Markets flat in morning trades; IT outperforms

After opening on a positive note and touching the day's high at 18,172, the market pared some of its initial gains and is currently at 18116, up two points. The Nifty has slipped into the red and is at 5435, down three points.

However the smallcap index, up 0.4%, is performing better than the benchmark while the Midcap is in sync with the Sensex.

In the smallcap space, 294 stocks have advanced as against 196 declining. The major gainers in this space are Kewal Kiran, up 11%, followed by VIP Inds, Talwalkar and Pricol. On the losers side are Garden Silk down 7% followed by AP Paper, Jagatjit Inds and REI Six Ten Retail.

In the midcap space, 167 stocks have moved up while 100 have declined. Hindustan National Glass tops the gainers list followed by IOB, Essar Ship Ports and Zydus Wellness.The major losers are Sigrun Holdings, closely followed by Punj Lloyd, Jubilant Food and Jagran Prakashan.

On the BSE SEctoral indices, the IT index is up 2.1% and tops the charts. However, auto, metal, bankex, oil& gas and FMCG are in the red.

TCS is the leading gainer among the IT pack. The bellweather is quoting at a weekly and one-month high of Rs 851, higher by 2.2%, on the BSE. Among the other IT stocks, Infosys has gained 2.2% at Rs 2846 and Wipro has added 1.4% at Rs 418. BHEL, L&T and DLF are the other notable gainers. One may also note that the IT ADRs had a good session. Satyam had ended higher by 2.8%, Infosys had gained 2.1% and Wipro had added 0.8% in overnight trades.  

Meanwhile ACC, ITC, Bharti Airtel and Mahindra & Mahindra have lost 1% each.

The market breadth is positive, there were 1328 stocks advancing stocks as against 953 declines.