Markets remain flat, Hero Moto top gainer

Benchmark indices continue to trade in a tight range with Sensex and Nifty swinging between negative and positive zone.

By 1135, Sensex dipped by 27 points at 19,226, and the Nifty down 12 points at 5,807 levels.

Chetan Jain, Dy Mangaer- Derivatives Anand Rathi says, “Nifty after weeks of downfall is now witnessing strong pullback from lower levels which is part of the general market trend but taking any aggressive directional call for short term is little bit riskier at this current juncture. However one can trading with options to play the pullback rally either by buying out of the money call i.e. 5900 call or by making bull call spread 5900-6000 pair to capture the upside momentum with limited risk & reward.”

On the global front, Asian shares fell after two strong days of gains on Thursday, as investors focused on meetings of the central banks of Japan, Britain and the euro zone for signs of more policy stimulus, while solid US economic data underpinned the dollar.

According to Sharekhan Research, the Indian stock market has underperformed its peers due to the weak global sentiment, the growing challenges faced by the domestic economy and the unnecessary confusion created by the clumsy drafting of certain provisions in the budget. While foreign institutional investor (FII) inflows remain strong, the indiscriminate selling by the domestic institutions and the disruptions caused by a steep decline in the mid-cap stocks have weakened the market sentiment.

The rupee recovered from initial losses but was still quoting lower by three paise at 54.75 in late morning deals on mild dollar demand from banks and importers on the back of firm global cues.

On the sectoral front, BSE IT, TECk, Capital Goods and Realty indices have gained between 1-1.5%. However, BSE Metal and Oil & Gas indices have declined by 1% each.

The main gainers on the Sensex at this hour include Hero Moto, Wipro, Sun Pharma, TCS, BHEL, Infosys, Cipla and L&T, all gaining between 1-3%.

Shares of information technology (IT) companies are continuous in focus in past couple of trading sessions with most of the frontline stocks are trading at their 52-week highs on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

Infosys and Wipro are trading at their 52-week highs, while HCL Technologies and TCS are quoting at their historic highs on BSE.

DLF is trading higher by 2.1% at Rs 275 after its board approved the issuance of fresh equity shares to dilute the promoter group holding in the company to meet Sebi norms of 25% minimum public shareholding.

On the losing side, JSPL, Tata Steel, Hindalco, Tata Motors and HUL have slipped between 1-3%.

Among other shares, Rollatainers is locked in upper circuit of 10% at Rs 208 on BSE after the containers and packaging company signed a Joint Venture Agreement with Toyo Machine Manufacturing Company Limited to develop, design, assemble, manufacture, produce industrial machines and spare parts for production packaging and printing machines for all kinds of consumer and industrial products in India and to market, sell and service the products throughout the territory.

The broader markets are trading flat with positive bias. The market breadth in BSE remains marginally positive with 1,114 shares advancing and 1,190 shares declining.