Markets remain lacklustre in noon trades

Benchmark share indices remained flat amid lacklustre trades at noon after gains in defensivess helped offest losses in metals and auto shares.

By 12:55 PM, the Sensex was up 57 points at 18,730 and the Nifty gained 12 points to 5,681.

On the global front, Asian shares were mixed in late trades on Tuesday after sentiment was weakened by data showing Germany's business confidence dropped in September, and a weak earnings forecast from Caterpillar Inc , both of which underscored worries about a global growth slowdown. Nikkei ended marginally up while Hang Seng and Shanghai were trading with marginal losses.

Back home, the rupee declined by 8 paise to 53.55 against the dollar in early trade on the Interbank Foreign Exchange today following increased month-end demand for the American currency from importers.

Among the sectoral indices on the BSE, FMCG and Healthcare indices were up nearly 1% while Metal was down 1.1%, Auto slipped 0.6% and Bankex was down 0.2%.

Defensive shares witnessed buying at lower levels after profit booking was seen in the recent rally as the reforms announced favoured high-beta and cyclical stocks. In the FMCG segment ITC and HUL were both up 1.3%. In the pharma segment Cipla was up 2.2% and Sun Pharma gained 0.4%.

Auto shares eased on concerns that the recent hike in transport fuels may dent sales growth in September. Meanwhile, Maruti Suzuki said it will raise prices within a week to offset impact of adverse foreign exchange fluctuation and rising input costs. Tata Motors and Maruti Suzuki were down 1.7% each while Hero MotoCorp and Bajaj Auto were down 0.8% and 0.4%, respectively.

India's monthly car sales fell in August for the first time in ten months, as a gloomy economic outlook and high interest rates dampened demand.

Among Metal segment, JSPL is the top Sensex loser, down nearly 3% on reports that the company has raised a bridge loan of Rs 660 crore to fund its CIC Energy acquisition. Tata Steel, Sterlite and Hindalco have slipped between 1-2%.

Banking shares like SBI, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank arebetween 0.2-1%.

On the gaining side, shares of power companies such as Adani Power, JSW Energy, Lanco Infra, BHEL, Torrent Power, Reliance Power, Tata Power, NHPC and NTPC are trading higher by 1-4% after the central government announced a debt restructuring package for distribution companies. The package comes a decade after the Union government extended a similar one-time settlement of state electricity boards’ dues.

Among other shares, shares of Mangalore Chemicals and Fertilisers were up over 7% on talks that the UB Group may sell stake its non-core assets to reduce the debt of its group company Kingfisher Airlines

Over 900,000 shares were traded on the NSE.

Meanwhile, Meanwhile, BSE Midcap index has gained 0.2 % whereas BSE Smallcap index has gained 0.3%.

The market breadth in BSE remains almost neutral with 1,281 shares advancing and 1,296 shares declining.