Sensex little changed; banks, pharma up

By Vishal Sridhar

REUTERS - Indian shares nudged up on Thursday, as gains in banks and pharma stocks offset losses in energy and IT counters, with software services exporter Wipro Ltd dragging the broader NSE index lower.

The NSE Nifty edged up 0.04 percent to 10,083.25 as of 0710 GMT, while the benchmark BSE Sensex was 0.1 percent higher at 32,217.58.

"It's more of positivity in the markets today, unless any geopolitical news comes into play," said Siddharth Sedani, head and vice president of equity advisory at Anand Rathi.

Private lender Axis Bank Ltd rose as much as 3.6 percent, the top percentage gainer on the Nifty, after brokerage firm Deutsche Bank upgraded the stock to "buy" and raised its target price to 600 rupees ($9.36).

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd climbed more than 2.4 percent, helping the Nifty Pharma Index gain as much as 2.2 percent. The index had dropped 6.5 percent last month.

Shares of Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd rose as much as 10.2 percent after Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said it would make rolling stock for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train.

State oil marketing companies pared gains after the government said it had not asked fuel retailers to absorb future rate increases.

Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd, Hindustan Petroleum Corp and Indian Oil Corp were down between 0.4 percent and 2.1 percent, after they each rose more than 3 percent earlier in the session.

Wipro Ltd slipped as much as 5 percent, as it went ex-dividend.

Reliance Communications Ltd slipped as much as 2.3 percent after the India unit of Swedish telecom equipment maker Ericsson filed an insolvency case against it and two units.

Asian stocks meanwhile inched down from 10-year highs following a burst of Chinese data that was largely weaker than markets expected.

($1 = 64.0950 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Vishal Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Biju Dwarakanath)