Indian equities trade flat on global cues

The Indian equities were trading flat during the mid-afternoon session on Friday owing to mixed global cues and stable crude oil prices.

Healthy buying was witnessed in banking and automobile stocks, whereas scrip of consumer durables, capital goods and healthcare came under heavy selling pressure.

"The markets turned cautious after some impressive gains during the previous trading session and early on Friday. All eyes are now on the Reserve Bank's monetary policy update which is due next Tuesday," said Anand James, Chief Market Strategist, Geojit BNP Paribas.

At 2:30 p.m., the barometer 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the BSE, which had opened at 26,919.23 points, was trading at 26,874.65 points -- up 31.51 points, or 0.12 per cent.

The wider 51-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) was trading at 8,231.35 points -- up 12.40 points, or 0.15 per cent.

The Sensex touched a high of 27,008.14 points and a low of 26,850.65 points during the intra-day trade. The BSE market breadth was tilted in favour of the bears -- with 1,400 declines and 1,142 advances.

The key Indian indices had closed at a fresh seven-month closing-high on Thursday. Both the key indices had ended with appreciable gains followed by short covering and lower-level value buying.

The Sensex had surged 129.21 points or 0.48 percent, while the NSE Nifty had gained 39 points or 0.48 percent.

Initially on Friday, the key indices opened on a high note, in sync with their Asian peers and in view of stable crude oil prices.

Asian shares surged on Friday as investors were cautious over a near term Federal Reserve rate hike over the release of the US non-farm payrolls figures later on Friday evening.

Further, stable crude oil prices after the OPEC (Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries) meet failed to agree on output limits aided the rise in key indices.

The European stocks traded marginally in the positive range as the ECB (European Central Bank) meet on Thursday decided to keep key rates unchanged.

Moreover, a disappointing PMI (Purchasing Managers' Index) data and caution ahead of RBI (Reserve Bank of India) decisions next week were expected to influence the markets during the day's trade.

--IANS

ppg/ap/dg