Markets slip from day highs; Rupee flat

Weakness in names like Sun Pharma, Bharti Airtel and Wipro weigh on the indices in noon trades

Markets have slipped from day highs in late noon deals on the back of weakness in names like Sun Pharma, Bharti Airtel and Wipro. At 1430 hrs, the Sensex was up 0.8% or 166 points t 20325 and the Nifty had gained 0.8% or 50 points to trade at 6081.

The broader markets had a quiet session with the mid and smallcap indices gaining marginally by 0.1% each, both underperforming the Sensex which added 0.8%.

Earlier in the day the Sensex had touched a high of 20,351. The gains were on the back of significant buying witnessed in rate-sensitive shares after the central bank once again tightened gold import duty to squeeze current account deficit.

The Reserve Bank of India on Monday asked all nominated banks and agencies to export at least one-fifth of every lot of imported gold in all forms, and locally make it available only for jewellers.

The central bank said banks need to retain 20% of the imported gold in customs bonded warehouses, and will only be able to further import gold after exporting at least 75% of the gold from those warehouses.

Meanwhile, world shares pushed up towards five-year highs on Tuesday helped by China's plans for avoiding a hard landing in its slowing economy, while gold took a breather after its biggest one-day gain in more than a year.

Local media in China reported that the government is looking to increase investment in railway projects as it aims to ensure annual economic growth does not sink below 7%.

The reports saw China shares post their best day in two weeks, driving MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan up 1.3% to its highest since early June.

European shares added to their recent gains on hopes that China's plan would boost demand for construction materials, climbing 0.4% in early trade with the focus expected to switch to corporate earnings reports.

An upgraded economic outlook from Japan's government added to the better tone in the markets, lifting Tokyo's Nikkei 0.8%, sending the MSCI world equity index up 0.2% to within touching distance of the five-year high hit at the end of May.

The rupee gives up all gains to trade flat on the day at 59.72 as there are no fresh dollar inflows into the market, traders say.

Among the sectoral indices, Health Care index down 0.2% was the only one in the red. Meanwhile, the top sectoral gainers were Consumer Durables, Bankex, realty, FMCG, PSU and Oil & Gas indices gaining 1-3.6%.

The movers among the Sensex-30 were Hindustan Unilever, Mahindra & Mahindra and SBI which gained over 2% each followed by BHEL, ONGC, Dr Reddys Lab, Sterlite, ICICI Bank and ITC gaining 1.6-1.9%.

The ones in the red were Wipro, Bharti Airtel, Sun Pharma and Cipla losing 1-2%. Coal India, L&T, Bajaj Auto and Tata Motors down 0.2-0.5% were the other names weighing on the indices.

The market breadth was marginally positive. 1,099 stocks advanced while 1,095 stocks declined on the BSE.