Key share indices continue to trade flat

Gains in IT majors helped offset losses in private banking majors and FMCG major ITC.

Benchmark share indices continued to trade flat in morning trades on Thursday as gains in IT shares helped offset losses in private banking majors and FMCG major ITC. The weakening rupee also weighed on investor sentiment.

At 10:30AM, the 30-share Sensex was up 30 points at 20,924 and the 50-share Nifty was up 7 points at 6,222.

The rupee hit session low of 62.58, its lowest since October 2, on sluggish domestic equities and demand from private oil companies, traders said. The pair last traded at 62.54/55, up from Wednesday's close of 62.39/40.

Stocks in Asia except for Straits Times continue to remain subdued as investors turned cautious ahead of the ECB meeting and US GDP data to be released later in the day. The Straits Times was up 0.1%. The Nikkei was down 0.6%. China's Shanghai Composite was down 0.2% while Hang Seng was down 0.7%.

The BSE IT and Healthcare indices were among the top gainers, up 1% each. Consumer Durables, Capital Goods, Bankex indices were among the top losers.

IT majors witnessed buying on the back of a weakening rupee and the upbeat performance from Cognizant. Infosys, TCS and Wipro were up over 1% each contributing the most to the Sensex gains along with Sun Pharma, M&M and Tata Steel among others.

ITC continues to witness profit taking and the stock was down nearly 1%. Private banking majors ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank were also down 0.5-0.6% each. SBI was down 0.5%.

BHEL was down 4% after the country’s largest power equipment manufacturer reported 64 per cent net profit drop in the September quarter — its fifth straight quarter of decline in profits. Slowdown in fresh orders, coupled with high fixed cost, pulled its net profit down to Rs 455 crore, against Rs 1,274 crore in the same period last year.

Among other shares, Muthoot Finance has rallied 9% at Rs 120, extending its previous day’s 5% gain on BSE, on reports that the company has filed draft prospectus for a public issue of secured non convertible debentures (NCDs) and unsecured NCDs aggregating up to Rs 300 crore.

Info Edge (India), which owns the portal Naukri.com, has soared 9% to Rs 415 on BSE after the company said it has made additional investments in Zomato Media Private Limited. Zomato Media owns and operates an online food guide portal Zomato.com.

In the broader markets, the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices were up 0.3-0.6% each.

Market breadth continues to remain positive with 937 gainers and 667 losers on the BSE.