Market trades with small gains; breadth negative

Shares were trading with tiny gains in afternoon trade. At 13:21 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 26.98 points or 0.07% at 38,612.33. The Nifty 50 index was up 9.20 points or 0.08% at 11,593.50.

Gains were capped amid mixed global cues. Investors are awaiting Q4 March 2019 earnings from India Inc which kick off from tomorrow, 12 April 2019. Voting for the first phase of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections is being held today.

Key indices were trading near flat line in early trade. Indices were trading with small gains in morning trade. Stocks hovered in a small range in mid-morning trade amid divergent trend in index pivotals.

The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.09%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.04%.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was negative. On the BSE, 1047 shares rose and 1271 shares fell. A total of 155 shares were unchanged.

Vedanta (down 3.8%), Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (down 1.53%), Axis Bank (down 1.25%), Power Grid Corporation of India (down 1.06%) and Yes Bank (down 0.82%), were the major Sensex losers.

Bharti Airtel (up 1.43%), Hindustan Unilever (up 1.35%), Bajaj Auto (up 1.30%), NTPC (up 1.15%), Mahindra & Mahindra (up 0.86%) and HDFC Bank (up 0.74%), were the major Sensex gainers.

Infosys dropped 1.40% ahead of its Q4 March 2019 results tomorrow, 12 April 2019.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) fell 0.91% ahead of its Q4 March 2019 results tomorrow, 12 April 2019. TCS announced that it has partnered with Google Cloud to build industry-specific cloud solutions that will help organizations accelerate their digital transformation and leverage data-driven insights that power superior customer experiences. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 10 April 2019.

On the political front, voting for the first phase of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections is being held today. Voting will take place in 91 Lok Sabha seats in 20 states and Union territories today. Elections will be held in seven phases from 11 April 2019 to 19 May 2019 and counting will take place on 23 May 2019.

Overseas, European stocks were trading lower Thursday, after European Union leaders agreed to delay Brexit for up to six months. Talks between EU leaders and British Prime Minister Theresa May culminated in a flexible extension of the U.K.'s departure from the bloc until 31 October 2019.

The European Central Bank (ECB) kept its loose monetary policy stance and warned that threats to world economic growth remained. The central bank has already delayed its first post-crisis interest rate hike and President Mario Draghi raised the prospect of further supportive policy measures if a slowdown in the euro zone economy persisted.

Asian stocks were mixed after a dovish turn by the ECB and milder than expected US inflation.

In US, technology stocks led Wall Street slightly higher on Wednesday, as US inflation data proved to be benign and the minutes from the Federal Reserve's March meeting were unsurprising.

The Federal Reserve is likely to leave interest rates unchanged this year given risks to the US economy from a global slowdown and uncertainty over trade policies and financial conditions, according to the minutes from its March 19-20 policy meeting.

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