Indices consolidate; oil and gas shares drag

Barometer index Sensex has reversed its early morning gains and has slipped in red on profit taking, while Nifty is trading marginally in green.  

At 11.25 AM,  Sensex is trading at 25,544 levels down by 5 points and Nifty is trading at 7,628 levels up by 4 points.

 

 Sectors & Losers:

 

On sectoral front, BSE Oil and gas is the top losing index, followed by power and Auto indices lower between 0.2-1%. Bankex is down half a percent. On the contrary BSE Consumer Durables index is still the top gaining index up by 1% followed by BSE IT, Teck and Metal indices.

 

M&M, SBI, ONGC, ICICI Bank and Maruti Suzuki are the top 5 losers on the BSE.

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(updated at 11.25)

Benchmark indices were range bound in the first hour of trade with the Sensex up 37 points at 25,586 and the Nifty gained 16 points to trade at 7,641.

Meanwhile, broader markets extended gains with both the mid and smallcap indices gaining nearly 1% each.

Oil & Gas index slipped into red and was down 0.2% along with Auto and banking index.
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(Updated at 1030 hrs)
Markets started on a flat note with a positive bias with the IT heavyweights leading the opening gains. At 0922 hrs, the Sensex was up 41 points at 25,590 and the Nifty added 11 points to trade at 7,635.

In the broader markets, the mid and smallcap indices gained 0.4% each, outperforming the BSE benchmark index.

Sectors & Stocks

Auto index down 0.4% and banking indices down 0.3% were the only sectoral indices in red.

IT, Consumer Durables, power and Capital Goods up 0.5-1% were the sectoral gainers in the first half hour of trade.

Mahindra & Mahindra down over 3% was the top loser among Sensex-30. Other auto stocks in red were Tata Motors and Maruti Suzuki losing nearly 1% each.

Some of the other significant names capping index gains were ONGC, SBI, Gail India, L&T and Axis Bank, all down 0.5-1.5%.

IT heavyweights Infosys and Wipro up 1-2% were the ones leading early gains and were the top Sensex gainers.

Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Auto, ITC, Sesa Sterlite, RIL, HDFC and NTPC up 0.5-1% were the other major gainers.

Crompton Greaves surged 12% to Rs 209 after the company’s board proposed to demerge its consumer products business unit into a separate listed company.

The board believes that such a demerger will create better growth opportunities for its two large but significantly different businesses - Power, Industrial and Automation which is a B2B business, and the consumer products business which is B2C.

The market breadth was positive on BSE. 850 stocks advanced while 529 stocks declined.

Global Markets

Asian equities gained on Thursday, lifted by another record-high close on Wall Street, while the euro probed recent lows against the dollar amid speculation the U.S. Federal Reserve is tilting toward tighter monetary policy in light of a stronger economy.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.2%.

Tokyo's Nikkei gained 0.3%, helped by a weaker yen.

Overnight, US stocks rose on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones industrial average closing at a record high, boosted by the latest merger news and some strong corporate earnings.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.45%, to end at 17,138. The S&P 500 gained 0.42%, to 1,982. The Nasdaq Composite added 0.22%, to 4,426.

The Dow's latest milestone surpassed the record it had set on July 3. Earlier Wednesday, the Dow also hit an intraday record high at 17,139.35.