Indian shares opened flat with a positive bias on Wednesday led by buying in rate-sensitive sectors ahead of the Reserve Bank of India monetary policy next week amid uncertainty over the quantum of interest rate cut by the central bank.
Meanwhile upbeat U.S. earnings and improving German investor sentiment boosted buying of riskier assets.
The Bombay Stock Exchange's 30-share index Sensex opened up 15.47 points at 19,997.04 while the National Stock Exchange's 50-share Nifty gained 4.35 points to open at 6,052.85.
In the results calendar, JSW Energy, Reliance Communications, Sun TV Network will declare its third quarter performances later today
Globally, Asian shares also traded on a mixed note with Japanese shares trading lower as the yen strengthened a day after the Bank of Japan opted to hold off on new monetary stimulus until next year.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.17% to 23,618, Taiwan's Weighted index declined 0.2% to 7,744, Singapore's Straits Times inched up 0.37% to 3,231 while China's Shanghai Composite dropped 0.25% to 2,309 and Japan's Nikkei dropped 0.77% to 10,627.
Back home, banks, real-estate, metals, power, oil & gas, autos, health care indexes gained while FMCG index dropped on BSE.
Among key Sensex stocks, HDFC and HDFC bank gained over 1%, SBI rose 0.4%, Maruti Suzuki and M&M gained 1% and 0.7%, ITC up 0.8% while Hindalco and Sterlite Industries rose 0.8% on BSE.
Among losers, HUL fell 5.3%, Hero MotoCorp dropped 0.2%, Tata Motors shed 0.1% while BHEL was tad down 0.02% on BSE.
Hindustan Unilever Ltd, consumer goods company tanked 5% after posting 16 per cent rise in net profit to Rs 871 crore which was also lower than the Street estimates. HUL’s volume growth was down to five per cent in the quarter ended December 2012, from 9-10 per cent in the year-ago period.
Also, the company has signed a new agreement with parent Unilever Plc under which its royalty payment would rise to 3.15 per cent of sales by March 2018 from 1.4 per cent now.
The broader markets traded positive with mid-caps and small-caps up by 0.1% on BSE.
The market breadth was firm. Out of 448 stocks traded, 339 stocks advanced compared to 95 declines on BSE.
