Markets trade sideways in late morning deals

BSE Auto index witnesses selling pressure

The markets continued to trade sideways in late-morning deals with the BSE Sensex at 17,069, down 36 points and the Nifty at 5,178, down 15 points.

In Asia, Japan's Nikkei share average tiptoed up on Wednesday morning after several US firms beat earnings expectations and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke kept alive hopes of more stimulus, though appetites for risk remained light. The index is at 8,777, up 0.25%. The Shanghai Composite index is marginally down and Hang Seng indicex is down 1.57%.

The rupee depreciated by 10 paise to Rs 55.21 against the dollar in early trade today on the Interbank Foreign Exchange as the American currency strengthened against the euro overseas.

On the sectoral front, BSE Auto, Consumer Durables, Capital Goods indices led the losses, down 1% each.

On the Sensex, Tata Motors is the most prominent loser,  3% at Rs 220. Tata Motors has dipped almost 3% at Rs 220 after turning ex-dividend today for dividend of Rs 4 per share for the year ended 31 March 2012. The dividend shall be paid / dispatched on and after August 14, 2012.

Hero MotoCorp, BHEL, SBI and Mahindra & Mahindra have shed nearly 2% each. On the other hand, Tata Power was up 2% at Rs 97.65. Coal India, HDFC, ONGC and Wipro, up 1% each, are the other notable gainers.

Among individual stocks, Bajaj Finserv is trading higher by 5% at Rs 712 on reporting a 51% year-on-year growth in consolidated net profit at Rs 195 crore for the quarter ended June 2012, on back of strong growth in operational income. The consolidated income from operations grew 51% at Rs 927 crore on y-o-y basis. The Bajaj group's holding company for financial services business, has also announced a rights issue to raise funds worth Rs 1,000 crore.

Shares of GTL Group companies, GTL Infrastructure and GTL have rallied more than 10% each after the GTL Infrastructure said that the promoter group has infused Rs 931 crore into it and a subsidiary, Chennai Network Infrastructure (CNIL), as part of its corporate debt restructuring (CDR).

The overall market breadth is negative as 1384 stocks have declined against 941 advancing ones, on the BSE.