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Markets continued to trade flat in noon trades on Tuesday as gains in financials and metal shares helped offset losses in pharma majors.
At 1:10PM, the 30-share Sensex was up 57 points at 26,580 and the Nifty was up 4 points at 8,049.
Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors were net sellers in Indian equities worth Rs 749 crore on Monday, as per provisional stock exchange data.
According to Moody, a weak monsoon is likely to be credit-negative for India as it is expected to push up food inflation as well as government deficits. Further, IMD has revised its monsoon forecast for 2015 from below normal to deficit.
The Indian rupee was trading higher at Rs 63.94 to the US dollar compared to the previous close of Rs 64.08 amid fresh dollar selling by exporters and banks.
SECTORS & STOCKS
BSE Healthcare was the top loser down 1% while Realty index was down 0.8%. Meanwhile, Metal and Bankex indices were the top gainers up 0.6-1% each.
Financials firmed up after the RBI gave a nod to the banks to seize control of a company if a debt recast fails, supplant the management, and sell their stake in the defaulting company immediately to recover dues, in one of the central bank’s most aggressive steps to curb rising bad loans.ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and SBI were up 0.2-1.3% each.
HDFC was up 0.8%. The board of directors of HDFC approved fund-raising worth Rs 5,000 crore simultaneously by secured redeemable non-convertible debentures (NCDs) and warrants.
Metal shares were down on expectation that China would unveil stimulus measures to boost the economy. Hindalco was up 2%, Coal India gained 0.8%.
Tata Steel was down 0.6%. Trade unions representing workers of Tata Steel in the UK will go on strike on June 22 over proposed changes to the company's pension scheme.
Vedanta is likely to announce a merger of its subsidiary Cairn India, a listed oil and gas exploration company, with itself. Ciarn India is down 5% and Vedanta is up 3.4%.
Drug maker, Cipla with its joint venture firm Stempeutics Research has received a process patent from the Japan Patent Office for novel stem cell drug Stempeucel aimed at treatment of critical limb ischemia (CLI). However, the stock is down 2%.
IT major Wipro is considering a takeover bid for Equiniti, the British-based group which manages the pensions of millions of UK civil servants, said media reports. The stock is trading with marginal gains.
Sun TV rebounded to gain 4% after the sharp fall in the previous session. The stock had tanked 22% on Monday on reports that the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has struck down the proposal by the I&B Ministry for giving security clearance to 33 television channels of Sun TV Network has rebounded 3% on value buying.
Cigarette maker and FMCG major ITC has slipped over 1% after IMD lowered its monsoon expectations from 'below normal' to deficit.
In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices were down 0.2% each.
Market breadth was weak with 1,410 losers and 940 gainers on the BSE.
