Mumbai, India (BBN) – The Sensex and Nifty were trading flat as investors remained cautious ahead of RBI monetary policy announcement later today.
At 11:05am, the 30-share BSE index Sensex was down 10.97 points or 0.04 per cent at 28,324.19 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty was up 5.45 points or 0.06 per cent at 8,773.75, reports The Hindu Business Line quoting PTI.
Barring banking and FMCG, all other BSE sectoral indices were trading in the green.
Among them, consumer durables index gained the most by 2.87 per cent, followed by auto 0.78 per cent, metal 0.61 per cent and realty 0.58 per cent.
On the other hand, banking index was down 0.28 per cent and FMCG 0.01 per cent.
Top five Sensex gainers were Cipla (+1.61 per cent), TCS (+1.23 per cent), Tata Motors (+1.17 per cent), Wipro (+1.09 per cent) and M&M (+1.06 per cent), while the major losers were Axis Bank (-1.81 per cent), Bharti Airtel (-1.04 per cent), ICICI Bank (-0.94 per cent), Dr Reddy’s (-0.89 per cent) and Infosys (-0.88 per cent).
EARLY TRADE
The 30-share index, which had lost 104.12 points in the previous session, rose 56.48 points or 0.19 per cent to 28,391.64, with consumer durables, metal, realty, auto and bank stocks leading the recovery.
The NSE Nifty also rose 10.60 points or 0.12 per cent to 8,778.90.
Brokers said widening of bets by investors and funds on expectations that Reserve Bank might lower key interest rates at its bi-monthly monetary policy review, to be released later in the day, influenced the trading sentiment.
Shares of Tata Steel surged 1.83 per cent to Rs. 481.90 after it was back in the black by posting a consolidated net profit of Rs. 231.40 crore for the December quarter.
Among the major index gainers, Cipla, Gail, Wipro and Tata Motors rose up to 1.65 per cent in early trade.
ITC fell by 1.17 per cent a day after government sold its 2 per cent stake in the FMCG firm that was held through SUUTI.
Shares of Tata group firm Titan Co Ltd also climbed 7.32 per cent to Rs 422.20 after the company reported 13 per cent increase in net profit at Rs. 255.75 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2016.
Among other Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei was up 0.28 per cent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.07 per cent in early deals. Shanghai Composite Index shed 0.46 per cent.
The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.19 per cent higher in yesterday’s trade.
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