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Benchmark indices are trading flat with a negative bias as losses in financials have capped the gains in pharma and information technology shares.
At 11:35 AM, both the 30-share Sensex and the 50-share Nifty were trading flat at the mark of 28,012 and 8,397 respectively.
In the broader market, both the BSE midcap and smallcap indices have outperformed their larger peers with gains of around 0.3% each. The market breadth is slightly positive with 1,264 advances against 1,258 declines.
The rupee is trading at 61.50 versus Wednesday's close of 61.49 against US Dollar.
Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors were net buyers in Indian equities worth Rs 459.47crore on Wednesday, as per provisional stock exchange data
Sectors and Stocks
BSE Consumer Durables index, up 1.4% is the biggest gainer followed by BSE Capital Goods, IT and Healthcare indices with gains between 0.7-0.9% each.
Among the losers, BSE Realty index has declined more than 1% followed by BSE Oil & Gas and Bankex indices with losses of around 0.5% each.
BHEL has gained more than 1% and L&T has gained around 0.6% after the IIP data showed a 11.6% increase in the capital goods sector for the month of September.
Cipla, up 2% and Sun Pharma, up 1% are among the biggest gainers in the second hour of trading. Cipla has gained ahead of its quarterly results due later today. Dr Reddys Lab continues to be under pressure and is trading with a loss of around 1%.
Resurgence in Dollar ahead of US and Chinese economic data has led to fresh buying in IT shares. Infosys and Wipro have gained around 1-1.6% each while TCS is trading flat.
DLF has declined more than 2% as experts have predicted the realty major to come up with weak quarterly results which are due later today.
Tata Steel is marginally up with a gain of 0.2% after the company reported a 37% increase in consolidated net profit for the July-September quarter at Rs 1,254 crore compared to Rs 917 crore a year ago.
Finacials are under pressure with HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, SBI and HDFC losing between 0.2-0.7% each.
HDFC twins are under pressure ahead of the FIPB meeting scheduled tomorrow. HDFC Bank has sought a retroactive approval to increase the foreign investment limit in the bank.
Oil and gas shares too have declined. While GAIL has lost around 0.4%, ONGC and Reliance are trading flat with a negative bias.
Among other shares, Oil India has dipped 3.5% extending its previous day’s 2% fall after reporting a 33% decline in net profit at Rs 608 crore for the quarter ended September as a historic downslide in crude oil price impacted realizations. The state-owned petroleum explorer had profit of Rs 904 crore during the same quarter last fiscal.
National Aluminium (Nalco) has surged 8% after reporting a robust 91% year on year jump in net profit to Rs 342 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, 2014 (Q2), on back of higher income and operational performance.
Whirlpool of India has zoomed 14% on back of heavy volumes.
Asian Markets
Japanese shares have rebounded after a flat start and Nikkei is trading with a gain of 0.8% though investors remain cautious ahead of the release of third quarter Japanese GDP data due on Monday. On the other hand, Chinese shares are under pressure due to heavy selling in smallcap stocks leading to a decline of around 0.5% in Shanghai Composite index. Hang Seng is trading with a marginal gain of 0.1%.
