Broader markets in focus; IT, pharma scrips weak

L&T, M&M and ITC among the top gainers of the hour

Markets continue to trade flat in noon deals as weakness in IT, pharma heavyweights were balanced by the gains in L&T, M&M and ITC. At 1425 hrs, the Sensex was down 21 points at  28,542 and the Nifty was down four points at 8,560.

Meanwhile, the broader markets were resilient gains of atleast 0.4%. The smallcap index was up 0.8% and the midcap index added 0.4%, both outperforming the BSE benchmark index which was down nearly 0.1%.

On the sectoral front, IT and Teck indices were off over 1% each along with Health Care index which was down 0.6%. Oil & Gas was flat with a negative bias.

Among the gainers were Realty, FMCG and Consumer Durables indices up 0.8-2.5%.

The ones leading gains in real estate space were DLF, Indiabulls Real Estate, HDIL and Unitech up 3-5%.

Among the losers in IT space were Tech Mahindra, TCS, Wipro, HCL Tech and Infosys down 1-2%.

Today is the fourth consecutive day for Infosys in red. The stock has been on a weak trend since it turned ex-bonus on Tuesday, December 2.

Apart from IT names, Dr Reddys, Sun Pharma, Hero MotoCorp, ONGC and Hindlaco down 1-2% were the other notable losers.

The gainers of the hour were Sesa Sterlite, M&M, ITC, L&T, RIL and Tata Steel up 0.5-3%.

Gains in RIL is on account of news that the company has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Mexican state owned company, Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX), for assessment of potential upstream oil and gas business opportunities in Mexico and jointly evaluate value added opportunities in international markets.

The market breadth was positive on BSE. 1483 stocks advanced while 1297 stocks declined.

Asian Markets

Shares drifted while the dollar marked time on Friday ahead of the key U.S. jobs report later in the session that could help it retake ground lost to the euro overnight.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS was down 0.1%, on track for a weekly loss of 0.8%. Japan's Nikkei stock average slipped 0.2%, but was on track for a weekly gain of more than 2%.