Markets stage a recovery; Nifty hovers near 7,700

Markets recovered in noon trades helped by rebound in ITC and buying in private bank shares

Markets pared early losses in noon trades helped by rebound in ITC and buying in private bank shares.

At 2PM, the 30-share Sensex was up 60 points at 25,725 and the 50-share Nifty was up 22 points at 7,695.


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(Update at 1:10PM)
Benchmark share indices continued remain rangebound with negative bias in noon trades on Thursday as rebound in private banks failed to offset losses in IT majors Infosys and TCS. Further, profit taking by foreign funds also weighed on sentiment.

At 1:10 PM, the 30-share Sensex was down 94 points at 25,571 and the 50-share Nifty was down 23 points at 7,649.

The Indian rupee rebounded today and was trading higher at Rs 61.44 to the US dollar compared to the previous close of Rs 61.50 as the US currecny weakened against major currencies. On Wednesday, the  rupee registerd its biggest single-day fall in six-and-half months because of dollar outflows from equity and debt markets continued as foreign investors pared their holdings.

Foreign institutional investors sold equities worth Rs 364 crore during this month so far, as per stock exchange data.

Asian markets except for the Nikkei were trading lower as investors shunned riskier assets and moved to the safety of bonds and gold. The Nikkei which had lost 1% on Wednesday rebounded from its lows to end with marginal gains. The benchmark index ended up 0.5% at 15,232.37. Shanghai Composite was down 1.4%, Hang Seng slipped 0.8% and Straits Times was trading 0.3% lower.

European shares were also trading weak as investors turned cautious on concerns over the emerging tensions between Ukraine and Russia. The CAC-40, DAX and FTSE-100 were down 0.2-0.4% each.

The BSE IT index was the top loser among the sectoral indices down 1.2% along with Auto, Consumer Durables and Healthcare. Metal, Oil and Gas indices were among the gainers.

Shares of IT majors witnessed profit taking after the rupee strengthened against the US dollar. IT shares had firmed up in the previous few sessions on the back of upbeat US economic data and the weakening rupee. Infosys was down 1.5%, TCS lost 1.3% and Wipro was down 0.2%.

Other Sensex losers include, HDFC, ITC and Tata Motors.

Private banks also rebounded today and were trading with marginal gains. ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank were up 0.4% each.

In the Oil and Gas segment, ONGC was up 1% and Reliance Ind gained 0.2%.

Among other shares, Jubilant Industries has plunged 15% to Rs 114 after reporting a consolidated net loss of Rs 18.90 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, 2014 (Q1), due to lower operational income and higher interest cost. The agrochemicals company had loss of Rs 16.96 crore in the same quarter last fiscal.

In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices were down 0.4% each.

Market breadth was weak with 1,499 losers and 1,141 gainers on the BSE.