Sensex trades flat, up 3 points in late morning deals

The S&P BSE benchmark sensex maintained its small gains in late morning trade, up 2.54 points at 29,445.17 ahead of US interest rate decision later today.
Mild bouts of buying was witnessed in Telecom, Auto, Financials, Energy, Consumer Durables, Metals and Healthcare sectors, while IT, Teck and Capital Goods saw profit-booking.
Retail inflation rising to 4-month high of 3.65 per cent in February after wholesale prices shot up to a 39-month high of 6.55 per cent also lifted trading sentiment.
The Sensex opened higher at 29,452.86 and hovered in a range of 29,500.08 and 29,405.23, it was quoting at 29,445.17 at 1105hrs, showing a mere gain of 2.54 points, or 0.01 per cent.

The NSE 50-share Nifty also was marginally up by 6.75 points or 0.07 per cent to quote at 9,093.75 at 1105 hrs.
Major gainers were Reliance (1.75 pct), SBI (1.35 pct), AdaniPorts (0.93 pct), Heromotoco (0.67 pct) and Dr Reddy's (0.65 pct).

Notable losers were TCS (2.01 pct), Infy (1.93 pct), HUL (1.24 pct) and Wipro (0.75 pct).
Meanwhile, Foreign funds bought a massive net Rs 4,087.89 crore yesterday as per the provisional figures issued by stock exchanges.
Overseas, Asian markets were trading lower tracking overnight losses on the Wall Street as investors took profits before a US central bank policy meeting that could signal how much monetary tightening to expect during the remainder of the year, with an immediate rate hike fully priced in by markets.

US stocks finished lower yesterday, as a persistent slump in oil prices put pressure on energy shares.