Markets trim gains; Nifty holds 8,900, Bharti Airtel falls 3%

Markets are likely to remain volatile in late trades ahead of the expiry of January F&O expiry tomorrow

Markets have trimmed gains and are trading flat on account of selling amongst auto, capital goods and metal shares.  

Markets are likely to remain volatile in late trades ahead of the expiry of January F&O expiry tomorrow.

At 13:05 PM, the 30-share Sense was down 2 points at 29,569 and the 50-share Nifty was up 10 points at 8,921.

Among broader markets, BSE Midcap index is marginally positive whereas the Smallcap index is trading slightly lower.

Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors were net buyers in Indian equities worth Rs 954 crore on Tuesday, as per provisional stock exchange data.

The rupee was trading lower at 61.39 to the US dollar compared to previous close of 61.41.

On the global front, Japanese stocks rose to a fresh one-month high on Wednesday as expectations of strong corporate earnings and a weaker yen boosted investor sentiment.

The Nikkei benchmark gained 0.2% to close at 17,795.73, its highest since Dec. 29, after reversing early losses triggered by profit-taking after disappointing US earnings. The average rose 1.7% on Tuesday.

Market participants were also buying on expectations that Wall Street shares would recover Tuesday's losses on Wednesday, as US stock futures rebounded during Asian hours.

Back home, BSE Consumer Durables index has surged by over 3% followed by counters like Healthcare, IT and Realty, all gaining by nearly 1% each. However, BSE Auto, Capital Goods and Metal indices are down nearly 1% each.

The main gainers on the Sensex are HDFC, ICICI Bank, Maruti Suzuki, Coal India, Sun Pharma, SBI and TCS.  

State Bank of India (SBI) is trading higher by 2% at Rs 335, its highest level since November 2010 on BSE, after the country’s largest state-owned lender said that its committee of directors on capital has permitted it to raise up to Rs 15,000 crore in a share sale to support loan growth and meet capital adequacy requirements.

Shares of Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL) were trading higher by 2% at Rs 3,748, extending its previous day’s 2% gain on NSE, after broking firms reiterate “BUY” recommendation on the stock with a target price by up to Rs 4,300 per share.

State-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp's share sale is scheduled for this fiscal though falling crude prices pose a challenge, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Wednesday. The stock is up 0.4%.

On the losing side, Bharti Airtel has declined over 3%. Bharti Airtel has commissioned Nokia Networks to expand its 4G presence to six new circles. The deal marks India’s first FDD-LTE deployment on 1800 MHz that will witness the launch of super-fast mobile broadband in 6 circles.

Tata Motors is down 2% on concerns of equity dilution after the company said it would seek shareholder approval to raise up to Rs 7,500 crore via rights issue of equity shares and DVR shares adding that the funds will be used for expansion and reduction of debt.

Capital goods shares like L&T and BHEL are witnessing profit taking after gains in the previous session. L&T and BHEL are down over 1%.

Other notable losers are Tata Steel, Sesa Sterlite, Tata Power, Cipla and HUL.