Markets relatively flat; Bharti dips post Loop Mobile acquisition

Bharti Airtel down 0.62% after reports confirmed its acquisition of Loop Mobile.

Markets opened relatively flat on Tuesday morning, with global markets remaining mixed and yesterday's Vote-on-Account failing to bring much cheer to investors.

At 9:30 hours, the 30-share Sensex was marginally up by 8 points at 20,472, while the Nifty-50 was up 2 points at 6,076.

Broader markets also remained relatively flat, and the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap were marginally up by 0.01%.

Breadth of the market was positive, with 579 advances, 380 declines, and 49 scrips remaining unchanged.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 522.82 crore on Monday, 17 February 2014, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.

At 62.06, the rupee depreciated by 0.22 points versus the dollar compared to its previous close of 61.84.

Asian markets

Asian shares mostly eased after solid gains in recent sessions. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slipped 0.2% as Chinese shares slid from two-month highs after the Chinese central bank said it would drain funds from money markets.

Singapoe's Strait Times was down 0.05% to 3,067 while Hong Kong's Hang Seng decreased by 0.14% to 22,504.83. Japan's Nikkei-225, however, gained 0.81% to 14,510.45 as a strong pullback in the yen helped it rise for the second consecutive day.

Sectors and Stocks

S&P BSE Healthcare index was the main gainer among the various sectors, increasing by 0.38%. Most other sector indices were down, Metal, Capital Goods, Bankex, and FMCG losing between 0.15-0.55% each.

Bharti Airtel was trading with a negative bias at Rs 305 levels after reports confirmed its acquisition of Loop Mobile.

Force Motor was up by more than 8% after its promoter acquired 6.3 lakh shares on spot delivery basis on February 17, 2014.

Hindustan Zinc has dipped over 3% at Rs 119 on reports that the government is unlikely to complete sale of minority stake in the company during the current fiscal which ends on March 31, 2014.

GSK Consumer Healthcare was down almost 0.75% at 4,250 levels as it commences its open offer today that will close on March 5