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Markets continue to trade flat with a negative bias as market participants have become cautious ahead of the holiday-shortened week as markets will remain closed on Thursday and Friday for Mahatma Gandhi Jayanthi and Dussehra, respectively. Selling in FMCG and oil stocks have limit gains on the benchmark indices.
At 2.30 PM, the 30-share Sensex is down 25 points at 26,606 and 50-share Nifty has lost 10 points at 7,955.
However, the midcap index is trading with marginal gains and the smallcap index is trading marginally weak.
The market breadth is weak on the BSE with 1,266 shares advancing and 1,483 shares declining.
Movers & Shakers:
Maruti Suzuki (India) has dipped nearly 3% to Rs 2,974 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE), after reporting 4.6% increase in its total sales in September 2014 at 109,742 units mainly due to lower export sales. The company had sold total 104,964 units in the same month previous year.
MT Educare has rallied 7% to Rs 149 after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) increased foreign institutional investors' (FIIs) investment limit in the education firm to 100% of its paid-up capital.
Shares of Jubilant FoodWorks are trading 3% higher at Rs 1,267 on the BSE after the company announced the inauguration of Domino's Pizza maiden restaurant in Gorakhpur and Udaipur.
Shares of Hero Motocorp have climbed nearly 2% to Rs 2,890 on the BSE on the back of strong sales in the month of September.
In the oil and Gas space, ONGC, GAIL and RIL have lost between 1-2%. Brent oil futures edged up above $95 a barrel as a positive Chinese factory survey helped the crude benchmark start October firmer after it fell to its weakest level since 2012 in the previous session.
The financial shares are trading weak post the RBI’s neutral stance on key policy rates. HDFC twins, SBI and ICICI Bank have lost between 0.3-1%.
The technology stocks are trading higher on the back of depreciating rupee. TCS is up 1.5%.
Wipro is up 3% after the government approved the proposals of Wipro Ltd and Mumbai Futuristic Economic Zone to set up SEZs in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.
Infosys has gained nearly 2.6% after the company said it is extending its relationship with Oracle to enhance support for a range of innovative solutions and services on new technology platforms.
Shares of Apollo Hospitals Enterprise are trading nearly 2% higher to Rs 1,140 on the BSE after the company collaborated with global pharmaceuticals firm Sanofi to provide integrated diabetes care programs via Apollo Sugar Clinics.
Videocon Industries has gained 2.5% on BSE on the reports about Videocon d2h considering a pre-IPO placement of up to 50 lakh equity shares aggregating to Rs 50 crore with certain investors.
