Markets mark time ahead of US data

Markets continued to trade flat tracking similar trend in Asian shares ahead of key US non-farm payrolls report later today.

Investors traded cautiously amid speculation that improvement in the US economy will lead the Federal Reserve to scale back stimulus.

At 10:25AM, the Bombay Stock Exchange's 30-share index Sensex fell 16 points to end at 19,504 while the National Stock Exchange's 50-share was down 12 points at 5,909.  

A Labor Department report today is expected to indicate employers added 163,000 to non-farm payrolls last month, almost equal to the gain in April, Bloomberg report suggested.

Asian shares traded lower with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng declining 1% to 21,622, China’s Shanghai Composite declined 0.04% to 2,233, Singapore’s Straits Times fell 0.2% to 3,187 while Japan’s Nikkei slumped 1.3% to 12,732 today.

Meanwhile, rupee continued to remain weak in today’s trading session after touching a one-year low of 57 to the dollar on Thursday. The currency traded at Rs 56.77/USD as against yesterday’s close 56.84.

Back home, realty, IT, healthcare, oil & gas indexes gained while metal, consumer durables, capital goods, auto and banking sectors lead the declines on the BSE.

The gainers on the Sensex included Dr Reddy’s gaining 2%, Tata Power gaining 0.7%, Wipro and TCS rose 0.5% and 1% respectively, SBI was up 0.5%, Hero MotoCorp up 1% on the BSE.

The laggards were Maruti Suzuki  falling over 1.5% , ICICI Bank declined 1%,  Bharti Airtel declined 0.8%, Coal India dropped 0.5% while NTPC fell 0.6% on the BSE.

The key notable movers were, RPG Life Sciences gaining nearly 8% at Rs 70.55 in early trades after the company late Thursday announced that it has sold part of its land at Navi Mumbai.

Shares of Satyam Computer was up over 1% at Rs 106.10 after the company said it has won a new order from Bridgestone Europe.

The broader markets opened higher with mid-caps and small-caps gaining nearly 0.6% on the BSE.

The market breadth was positive. Out of 1,590 stocks traded, 875 stocks advanced compared to 647 declines on the BSE.