Markets continue to trade flat with negative bias in noon trades on Thursday with ITC and index heavyweights Reliance Industries and software major Infosys being the top losers.
At 1PM the 30-share Sensex was down 3 points at 18,628 and the 50-share Nifty was trading flat at 5,652.
All Asian share indices were trading in the red amid rising debt concerns in Europe. Nikkei slipped as Standard & Poor's Corp cut its rating on Spain's long-term government bonds by two notches to BBB-, just one notch above junk status. The downgrade pushed the yen higher. The Nikkei ended down 0.6%. Shanghai Composite, Straits Times, Kospi and Taiwan Weighted were down between 0.1-1.9% each. However, Hang Seng recouped its early losses and was trading flat with positive bias.
Among the sectoral indices on the BSE, FMCG and Auto were the top losers while Realty and Power indices were the top gainers.
FMCG shares were down on profit taking after recent gains. ITC and Hindustan Unilever were both down 0.1-0.6% each.
Auto shares were down after Society of Indian Automobile Manfacturers Wednesday said, car sales in India are seen growing just 1-3% in the financial year that ends in March 2013, as it slashed its previous estimate of 9-11% on high interest rates and slowing economic growth. Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra were down 0.3-1.3% each.
Two-wheeler makers Hero MotoCorp and Bajaj Auto were down 0.5% each after a foreign brokerage downgraded both of them. CLSA has downgraded Bajaj Auto to 'sell' from 'underperform', while maintaining its 'sell' rating on Hero MotoCorp, citing weak demand growth, a consumer shift to scooters over motorcycles, and rising competition.
Realty and power shares witnessed buying at lower levels after they witnessed a sharp sell off in the previous sessions. Tata Power and NTPC were up 0.2-1% each. In the realty space DLF was up 1.9% at Rs 217.
Infosys was down 0.3% at Rs 2,498 ahead of its results on Friday. The street consensus for the dollar revenue growth of the IT major is between 3.5-4%. HDFC Bank, which also comes out with results tomorrow, is up 0.8% at Rs 623.
Index heavyweight Reliance INdustries was down 0.6% at Rs 811 on profit taking after recent gains.
Among other shares, Shares of fertilizer companies such as Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers (RCF), National Fertilizer, Deepak Fertilizers, Chambal Fertilizers, National Fertilizers and GNFC have rallied more than 5% each on reports that Cabinet clears direct urea subsidy transfer and mobile fertilizer management system. The Cabinet also approves hike in urea prices by Rs 50 per tonne.
Among the individual stocks, RCF has rallied 7% to Rs 60.30 on back of two-fold surge in trading volumes. A combined 3.7 million shares have already changed hands on the counter so far on the NSE and BSE.
Deepak Fertilizers has rallied up to 8% at Rs 144, followed by Chambal Fertilizers and National Fertilizer has up by 6% each at Rs 73.80 and Rs 84.10 respectively.
The broader markets were trading with marginal gains with the BSE Mid-cap index up 0.5% while Small-cap index was up 0.3%.
BSE market breadth was weak with 1,193 losers and 1,037 gainers.