Barometers continued trading near flat line in early afternoon trade. At 12:20 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 24.60 points or 0.07% at 35,251.86. The Nifty 50 index was down 2.20 points or 0.02% at 10,694.00.
Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was down 0.23%. The BSE Small-Cap index was down 1.11%. Both these indices underperformed the Sensex.
The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, turned weak. On BSE, 647 shares rose and 1804 shares fell. A total of 157 shares were unchanged.
IT shares were mixed. Oracle Financial Services Software (down 2.21%), MphasiS (down 1.21%), MindTree (down 0.76%), Persistent Systems (down 0.67%), TCS (down 0.56%) and Wipro (down 0.04%), edged lower. Tech Mahindra (up 0.19%), HCL Technologies (up 0.33%), Infosys (up 0.71%) and Hexaware Technologies (up 0.80%), edged higher.
Most pharmaceutical shares rose. Dr Reddy's Laboratories (up 3.66%), Glenmark Pharmaceuticals (up 1.91%), Lupin (up 1.90%), Alkem Laboratories (up 1.64%), Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (up 1.21%), Cipla (up 0.61%), Aurobindo Pharma (up 0.58%), Cadila Healthcare (up 0.18%), Divi's Laboratories (up 0.14%) and Wockhardt (up 0.10%), edged higher. GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals (down 0.14%), IPCA Laboratories (down 0.33%), Piramal Enterprises (down 1.51%) and Strides Shasun (down 3.13%), edged lower.
Overseas, Asian stocks were trading higher, tracking gains seen on Wall Street on Friday, 1 June 2018. US stock-market indices jumped on Friday, following a solid jobs data for May, while shrugging off concerns over Italian politics and trade wars.
The US labor market remains strong with 223,000 new jobs created in May, while the unemployment rate fell to an 18-year low of 3.8%. Wage growth was modest, with the yearly rate of pay rising to 2.7% from 2.6%. Receding fears about political upheaval in Italy also helped boost sentiment.
Despite the positive mood, trade concerns continued to linger after US-China trade talks yielded no major breakthroughs. China threatened that previous trade agreements negotiated by the countries will not take effect if the Trump administration goes ahead with a planned tariff increase.
US allies also took aim during a G-7 finance leaders meeting at metals tariffs imposed by the Trump administration.
On the US data front, the Institute for Supply Management said Friday that its manufacturing index rose to 58.7%, up 1.4% from April and a two-month high.
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