 "A man looks at a screen across a road displaying the Sensex on the facade of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) building in Mumbai")
The markets are trading marginally higher, tracking firm cues from European peers. The investors have turned cautious ahead of September derivatives contracts (F&O) that expire on Thursday.
The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex, at 12:50 p.m., managed to gain 85 points or 0.3%, trading at 28,308 level. Nifty 50 edged up 30 points or 0.3%, hovering around 8,736 points.
Tata Motors, State Bank of India and Adani Ports have done well on Sensex, all posting gains above 2%. However, Reliance Industries, Hindustan Unilever and Wipro remained the top losers, slipping by over 1% each.
Broader markets have kept their momentum going with both S&P BSE Midcap and Smallcap gaining around 1%.
MRF, Birla Corporation, Kajaria Ceramics, Bayer Cropsciences, Lumax Industries, Dishman Pharmaceuticals & Chemicals and Shree Pushkar Chemicals & Fertilisers are among 20 stocks from the BSE midcap and smallcap indices were trading at their respective record highs on the BSE on Wednesday.
Manpasand Beverages was trading higher by 2% at Rs 755 on the BSE after the company announced that its qualified institutional placement (QIP) issue opened on Tuesday, September 27, 2016.
*************************
Updated at 11 am
Markets are trading flat as investors have turned cautious ahead of September derivatives contracts (F&O) that expire on Thursday.
At 10:50 am, the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex is trading flat at 28,225 levels, while the Nifty50 was merely 2 points higher, trading at 8,708 levels. The broader markets, however, have outperformed the benchmarks. The S&P BSE Midcap and Small-cap indices gained around 1% each.
The top gainers among the S&P BSE Sensex scrips include GAIL, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories and Bharti Airtel, all edging up by 1% in late morning deals. On the other hand, Reliance Industries, Wipro and Hindustan Unilever are among the top losers, slipping by around 1% each.
"If the Nifty fails to witness a bounce-back and sustains below 8,688 levels, then selling pressure may continue towards next major support of 8,600 and then 8,550 levels. On the upside, it faces resistance at 8,770 and 8,820 zones," said a note from Anand Rathi Research.
Among the other buzzing stocks was IDFC Bank, that surged 5% to Rs 80, crossing a market capitalisation of Rs 25,000 crore mark to Rs 27,279 crore on the BSE at 9:42am. The stock hit an intra-day high of Rs 81 is quoting at highest level since its listing on November 6, 2015.
Global Markets
Asian stocks were mostly lower on Wednesday, with European banking sector concerns and lower crude oil prices dulling investors' appetite for riskier assets.
Equities in Asia had gained the previous day on a perceived win by Democrat Hillary Clinton at the first presidential debate over Republican Donald Trump, who is seen as creating greater uncertainty for the US and global economies.
Sagging oil, weighed down by waning hopes that a meeting of producers would reduce oversupply, also soured sentiment.
Japan's Nikkei underperformed and was last down 1.5%. Japanese stocks were dogged by threats of a robust yen, which hurts exporters' earnings. Hang Sheng too slipped and was trading 1% lower.
With Reuters Inputs
