Markets turn positive: Nifty reclaims 8,800

Markets pared early losses and turned positive in noon trades, amid firm European cues, led by select private banks, capital goods and information technology shares.

At 1:40PM, the 30-share Sensex was up 41 points at 29,225 and the 50-share Nifty was up 15 points at 8,824.

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(Updated at 12:48PM)

Benchmark indices remain weak and have extended losses dragged by the decline in financials and select index heavyweights like ITC .
 
At 12:48PM, the 30-share Sensex was down 197 points at 28,985 and the 50-share Nifty was down 49 points at 8,760.
 
In the broader market, both the BSE Midcap index, up 0.4% and Smallcap index, up 0.7%, have performed better than the front-liners. Market breadth in BSE is positive with 1,471 advances against 1,137 declines.     

 
Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors were net sellers in Indian equities worth Rs 771.55 crore on Friday, as per provisional stock exchange data
 
Buzzing Stocks
 
8 out of the 12 sectoral indices of BSE are in green. BSE IT index has gained over 1% and is the top gainer followed by BSE Realty index, up 0.8% and BSE Capital Goods index, up 0.7%.
 
Sun Pharma has gained over 2% as U.S. Federal Trade Commission  (FTC) has completed its review of the proposed acquisition of Ranbaxy by Sun Pharma and has granted early  termination of the waiting period.

 
Dr Reddys Lab has declined over 2% after its quarterly results came below market expectations.  Credit Suisse has downgraded the stock to "neutral" from "outperform".
 
IT shares are gaining in today’s session led by Wipro which is up 2.2% while TCS has gained 0.7% and Infosys has gained 0.2%.  
 
Financial shares weakened amid asset quality concerns of select banks such as ICICI Bank and Bank of Baroda while traders remained cautious ahead of the RBI monetary policy due tomorrow. ICICI Bank is down 2.5%, HDFC Bank has declined 1.6%, HDFC is down 1.5% and SBI is down 1%.

 
Coal India has declined around 2% after the government raised Rs 22,557.63 crore from the sale of its 10 per cent shareholding in Coal India.
 
Among significant losers, HUL is down 2.7%, ITC is down 2%  and Bharti Airtel has declined around 3%.