Sensex, Nifty hover near flat line; breadth positive

Key benchmarks were almost flat in morning trade. At 10:33 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 30.86 points or 0.08% at 38,125.93. The Nifty 50 index was up 3.45 points or 0.03% at 11,465.65. Auto shares decline.

Indices opened with small gains and continued hovering near flat line in morning trade. Negative cues from other Asian shares capped gains.

Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.36%. The BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.31%. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was positive. On BSE, 1068 shares rose and 883 shares fell. A total of 114 shares were unchanged.

Auto shares declined. TVS Motor Company (down 2.81%), Eicher Motors (down 2.66%), Hero MotoCorp (down 2.3%), Bajaj Auto (down 1.8%), Ashok Leyland (down 1.03%), Mahindra & Mahindra (down 0.76%), Maruti Suzuki India (down 0.74%) and Tata Motors (down 0.22%), edged lower. Escorts was up 0.76%.

FMCG shares were mixed. Nestle India (up 1.08%), Tata Global Beverages (up 0.95%), GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare (up 0.81%), Colgate Palmolive (India) (up 0.59%), Marico (up 0.34%), Procter & Gamble Hygiene & Health Care (up 0.25%) and Hindustan Unilever (up 0.04%), edged higher. Dabur India (down 0.23%), Jyothy Laboratories (down 0.32%), Godrej Consumer Products (down 0.5%), Bajaj Corp (down 0.51%) and Britannia Industries (down 1.06%), edged lower.

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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