Sensex flat; infrastructure stocks rise on land buy order

MUMBAI (Reuters) - The BSE Sensex and Nifty were trading flat on Tuesday, as weaker regional shares offset optimism over additional reforms a day after the government passed an executive order to ease land-acquisition rules.

Monday's announcement could kick-start hundreds of billions of dollars in stalled projects, and comes after separate orders were passed to implement coal and insurance reforms.

Infrastructure stocks gained on the news with Larsen and Toubro adding 1.1 percent. Lanco Infratech rose 6.7 percent and GMR Infrastructure was trading 1.5 percent higher.

However, weak sentiment across the region on a sharp selloff in commodities overnight and political uncertainty in Greece left investors hesitant to take big bets.

 

"The overall outlook is good. The government is moving in the right direction. Investors expect the reform process to continue, which will be a long-term positive for Indian equities," said Suresh Parmar, head, institutional equities at KJMC Capital Markets.

The benchmark Sensex was up 0.03 percent, while the broader Nifty was trading 0.01 percent lower.

Godrej Properties gained 5.4 percent after the company bought back shares held by private equity firm Sun-Apollo, and also announced a new project.

Energy firms however fell, with Oil and Natural Gas Corporation losing 1.4 percent and Reliance Industries falling 1.3 percent after crude prices fell to a five-year low.

(Reporting by Indulal PM; Editing by Biju Dwarakanath)