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Benchmark share indices were trading flat in noon deals on Tuesday as gains in IT shares and Bharti Airtel helped offset losses in HDFC Group shares.
At 2PM, the 30-share Sensex was up 11 points at 20,670 and the 50-share Nifty was up 2 points at 6,157.
The Indian rupee continued to remain weak against the US dollar due to fear of US Fed's tapering and dollar demand from importers.
At 1:50 pm the rupee was trading at Rs 61.89 compared with previous close of Rs 61.73 per dollar.
Asian markets firmed up on the back of encouraging manufacturing data from the US and rise in business activity in the euro zone. Japan's benchmark Nikkei ended up 0.8% while Straits Times was up 0.5%. However, Hang Seng and Shanghai Composite were down 0.2-0.4% each.
Healthcare Index was the top gainer among the sectoral indices on the BSE up 1.6% followed by IT and FMCG indices.
IT majors gained as the rupee continued to remain weak against the US dollar. TCS was up 2.2% and Infosys gained 0.4%.
Bharti Airtel was up 4.3% on reports that the company is likely to sell its Sri Lankan operations to UAE-based telecom major Etisalat.
ITC was up 0.6% after the recent correction post high inflation data.
Other Sensex gainers include, ICICI Bank, Sun Pharma and L&T.
HDFC Bank was the top Sensex loser down over 4% after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) barred foreign institutional investors (FIIs) from purchasing shares in the bank after their shareholding reached the maximum prescribed limit.
Among other shares, Jet Airways staged a recovery today and were up 3% at Rs 270 on value buying at lower levels after correcting from Rs 300 levels in the past few sessions following the enquiry by CCI.
In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices were up 0.4% each.
Market breadth was slightly positive with 1,170 gainers and 1,045 losers on the BSE.
