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Markets have turned flat after making a firm opening tracking rate sensitive sectors like banks, capital goods and realty.
Interest rate sensitive sectors are in focus after macroeconomic data late on Thursday showed industrial production rose 3.4% in April 2014 and the annual inflation rate based on combined consumer price index (CPI) for urban and rural India eased to 8.28% (provisional) in May 2014.
By 9:30, the Sensex was higher by 50 points at 25,625 mark and the Nifty gained by 11 points at 7,661 levels.
On the global front, Asian equities fell and crude oil hovered near nine-month highs early on Friday as escalating civil war in Iraq hit risk appetite.Sunni Islamist militants have extended their advance south towards Baghdad prompting President Barack Obama to warn of possible U.S. military intervention, while Iraqi Kurdish forces took control of the oil hub of Kirkuk amid the chaos.
Weaker-than-expected U.S. retail sales and jobless claims data released on Thursday further tempered economic optimism felt earlier in the week that had propelled Wall Street to record highs.
Taking its cue from an overnight slide in U.S. stocks, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan shed 0.2 percent. Tokyo's Nikkei lost 0.9 percent.
Back home, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 652.35 crore on Thursday, 12 June 2014, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.
On the sectoral front, BSE Realty index has surged by nearly 2% followed by counters like Capital Goods, Power, Consumer Durables, Metal and Banks, all gaining between 0.4-1%. However, BSE IT and TECk indices have declined by nearly 1%.
IT stocks have declined on negative economic data in US. US is the biggest outsourcing market for the Indian IT firms.
The main gainers on the Sensex are BHEL, Coal India, L&T, Tata Power, Sesa Sterlite, HDFC Bank, Bajaj Auto and M&M.
On the losing side, TCS, Tata Motors, Wipro, Hindalco and Bharti Airtel have declined between 1-2%.
Among other shares, Edelweiss Financial Services is trading higher by 6% to Rs 63.65, extending its previous day’s 10% rally after Rakesh Jhunjhunwala bought a 1.3% stake in financial services firm through open market transaction.
The broader markets are outperforming the benchmark indices- BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices have gained by 0.5%.
The market breadth in BSE remains firm with 1,016 shares advancing and 471 shares declining.
