Nifty holds 8,900; Tata Motors down over 2%

The 330-share Sensex and the 50-share Nifty were flat at the mark of 29,570 and 8,913 respectively

Benchmark indices are trading on flat note subdued by profit-booking in capital goods and select financials and auto stocks like L&T, HDFC twins and Tata Motors.
 
At 9:33AM, the 30-share Sensex and the 50-share Nifty were flat at the mark of 29,570 and 8,913  respectively.
 
In the broader market, both the BSE Midcap index, up 0.2% and Smallcap index, trading on a flat note have performed better than the front-liners. Market breadth in BSE is positive with 707 advances against 673 declines.   
 

Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors were net buyers in Indian equities worth Rs 953.50 crore on Tuesday, as per provisional stock exchange data.  

 
Buzzing Stocks
 
6 of the 12 sectoral indices of BSE are in green. BSE Consumer Durables index has gained over 1% and is the top gainer followed by BSE Oil & Gas index, up 0.2%.  BSE Realty index down 0.7% is the top loser followed by BSE Metal index down 0.6%.
 
Maruti Suzuki has gained over 1%. According to media reports, Maruti Suzuki aims to dedicate a capacity of up to 100,000 at its Gurgaon plant to a new light commercial vehicle (LCV). Likely to be called the ‘Super Carry’, the LCV will be launched in the April-June quarter.

 
IT shares are trading firm in opening deals. Infosys has gained 0.6% while TCS and Wipro have gained 0.2% each.
 
Pharma shares are trading mixed. Sun Pharma has gained over 1%, however, Cipla and Dr Reddys Lab have declined around 0.3% each.
 
Oil and Gas shares are trading higher. RIL is up, 0.3%, ONGC has gained 0.7% and GAIL is up 0.2%.
 
Profit-booking has dragged stocks like HDFC twins down 1%, Tata Motors down 1.6% and L&T down 0.6%
 
Global Markets
 
Most Asian markets were trading lower tracking overnight losses on Wall Street. Shares in Japan were trading flat as gains in index heavyweights SoftBank Corp and Fast Retailing helped offset losses from heavy machinery makers. Japan's bencmark Nikkei was trading flat with negative bias while Singapore's Straits Times was up 0.2%. However, the Hang Seng was ruling steady with negative bias while shares in China extended losses and were down 1.4%.

 
Major US benchmark share indices ended lower amid weak earnings from large corporations and discouraging economic data also dampened investor sentiment, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble, DuPont Co were among the top losers.However, Apple Inc rallied after market hours on encouraging revenue growth driven by high sales of iPhone mobile phone series.
 
US business investment spending dropped for the fourth straight in December after a similar decline in November. Core capital goods orders slipped 0.6% in December.
 
The Dow Jones ended down 1.7% at 17,387.21, the broader S&P 500 closed 1.3% lower at 2,029.55 and tech-laden Nasdaq Composite slipped 1.9% to end the session at 4,681.50.