India stocks in green after flat opening on mixed Asian cues; Sensex, Nifty up 0.3% each; RIL down 1.5%

India’s stock markets became mildly positive in the early morning trade today, after opening almost flat on mixed cues from other emerging markets. Asian markets were trading mixed as investors were cautious ahead of UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s communication, where she may lay out plans to exit from European Union. Nikkei was down nearly 0.5%, while the Korean market was trading up over 0.5%.

Reliance Industries, which announced yesterday its fiscal third quarter net profit rose 4.2% on-year to Rs 7,506 crore, fell sharply and was trading down 1.5% at Rs 1,060.85 on BSE. The benchmark BSE Sensex was slightly up by 0.29% at 27,366 points, while NSE Nifty was also trading up 0.29% at 8,437.55 points.

SBI, ITC, TCS, Tata Motors and ONGC were the top gainers on the Sensex in the morning trade, while Reliance Industries, Hero MotoCorp, Tata Steel, Lupin and M&M were among the top losers.

Among the macro news weighing on the market may be the cut in India’s growth forecast by the International Monetary Fund. The IMF reduced India’s economic growth forecast for this year by as much as one percentage point to 6.6% on account of change in the consumption due to demonetisation. The wholesale price index (WPI) inflation for the month of December accelerated to 3.39% from 3.15% in the previous month, but was still lower than most analyst forecasts of about 3.5%.

SMC Research said in its morning note that Bank and FMCG stocks were likely to outperform the markets today, while IT and Energy shares must be watched for underperforming.

Bombay Stock Exchange - BSE

National Stock Exchange of India Ltd (NSE)