The Indian equity benchmarks were little changed on Tuesday as gains in Tata Motors, Sun Pharma, State Bank of India and Tata Consultancy Services were offset with losses in Infosys, ICICI Bank, Mahindra & Mahindra, Hindustan Unilever and Maruti Suzuki amid weak global cues. The Sensex moved in a band on 150 points while the Nifty 50 index touched high of 17,960 and low of 17,907. Meanwhile, Asian shares dropped and the safe-haven dollar held firm on Tuesday, as a global energy crunch fuelled inflation fears, clouding investor sentiment before the US corporate earnings season.
As of 9:24 am, the Sensex was up 107 points at 60,242 and Nifty 50 index rose 27 points to 17,973.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.9 per cent in early trade, after US stocks ended the previous session with mild losses. US stock futures, the S&P 500 e-minis, fell 0.43 per cent.
Overnight, US shares fell on Monday, having whip-sawed between gains and losses as soaring oil prices that hit multi-year peaks stoked fears about rising prices and tighter monetary policy, lifting the dollar to a near-three-year high against the yen.
Back home, nine of 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading lower led by the Nifty Realty index’s over 1 per cent fall. Nifty Bank, Private Bank, Financial Services, IT, Media and Oil & Gas indices also fell between 0.2-0.7 per cent.
On the other hand, Auto, FMCG, Metal, Pharma and Healthcare indices were trading higher.
Mid- and small-cap shares were trading mixed as Nifty Midcap 100 index fell 0.3 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index advanced 0.31 per cent.
Among the individual shares, Delta Corp surged 10 per cent to Rs 299.35 after its loss narrowed to Rs 22.57 crore in September quarter from Rs 55 crore during the same quarter last year.
Tata Motors was the top Nifty gainer, the stock rose nearly 3 per cent to hit fresh 52-week high of Rs 428 after the company informed exchanges that its global wholesales in second quarter of current financial year including Jaguar Land Rover were up 24 per cent year-on-year at 2,51,689 units. Global wholesales of all Tata Motors’ commercial vehicles and Tata Daewoo range in the second quarter were at 89,055 units, up 57 per cent, over same period last year.
Bajaj Auto, Titan, Eicher Motors, Hindalco, ITC, Hero MotoCorp, Cipla, Tata Steel, JSW Steel, State Bank of India and Wipro were also among the gainers.
On the flipside, HCL Technologies, Mahindra & Mahindra, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, ICICI Bank, Indian Oil, Shree Cements, Adani Ports, SBI Life, IndusInd Bank and Coal India were among the losers.
The overall market breadth was positive as 1,650 shares were advancing while 1,095 were declining on the BSE.
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