Nifty Turns Flat After Hitting Record High, Hovers Near 8550

The 50-share Nifty edged gave up most of its gains after hitting a record high on Thursday amid selling pressure in index heavyweight stocks such as HDFC, Infosys and Reliance Industries. A surge in ITC, which has the largest weightage in the Nifty, helped to support the bluechip benchmark today.

ITC, India's biggest cigarette maker, was the top Nifty gainer. The stock traded over 5 per cent higher on reports the government may not ban the sale of loose cigarettes, which account for 65 to 70 per cent of total cigarette sale in India. Other tobacco companies such as Godfrey Phillips and VST Industries also traded higher.

Among the other bluechips, ONGC gained over 1 per cent after the oil minister said that the government is considering reworking its subsidy sharing formula.

Mortgage lender HDFC was down over 1 per cent while Infosys and Reliance Industries traded with nearly 0.5 per cent losses.

In broader markets, Alok Industries jumped 12.5 per cent on heavy volumes. However, Budget carrier SpiceJet, which had run up sharply on Monday, saw selling pressure and fell over 5 per cent.

Earlier, the Sensex jumped 350 points above the 28,800 mark and the Nifty gained over 85 points to a day high of 8,627 in morning trade. The gains came after three days of consolidation.

As of 2:15 pm, the Sensex was up 65 points to 28,508 while Nifty traded 3 points higher at 8,541. The broader markets continued to outperform the bluechip stocks with the BSE midcap and smallcap indices up nearly 0.3 per cent.