and Entry Tax, Purchase Tax and Luxury Tax, etc. would be subsumed in GST.
Among corporate earnings, Hero MotoCorp, Piramal Enterprises, United Bank of India, Titan, Sintex Industries and BASF India will announce their quarter ended 31 March 2015 earnings today.
RUPEE
The rupee has extended its slide for the fifth straight day, weakening by another 34 paise to 63.88 against the dollar in early trade on sustained capital outflows amid a weakening trend in equities. The increased demand for dollar from importers and banks also weighed on the rupee.
GLOBAL MARKET
Asian stocks fell on Thursday, taking the lead from losses on Wall Street, while a rise in euro zone debt yields amid a global bond rout kept the euro hovering at a two-month peak versus the dollar.
As European deflation fears have ebbed, a seeming reversal of trades linked to the European Central Bank's big quantitative easing has resulted in a sell-off in core European bonds and equities this week, rattling investors across asset classes.
The U.S. stocks ended weaker on Wednesday after U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen warned of high share valuations, adding to anxiety about future interest rates.
KEY STOCKS AND STOCKS
All the sectoral indices are trading in the negative territory, with the exception of the IT space.
The technology pack is trading in the positive territory on the back of a depreciating rupee. TCS has zoomed by 2.6% at Rs 2527 to top the gainer's list on the BSE and Infosys has jumped by 1.9% at Rs 1959.
Bharti Airtel continues its previous day's rally, gaining another 2% at Rs 398, after MSCI raised the weightage of the company.
Hero Motocorp are trading higher by 0.8% ahead of the quarterly results due later during the day.
On the other hand, index heavyweight RIL has weakened by 1.5% at Rs 866. And banking heavyweights such as ICICI Bank, Yes Bank, Axis Bank and HDFC Bank have dropped between 0.5-2%. SBI has, however, recovered from its intra-day lows and is now trading flat.
The market breadth is weak on the BSE with 1294 loser versus 861 gainers.
