Sensex, Nifty trading lower; Axis Bank, BHEL top losers

Markets have erased early gains and are trading marginally lower weighed down by rate-sensitive sectors like banks, auto and capital goods shares.

By 10:25 a.m., the Sensex was lower by 40 points at the 28,951 mark while the Nifty slipped 18 points to 8,738.

Among broader markets, BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices are trading mixed. Markets breadth in BSE is marginally positive with 1,043 shares advancing and 930 shares declining.

Global markets:

Asian share markets followed Wall Street higher on Wednesday as revived risk sentiment dented the US dollar and sovereign bonds, though it was far from clear how long the sudden mood swing would last.

Much might depend on whether oil can sustain its recent rally, thus helping to underpin energy stocks and lessen fears of global deflation.

So far on Wednesday, oil prices were down only modestly with bulls seemingly hopeful that industry cuts to investment would lessen the glut of supply in the market.

Benchmark Brent crude oil was off 51 cents at $57.40, but that followed a rise of almost 6% on Tuesday. US crude was quoted 96 cents lower at $52.09, but again that compares with a low last week of $43.58.

Gainers & Losers:

BSE Bankex has plunged by over 1% followed by counters like Auto, Capital Goods, FMCG and Power, all declining between 0.2-1%. However, BSE Consumer Durables, Healthcare, Metal and Realty indices are up almost 1% each.

Banking shares have extended losses for thwe second straight session on National Stock Exchange (NSE) after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan decided to leave repo rate unchanged at its credit policy meet yesterday.

Bank Nifty, the banking share index is down 1.2% or 235 points at 19,148 at 1015 hours. Meanwhile, the benchmark CNX Nifty is down 22 points at 8,734.75.

State Bank of India (SBI), ICICI Bank, Bank of Baroda, Canara Bank, Punjab National Bank, Union Bank, IndusInd Bank and Bank of India are down between 0.5-3.5% on the NSE.

Shares of Hero Motocorp are trading lower by nearly 1.5% to Rs 2,775 on the BSE as the auto major posted lower than expected quarterly results. The earnings were lower owing to marketing expenses at home and overseas, and investments in capacity expansion.

Shares of NTPC turn ex-dividend today for an interim dividend of Rs 0.75 per share for the year ending 31 March 2015. The stock is down nearly 1%.

Other prominent losers are BHEL, Tata Motors, TCS, Maruti Suzuki, HUL and L&T.

On the gaining side, oil exploration major ONGC extended its yesterday’s rally of 2.6% on rising crude oil prices. Crude oil extended a rally that has pushed up prices 20% in the past four trading sessions following oil's bottom to near six-year lows.

Tata Power and Bharti Airtel are trading firm ahead of corporate earnings. Other notable gainers are Sesa Sterlite, Hindalco, GAIL, Tata Steel, M&M, Sun Pharma and Infosys.