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Benchmark share indices continued to exhibit a weak trend in noon trades on Tuesday as gains in IT majors failed to offset losses in financial shares.
At 1:29PM, the 30-share Sensex was trading flat at 20,607 up 4 points and the 50-share Nifty was down 6 points at 6106
Stocks in Asia were trading mixed as investors remained cautious as the deadline for the US debt ceiling nears. Japan's Nikkei share average rose 0.3% to its highest close in two weeks, but ended off session highs as traders waited to see if US lawmakers could come to an agreement. Nikkei ended up 0.3%, Hang Seng gained 0.5%, while Straits Times was down 0.5% and Shanghai Composite slipped 0.2%
The Indian rupee weakened against the US dollar in noon trades. According to currency dealers, dollar demand from private sector oil importers would weaken the rupee. At 12:50PM, the rupee was trading at Rs 61.58 compared with previous close of Rs 61.55 per dollar.
The BSE Bankex was the top loser among the sectoral indices down 1.6% followed by FMCG, Consumer Durables and Auto indices. Meanwhile IT index was the top gainer up 0.8% followed by Metal index up 0.6%.
Financial shares remained weak as higher-than-expected headline inflation in September along with Consumer Price Inflation dashed hopes of rate cut by the central bank. ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, HDFC and SBI were down 0.6-1.4% each.
Other Sensex losers include, ITC, Tata Motors and Sun Pharma.
Gains in the Sensex were led by IT shares after encouraging numbers from Infosys last week and ahead of TCS second quarter earnings later today. TCS, WIpro and Infosys were up 0.6-3.2% each. Wipro gained on reports that the information technology (IT) company is in race for Rs 1,500 crore India Posts devices project.
Other gainers include, Tata Steel, Hindalco and index heavyweight Reliance Ind which came off its day highs and was trading marginally higher.
The broader markets were weaker than benchmark indices. The BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices were down 0.8% each.
Market breadth was weak with 1,294 losers and 792 gainers on the BSE.
