Indices trading with small gains

Key indices held onto small gains in afternoon trade. At 13:18 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 44.69 points or 0.12% at 38,139.76. The Nifty 50 index was up 9.55 points or 0.08% at 11,471.75.

Stocks opened with small gains and continued hovering near flat line in morning trade. Benchmarks turned range bound in mid-morning trade. Negative cues from other Asian shares capped gains.

Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.55%. The BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.52%. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was positive. On BSE, 1302 shares rose and 1167 shares fell. A total of 166 shares were unchanged.

ONGC (up 2.97%), NTPC (up 2.95%), State Bank of India (up 1.96%), Bharti Airtel (up 1.89%) and Yes Bank (up 1.69%) edged higher from the Sensex pack.

Hero MotoCorp (down 2.17%), L&T (down 2.09%), TCS (down 1%), Bajaj Auto (down 0.97%) and Maruti Suzuki India (down 0.94%) edged lower from the Sensex pack.

HCL Technologies was up 1.22%. The company has entered into a shared services arrangement with Xerox Corporation pursuant to which Xerox will outsource (subject to compliance with European works council consultation and employment regulatory requirements) certain global administrative and support functions, including, among others, selected information technology and finance functions (excluding accounting). The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 18 March 2019.

Overseas, Asian shares were trading lower ahead of a closely watched meeting by the US Federal Reserve set to kick off later in the day.

US stocks closed modestly higher Monday, as investors prepared for a meeting of Federal Reserve policy makers to begin Tuesday. The Fed is expected to leave rates unchanged when it concludes a two-day meeting on Wednesday. Investors will focus on the statement issued by policy makers.

On the US data front, the National Association of Home Builders' monthly confidence index was unchanged at a seasonally-adjusted reading of 62.

In Europe, Britain's parliament banned another vote on same Brexit deal. Prime Minister Theresa May's third attempt to get parliament to back her Brexit deal were thrown into further turmoil on Monday when the speaker of parliament ruled that she could not put her divorce deal to a new vote unless it was re-submitted in fundamentally different form. May has only two days to win approval for her deal to leave the European Union if she wants to go to a summit with the bloc's leaders on Thursday with something to offer them in return for more time.

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