Mumbai, India (BBN) - The Sensex and Nifty were trading marginally down due to heavy selling in metal, banking, capital goods and PSU stocks amid firm Asian cues.
At 12:45pm, the 30-share BSE index Sensex down 25.53 points or 0.09 per cent at 28,264.39 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty down 12.2 points or 0.14 per cent at 8,756.85, reports The Hindu Business Line.
Among BSE sectoral indices, metal index fell the most by 1.27 per cent, followed by banking 0.84 per cent, capital goods 0.61 per cent and PSU 0.45 per cent.
On the other hand, realty index was up 0.76 per cent, IT 0.68 per cent, consumer durables 0.67 per cent and TECk 0.56 per cent.
Top five Sensex gainers were TCS (+1.14 per cent), Lupin (+1.11 per cent), Power Grid (+0.99 per cent), Hero MotoCorp (+0.86 per cent) and GAIL (+0.64 per cent), while the major losers were Tata Steel (-1.98 per cent), ICICI Bank (-1.57 per cent), SBI (-1.41 per cent), L&T (-1.11 per cent) and Maruti (-1.00 per cent).
EARLY TRADE
After two sessions of losses, the benchmark Sensex recovered almost 173 points and the NSE Nifty retook the 8,800-mark in early trade today on fresh spell of buying by participants.
Power, bank and auto sector stocks hogged the limelight even as the RBI maintained status quo in its monetary policy review yesterday.
Furthermore, encouraging quarterly earnings by a few more companies and a better trend in other Asian bourses too influenced the trading sentiment.
The 30-share index jumped 172.52 points or 0.61 per cent, to 28,462.44. The gauge had lost 149.36 points in the previous two sessions.
Also, the NSE Nifty rose 52.35 points or 0.59 per cent to 8,821.40.
Stocks of pharma major Cipla Ltd spurted by Rs. 10.05 cent to Rs. 613 after the company had yesterday reported 43.85 per cent jump in consolidated net profit at Rs 374.83 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2016.
Shares of Hero MotoCorp rose 0.97 per cent at 3,254.95 despite the company posting a decline of 2.6 per cent in standalone net profit to Rs 772.05 crore in the October—December quarter, mainly on account of demonetisation.
The rupee too went past its three-month high in early trade today to 66.95 against the dollar.
Asian shares climbed to their highest in more than 18 months on Thursday, as investors grew more confident about the world’s second-largest economy, while the dollar slightly firmed in the wake of growing concerns over political instability in Europe.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gained 0.4 per cent to their highest since July2015 with Hong Kong, Taiwan and China among the region's best performing markets.
The S&P 500 ended slightly higher on Wednesday as investors digested mixed earnings reports, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped as bank stocks weighed.
The Nasdaq gained moderately to close at a record high for a second straight day, lifted by big tech names such as Facebook and Apple.
BBN/MS/SK