Markets turn choppy; Sensex hovers near 27,000

Traders remain cautious on concerns over falling crude oil prices and political uncertainty in Greece.

Benchmark indices are trading flat subdued by the losses in financials and capital goods stocks amid weak global cues as traders are cautious on concerns over falling crude oil prices and political uncertainty in Greece.

At 9:37 AM, the 30-share Sensex and the 50-share Nifty were flat at the mark of 26,917 and 8,106 respectively.
 
In the broader market, both the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices have performed better than  the front-liners with marginal gains of around 0.1% each.  Market breadth in BSE is positive with 937 advances against 672 declines.
 

Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors were net sellers in Indian equities worth Rs 1,570.76 crore on Tuesday, as per provisional stock exchange data.

Buzzing Stocks
 
BSE Consumer Durables index, up 0.8% is the biggest gainer in opening deals followed by BSE FMCG index, up 0.7% and BSE IT index, up 0.5%. BSE Capital Goods index and Bankex are trading lower by 0.6% and 0.5%.
 
HUL has gained close to 3% extending previous day gains.

IT stocks are trading mixed in opening deals. Infosys and TCS have gained around 1% each while Wipro is down 0.8%.
 
Despite sustained decline in global crude oil prices select oil shares have gained. RIL is up 0.8% while ONGC and GAIL have declined around 1%.

 
Metal stocks are trading mixed. Sesa Sterlite has gained around 1% and Tata Steel is up 0.2% while Hindalco is down 0.9%.
 
Maruti Suzuki has gained around 0.6%. According to media reports, the company is planning to hike the prices of its models by 4% to compensate for the increase in excise duty.

Global Markets

The selloff in Asian equity markets extended, albeit modestly, early Wednesday, tracking a lower finish on Wall Street overnight as the hunt for a bottom in oil prices continued, while worries that Greece may exit the euro zone dented sentiment. However, Asian equities pared losses and are trading in the positive territory. Japan’s Nikkei is up 0.5%, China’s Shanghai Composite has gained 0.4% while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng has gained 0.1%.

 
Overnight, US stocks settled lower as data pointing to a slowing growth in the US service sector weighed on trading sentiment. On Wall Street, the three major stock indexes fell for a fifth straight session. For the S&P 500 it was the longest losing streak since late 2013.