Quiet trades continue, Sensex up 13pts

After having opened marginally down, the markets have come off the day's low in late-morning trades and are currently trading flat. The BSE Sensex is at 16,788, up 13 points and the Nifty is almost unchanged at 5,031.

Earlier in the day, the BSE benchmark index touched the day's high at 16,799 and the day's low at 16,657.

Among the sectoral indices, BSE Oil & Gas index is the major loser, down 1%. It is followed by BSE PSU, Auto and IT indices, down marginally.

Reliance Industries, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation, Essar Oil and Indian Oil Corporation, down 1-2% each, are the prominent losers among the Oil & Gas stocks.

BSE Realty, up 1%, is leading the gains and is followed by BSE Bankex and Capital Goods indices, up marginally.

SBI, IndusInd Bank, Bank of India and HDFC Bank, up nearly 1% each, are the prominent gainers among the financials.

On the Sensex, Cipla has moved up nearly 3% at Rs 318. Other prominent gainers include Hindalco Industries, Tata Steel, DLF and Sun Pharma Industries, up 2% each.

The prominent gainers from the pack are Coal India, Reliance Industries, Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors and Infosys, down 1-3% each.

Among the individual stocks, Patni Computer Systems has rallied 8% to Rs 420 after its promoter - iGate said it plans to delist shares of its Indian unit to obtain full ownership of the company. iGate holds around 80.4% stake in the company.

BGR Energy Systems has moved higher by 4% to Rs 289 after securing Rs 1,698 crore EPC contact from the New Delhi-based TRN Energy Private Limited for setting up a coal-based thermal power project.

Pantaloon Retail is trading higher by nearly 4% at Rs 176.6, extending Wednesday’s 11% rally, on the buzz that the government may allow foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail.

The overall market breadth is negative as 1,271 stocks have declined against 1,002 advancing ones, on the BSE.