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Sensex Flat; Oil & Gas, Banking Stocks Fall
24 Feb 2015, 01:39 PM IST 
Sensex continued to trade on a listless note in the noon deals on Tuesday amid lack of cues ahead of the Budget which ill be announced on February 28.
The 50-share Nifty was also trading flat as the selling in oil & gas stocks capped the gains.
Meanwhile, the market participants were closely eyeing the developments in Parliament today as the Modi government tabled the land acquisition bill which is a basic requirement to pursue reforms promised by his government.
Analysts said that the markets are likely to remain sluggish in the run up to the Budget which will be announced on February 28.
The broader markets were underperforming the benchmark indices. The BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices were down around 0.5 per cent each.
Oil & gas stocks fell in trades today after the state run bankers decided to increase the wages of their employees by 15 per cent a move that can impact the profitability of the banks.
Auto, banking, consumer durables, metal, power and consumer durable stocks were also facing the selling pressure.
From the Nifty basket, Jindal Steel was the top loser. The stock slipped 4 per cent to Rs 183. Bank of Baroda, Tata Steel, ONGC, Sesa Sterlite, State Bank of India, Reliance Industries, Bharti Airtel and DLF were among the top losers.
On the other hand, ITC jumped 1.4 per cent to 350 after the company after the company won bid to acquire Park Hyatt Hotel in Goa. Zee Entertainment, HCL Technologies, Hindustan Unilever, Infosys and Tech Mahindra were among the notable gainers.
At 1:35 PM, the Sensex was up 0.3 per cent or 89 points at 29,064 and the 50-share Nifty was up 28 points at 8,783.