Sensex hovers near 26,900; Tata Motors down 1.7%

HDFC twins, SBI , L&T among the top gainers of the hour

After a firm start, both the benchmark share indices have given up most of their early gains as profit taking emerged with auto and oil shares declining the most. 

At 1030 hrs, the Sensex was up 33 points at 26,885 and the Nifty was up 10 points to trade at 8,024.

In the broader markets, the mid and smallcap indices were up 0.2% each.

Realty index down nearly 3% was the top sectoral loser along with Auto, FMCG, IT, Metal and Oil & Gas indices down 0.1-0.8%.

Consumer Durables and Health Care were flat with a negative bias.

Meanwhile, Bankex and Power indices up nearly 1% and 0.4% were the major sectoral gainers.

BHEL, Dr Reddys, GAIL, HDFC twins, SBI and Bharti Airtel up 1-2.5% were the notable gainers among Sensex-30.

Auto names continued to struggle in red. Tata Motors, M&M, Hero MotoCorp, Maruti Suzuki and Bajaj Auto down 0.2-1.6%.

From the Oil & Gas space, RIL and ONGC were the major draggers, down 0.3-0.8%.

ITC and HUL from the FMCG space were laggards, down 0.2-0.5%.

Sun Pharma, NTPC, Wipro, Cipla were some of the other scrips in red.

DLF slumped nearly 6% to Rs 112 on reports that the new BJP-led Haryana government will investigate into the land deals between the company and Congress president's son-in-law, Robert Vadra entered into during the regime of the previous Congress government.

In individual stocks, shares of defence companies rallied by up to 7% on the bourses after the government on Saturday cleared defence projects worth Rs 80,000 crore.

Bharat Electronics and BEML surged 7% each at Rs 2,195 and Rs 701 respectively.  Pipavav Defence and Offshore was locked in upper circuit of 5% at Rs 43.05, Walchandnagar Industries up 5% at Rs 114, and Astra Microwave Products up 4%.

HMT surged 13% to Rs 34.55 on back of heavy volumes on reports that the government may rethink its decision to close the loss-making HMT Watches as demand for watches is picking up.

Jindal Steel and Power Limited (JSPL) plunged around 5% on reports about CBI registering a fresh case against the company for alleged diversion of forest land in the state of Jharkhand.

Just Dial dipped 8% to Rs 1,500 after reporting 240 basis points (bps) declined in EBITDA or operating margins to 28.9% for the second quarter ended September 2014, primarily due to an increase in staff cost. The company had EBITDA margin of 31.3% during the same quarter last fiscal.