Market hovers in range; cement shares decline

The market was trading in a narrow range in early afternoon trade. At 12:20 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 181.41 points or 0.50% at 36,376.51. The Nifty 50 index was up 44.70 points or 0.41% at 10,894.50. The Nifty was trading below 10,900 mark after crossing that level in early trade.

Indices opened higher and hit fresh intraday high in morning trade. Indices trimmed gains in mid-morning trade.

Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was down 0.27%. The BSE Small-Cap index was down 0.06%.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was negative. On BSE, 1019 shares rose and 1172 shares fell. A total of 143 shares were unchanged.

Engineering and construction major L&T was up 0.88% to Rs 1308 ahead of December quarter earnings.

Cement shares declined. UltraTech Cement (down 4.46%), Ambuja Cements (down 0.52%) and ACC (down 0.38%), edged lower.

Grasim Industries was down 1.32%. Grasim has exposure to cement sector through its holding in UltraTech Cement.

Realty shares were mixed. Unitech (down 4.47%), DLF (down 3.41%), D B Realty (down 2.22%), Sobha (down 1.76%), Parsvnath Developers (down 1.6%), Oberoi Realty (down 1.06%), Anant Raj (down 1.03%), Omaxe (down 0.28%) and Indiabulls Real Estate (down 0.12%), edged lower. Sunteck Realty (up 0.01%), Phoenix Mills (up 0.21%), Peninsula Land (up 0.4%), Prestige Estates Projects (up 0.42%), Mahindra Lifespace Developers (up 0.48%), Godrej Properties (up 0.62%) and Housing Development and Infrastructure (HDIL) (up 2.19%), edged higher.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Friday, 25 January 2019, reportedly upheld the constitutional validity of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). A bench headed by Justice R.F. Nariman said they have upheld the constitutional validity "in its entirety". The court, however, said that related parties in the Act should mean a person connected with the business. The bench disposed of a batch of pleas filed by companies challenging various provisions of the IBC, media reports added.

Overseas, stocks in Asia gained Friday despite fresh overnight uncertainties about US-China trade negotiations. In Japan, core consumer prices in Tokyo, a leading indicator of nationwide price trends, rose 1.1% in January from a year earlier, government data showed on Friday.

In US, stocks closed mostly higher Thursday as investors digested a tide of corporate earnings while monitoring US-China trade talks and a long-running US government shutdown -- all amid worries over the health of the global economy.

In Europe, the European Central Bank (ECB) decided to maintain interest rates at 0% as expected on Thursday, but President Mario Draghi warned that growth risks in the region had shifted to the downside due to a number of external factors.

On the US data front, the number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell below 200,000 for the first time in nearly 50 years, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Further, the Conference Board's leading economic index fell 0.1% in December.

Private-sector activity continued to expand in January but at a more moderate pace compared with the same time last year, according to flash purchasing managers index data compiled by Markit. The manufacturing index rose to 54.9 from 53.8 in December, while the services gauge slipped to 54.2 from 54.4. A figure above 50 signifies growth in activity.

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