Market remains lacklustre; Bharti Airtel up over 1%

Bharti Airtel is the top Sensex gainer up almost 1.4% while Hero Motocorp, Sun Pharma and M&M, up 0.7%, are the other top Sensex gainers at this hour.

Markets were trading flat in noon trades, amid growth concerns, after official data released late Tuesday showed that core eight infrastructure industries witnessed a growth of just 1.7 per cent in November.

Core sector industries showed that industrial growth may also not rise drastically in November since these sectors constitute 39 per cent of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP)

At 1:05PM, the 30-share Sensex was down 13 points at 21,1589 and the 50-component Nifty was up almost 1 point at 6,303.

The Indian rupee continued to remain weak due to dollar buying from oil importers. The rupee was quoting at Rs 61.89 compared with previous close of Rs 61.80 per dollar.

Currency dealers believe the weakness will be limited as the RBI may step in if the rupee falls below 62.

Asian markets were closed for trading on New Year's Day. Meanwhile, factory growth in China remained subdued in December 2013. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the Purchasing Managers' Index dipped to 51.0 in December 2013 compared with a reading of 51.4 in the previous month.

The BSE Realty index remained top gainer among the sectoral indices on the BSE up over 2% followed by Consumer Durables up 0.7%. However, IT index was the sole loser down 0.4%.

Bharti Airtel is the top Sensex gainer up almost 1.4% while Hero Motocorp, Sun Pharma and M&M, up 0.7%, are the other top Sensex gainers at this hour.

HDFC Bank rebounded after yesterday's correction and was up 0.3%. Other Sensex gainers include, Sun Pharma and Tata Motors.

IT shares witnessed profit taking after recent gains. TCS, Infosys and Wipro were down 0.2-0.9% each.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries which has gained just over 5% since mid-December also witnessed profit taking.

Among other shares, Finolex Industries has surged 5% to Rs 177, also its record high on the BSE as the promoter of the company are increasing its stake via creeping acquisition method. Prakash P Chhabria, one of the promoters of the company, has bought over 60,000 shares in past one month via open market purchases.

The broader markets outperformed the benchmark indices, the BSE Mid-cap index was up 0.6% and the Small-cap index was up 1.3%.

Market breadth was positive with 1,415 gainers and 744 losers on the BSE.