Markets little changed; Vedanta, Cairn rise

MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's stock markets were little changed on Friday as Vedanta and Cairn India rose on hopes their planned merger may get delayed amid concerns by minority shareholders, while a muted start to the earnings season weighed on sentiment.

Local shares were, however, heading for their first weekly fall in four amid global risk aversion due to volatility in Chinese equities.

Quarterly earnings of Tata Consultancy Services , India's largest software services exporter, and Bajaj Corp signalled a sluggish reporting season for software exporters and consumer staples companies.

"It is not going to be a spectacular quarter but there will be pockets of outperformance in auto, housing finance and oil companies," said Deven Choksey, managing director at K R Choksey Securities.

 

Economic recovery has only just started, and this quarter is a very initial phase of that, he added.

Asian shares rose as investors took heart from strength in recently volatile Chinese markets, and after Greece's offer of a new reform plan raised hopes of a deal at a weekend summit of European leaders.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 0.04 percent and the 50-share Nifty was lower 0.02 percent.

Both the indexes were down 1.8 percent each on the week, heading for their steepest weekly decline in five.

Vedanta was up 3.7 percent, while Cairn India rose 1.9 percent.

TCS fell 2.4 percent after gaining as much as 1.5 percent earlier in the day as the company's 3.5 percent QoQ revenue growth in U.S. dollar terms lagged analysts' estimates.

Fast moving consumer goods companies fell, with Emami down 4.9 percent and Hindustan Unilever 2.8 percent lower after rival Bajaj Corp's lower-than-expected April-June volume growth stoked concerns.

(Reporting by Abhishek Vishnoi; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)