 "Sensex opens 100 points lower on weak global cues")
Benchmark indices are trading in a narrow range with positive bias led by buying demand among index heavyweight shares like HDFC and Reliance Inds.
However, the upside is caped due to selling pressure among Infosys and select auto shares.
Markets will remain shut tomorrow on account of Gurunanak Jayanti.
At 11:40 am, the Sensex was higher by 15 points at 25,834 and the Nifty inched up by 2 points at 7,851.
The top gainers from the Sensex pack are ONGC, HDFC, HUL, RIL and Cipla, all surging between 1-2.2%.
According media reports, ONGC to go ahead with cluster two development of the KG filed. ONGC is the top Sensex gainer, up over 2%.
Among losers, Infosys, Maruti Suzuki, Sun Pharma, Bharti Airtel and Dr Reddy’s Labs are down 0.6-1%.
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Updated at 9:30 am
Markets have turned flat after making a weak opening tracking weakness among global peers.
Investors have turned cautious ahead of the derivatives expiry for the month of November and the commencement of winter session of the Parliament.
By 9:30 am, the Sensex was higher by 2 points at 25,822 and the Nifty slipped 1 point at 7,847.
According to a Nirmal Bang report, the Nifty has an immediate support at 7,800/7,780 levels and faces resistance around the 7,900/7,920 levels.
The broader markets, however, continue to outperform the benchmark indices- BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices are up 0.2-0.3%.
Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 35.37 crore yesterday as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday asked state-owned banks to clean up their balance sheets at the earliest, stressing they had all the powers to deal with wilful defaulters.
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On the global front, Asian shares dragged their feet on Tuesday after a healthcare mega-merger failed to impress investors while the dollar held firm near an eight-month high as investors grew more convinced of a US rate hike next month.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was almost flat while Japan's Nikkei dipped 0.1% after a long weekend.
Wall Street shares edged down on Monday with Pfizer's plan to buy Allergan in a $160 billion deal quickly drawing criticism from politicians as a tax dodge.
BUZZING STOCKS
Shares of Pfizer are up over 7% after its parent company and global pharma major Pfizer Inc bagged a $160-billion deal, including debt, to merge with Allergan, the maker of Botox, in one of the biggest takeovers in the health care industry.
Lanco Infratech has zoomed almost 20% at Rs 6.39 after posting a consolidated net profit of Rs 98.98 crore in the second quarter of the current fiscal after three years, due to tax reimbursements and favourable power tariff order.
As a step to recover Rs 10,000 crore of dues, lenders to Gammon India will invoke the rules for strategic debt restructuring (SDR), leading to finding new partners for the company. Shares of Gammon India are up over 4%.
Maruti Suzuki, which is in the middle of a voting by minority shareholders for its upcoming Gujarat plant, has claimed that it will have total control over the plant in spite of investments coming from parent company Suzuki. Shares of Maruti Suzuki are down 1%.
Sun Pharma continue to reel under selling spell and have extended yesterday’s losses. The stock is down over 1%. The company said that it has made payment of interest on and redemption amount pertaining to 5,000 secured rated redeemable non-convertible debentures (NCD) of the face value of Rs 10 lakh each aggregating to Rs 500 crore.
Luxury British carmaker Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) will post a lower pre-tax profit in 2015 than in the previous fiscal year, said its CEO, due to major investments and a blast at China's Tianjin port that destroyed thousands of its cars. Shares of Tata Motors have slumped almost 1%.
Infosys has announced that its product subsidiary, Infosys Finacle, launched a new offering ‘Finacle as a managed service on Oracle Cloud'. Infosys is down almost 1%.
Among gainers, HDFC, Hero Moto, Lupin, HUL and Cipla are up almost 1% each.
With Reuters input
