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The benchmark indices have surrendered most of their early gains and are now trading mildly in the positive, in what has turned out into a choppy session of trade thus far.
At 10.20am, the Sensex was at 27,693, higher by 40 points or 0.1% and the Nifty was at 8,334, up 16 points.
But the action has shifted to the broader markets, which are outperforming their largecap peers in mid-morning trades. The BSE Midcap index has jumped by 0.9% at 10,638 and the smallcap index has added 0.7% at 11,040.
RUPEE
The rupee opened higher by 8 paise at 63.76 per dollar on Tuesday against the previous closing of 63.84.
OIL
Oil prices extended losses in Asia today on expectations Greece will miss a key debt repayment later in the day and edge closer to a eurozone exit, analysts said.
US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for August delivery fell 23 cents to $58.10 while Brent crude for August eased 15 cents to $61.86 in late-morning trade. WTI sank $1.30 and Brent lost down $1.25 yesterday.
SECTORS AND STOCKS
The FMCG, pharma and metal pack is doing well this morning, while banking stocks are out of favour.
In the FMCG pack, index heavyweight Hindustan Unilever has gained more than 1%, while Godrej Consumer Products, Britannia and Marico have gained 1-4% each.
In the metal space, Coal India, Vedanta and Tata Steel have added about 1% each.
In the pharma space, Sun Pharma and Glenmark have added about 2% each.
On the other hand, banking stocks are seeing selling pressure with ICICI Bank, Axis Bank an d SBI losing 0.5%-1% each.
Among individual Sensex stocks, Sun Pharma, Coal India, Hindustan Unilever and BHEL are the major gainers on the BSE, while NTPC, Hindalco and Wipro head the loser's list.
In the midcap space, Godrej, Marico, MRPL and United Breweries have surged by 3-4% each, while Zee Entertainment, Reliance Infra and Britannia have added about 2% each.
In the smallcap space, Brigade Enterprise, Welspun Corporation and Igarshi Motors have surged around 10% each.
In stock-specific action, Reliance Communications (RCom) is in talks with American Tower Company (ATC) and Carlyle to sell a majority stake in its tower subsidiary Reliance Infratel in the current financial year. The stock has gained 2% at Rs 63.
Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited has acquired 19.97% stake from a financial institution which was an investor in Petronet CCK Limited (PCCKL). The shares of BPCL gained 1.2% at Rs 882.
Deep Industries has surged 16% to Rs 89.25 on the NSE in early morning trades after the company announced that it has signed a contract with the state-owned oil exploration & production company Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).
Brigade Enterprises has rallied 18% to Rs 159 on the BSE in early morning trades after the company said its board approved the acquisition of land from Kansai Nerolac Paints for Rs 550 crore.
The market breadth is strong. Out of 1,949 stocks traded on the BSE, there are 1,285 advancing stocks as against 599 declines.
