Sensex And Nifty Start Flat, Rupee Gains For Second Day In A Row

Fortunes changed at the stock market on Thursday after Wednesday’s gains with the Sensex and the Nifty losing 75.71 points or 0.21 per cent and 18.20 points or 0.17 per cent, respectively. The benchmark indices stood at 35,572.29 and 10,751.70, respectively, in the initial opening hours of trading.

“Nifty is trading flat and is up by five points. The MSP increase has led to a positive momentum in our preferred sectors like Auto and FMCG. Bank Nifty has bounced from the support levels of 26,150 with focus on private banks,” said Rajeev Srivastava, Head-Retail Broking, Reliance Securities.

He said that the Bank Nifty index is expected to witness some volatility in the first hour of trade on account of weekly expiry. The Nifty was expected to see support at 10,650 level but resistance at the 10,850 level.

At the BSE, IL&FS Transportation Networks Ltd, GATI Ltd and Future Lifestyle Fashions Ltd were the top gainers while Hathway, Den and HCC were the major losers, till now.

Meanwhile, at the NSE, Yes Bank, UltraTech Cement Ltd and ITC Ltd were leading the market whereas Infosys Ltd, Titan Company Ltd and Vedanta Ltd were seeing losses.

The Indian currency was gaining Rs 0.0050 or 0.01 per cent to the US Dollar and stood at Rs 68.7400.  

The banking sector saw a gain in HDFC Bank by 15.50 points or 0.74 per cent and loss in Axis Bank and State Bank of India by 2.35 points or 0.46 per cent and 1.20 points or 0.47 per cent, respectively, at the time of writing the report.   

The commodities sector though was seeing a downturn as gold prices went down by Rs 14 or 0.05 per cent and stood at Rs 30,600 per 10 grams while Brent Crude lost Rs 51 or 0.99 per cent to stand at Rs 5075 per bbl, in the ongoing trading session.