Markets flat, Nifty hovers around 7,950; RIL gains 1%

Markets have recovered and are trading marginally in positive zone supported by index heavyweight Relinace Inds. RIL is trading firm the annual general meeting, which will be held today.

Benchmark share indices succumbed to extreme selling pressure and the Nifty breached 8,000 to end near eight-month closing low amid a sharp sell off in PSU bank shares after the RBI on Thursday said that they would need higher -than-budgeted capital infusion

By 9:26, the S&P BSE Sensex was higher by 32 points at 26,403 levels and the CNX Nifty is trading flat at 7,963 mark.

Among broader markets, BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices are down 0.05-0.2%

Among macro-economic front, the government is scheduled to unveil industrial production data for April 2015 today. The government is also scheduled to unveil the consumer price index (CPI) data for the month of May 2015.

Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 622.89 crore yesterday as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges.

GLOBAL MARKETS

Asia share markets made guarded gains on Friday and the dollar held firm in the wake of reassuringly upbeat US retail data, though the mood was cautious as Greek debt talks took yet another confusing turn.

Activity was sparse with MSCI's index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan up 0.4%, but only just above three-month lows.

Japan's Nikkei was all but flat though it found some support in a dollar bounce against the yen. South Korea managed a gain of 0.6% and Shanghai shares added 0.7% in early trade.

The gains followed a slightly firmer close on Wall Street with the Dow up 0.22%, while the S&P 500 added 0.17% and the Nasdaq 0.11%.

SECTORS & STOCKS

Sectors like Healthcare, Metal, Auto, Banks, Capital Goods, FMCG, Power and Realty have plunged between 0.2-1%. However, BSE Oil & Gas index has gained marginally.

Relinace Inds is the top Sensex gainer, up over 1% ahead of the annual general meeting, which will be held today. Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries, likely to announce plans for telecom subsidiary Reliance Jio Infocomm in its AGM.

Other notable gainers are Bharti Airtel, Wipro, Infosys, Bajaj Auto, ICICI Bank and Dr Reddy’s Labs.

Wipro announced that it will implement a next generation customer helpdesk management solution, powered by its artificial intelligence (Al) platform - Wipro HOLMES for Nexenta, the global leader in Open Source-driven Software-Defined Storage (OpenSDS).

On the losing side, Sun Pharma, Tata Motors, Vedanta, Axis Bank and GAIL have slipped between 0.6-1.4%.

Vedanta is set to make an official announcement on Sunday regarding its merger with wholly owned subsidiary Cairn India. Vedanta is down over 1%.

Tata Motors and Fiat have begun strategic talks. The partners are discussing product and investment plans which will be finalised for the jointly owned facility at Pune.

With Reuters input