Sensex, Nifty trading flat; Tata Motors, GAIL top losers

Benchmark indices are trading in a tight range with Sensex and Nifty swinging between negative and positive zone. After touching record highs in the opening trades, markets slipped on account of profit booking at higher levels.

By 10:25, the Sensex was lower by 3 points at 28,160 mark whereas the Nifty dipped 8 points at 8,418 levels.

The broader markets are outperforming the benchmark indices- BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices have gained by nearly 1% each.

The market breadth in BSE remains firm with 1,361 shares advancing and 900 shares declining.

Continuing its losing streak for the fifth straight session, the rupee weakened by another 14 paise to 61.88 in early trade today at the Interbank Foreign Exchange on increased dollar demand from banks and importers.

Meanwhile, the provisional data released by the stock exchanges after trading hours on Tuesday showed that foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 101.98 crore on that day.

Later in the day, the US Federal Reserve will release the minutes of its last policy meeting, which markets will watch for any clues on when the Fed will start raising rates.

ASIAN MARKETS

Japanese shares gave up early gains on Wednesday as investors booked profits after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe delayed a tax hike and said he would call a snap election to seek a fresh mandate for his economic policies.

Asian shares slipped to a three-week low as resource shares were hit by fall in oil and other commodity prices and as Chinese shares lost momentum as investors continued to take profits after Monday's launch of the landmark Hong Kong-Shanghai trading link.

Japan's Nikkei erased earlier gains to stand flat by midday, showing little reaction after the Bank of Japan maintained its policy as expected after a surprise easing last month.

SECTORS & STOCKS IN ACTION

BSE FMCG index has surged by over 1% followed by counters like Capital Goods, Metal, Auto, Consumer Durables, Power and Realty, all gaining between 0.2-1%. However, sectors like Banks and IT are trading marginally in negative zone.

The main gainers on the Sensex are Hindalco, Tata Power, HUL, ITC, Sesa Sterlite, Bajaj Auto and Tata Steel.

FMCG major ITC has gained by nearly 2%. ITC and other tobacco-buying companies may raise the price of tobacco bought from tobacco growers.

Mysuru-Kodagu Member of Parliament on Tuesday held discussions with the Tobacco Board head, Regional Manager and other officers, and ITC and other buyers of tobacco against the background of the fall in tobacco prices.

On the losing side, Tata Motors, GAIL, Axis Bank, Cipla, HDFC Bank, Sun Pharma, M&M and Infosys have declined between 1-2%.

Axis Bank has slipped by nearly 1%. The Bank said it priced $500 million 3.250% senior unsecured notes due 2020 (the Notes). The Notes are issued by Axis Bank's DIFC branch, Dubai and are rated Baa2 by Moody's, BBB- by S&P and BBB- by Fitch.

Infosys is down by nearly 1%. Infosys on Tuesday announced the termination of the services of Abraham Mathews, chief financial officer (CFO) of its business process outsourcing (BPO) subsidiary, for non-compliance with the model code of conduct. The company also said Gautam Thakkar, chief executive officer of Infosys BPO, had quit, taking moral responsibility for the incident.

SMART MOVERS

Shakti Pumps (India) has surged 13% to Rs 223 on National Stock Exchange (NSE) after the Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund bought 334,816 equity shares representing 2% stake of the company via open market purchase.

Shares of construction and engineering company IL&FS Engineering and Construction Company have rallied 12% to Rs 68.50 on BSE after the company announced the fund raising plans.

Info Edge (India) has zoomed 7% to Rs 1,015, also its record high on NSE, after the company said it has committed to make an additional investment of an amount of about Rs 185 crore (Rs 1.85 billion) in the shares of Zomato Media Private Ltd.