Sensex, Nifty Remain Flat; ITC, RIL Top Losers

The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes continue to trade choppy this afternoon. There is selling pressure in ITC,Reliance Industries, Hindustan Unilever, Sun Pharma and  HDFC Bank. However, the losses were capped as Tata Consultancy Services, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Infosys, Tech Mahindra and ICICI Bank were witnessing buying interest.

 As of 02:39 pm, the Sensex was up 40 points at 41,050 and the Nifty 50 index was up 4 points at 12,090.

Seven of 11 sector gauges were trading lower led by the Nifty FMCG index's 0.8 per cent fall. Nifty PSU Bank, Nifty Auto, Nifty Bank and Nifty Private Bank indexes were also trading with a negative bias.

On the other hand, Nifty IT index was top gainer, up 1 per cent, on the back of momentum in IT  heavyweights such as TCS and Infosys

The Mid- and small-cap shares were trading mixed as Nifty Midcap 100 index fell 0.5 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index advanced 0.1 per cent. Tata Consultancy Services was top gainer in the Nifty 50 basket of shares; the stock rose 2.8 per cent to Rs 2,129. GAIL India, Tech Mahiondra, HCL Technologies, HDFC, Infosys and Kotak Mahindra Bank were also among the gainers.

 On the flip side, Grasim, Adani Ports, JSW Steel, ITC and Hindustan Unilever were among the laggards.

The overall market breadth turned marginally negative as 1103 shares were advancing while 1270 were declining on the BSE.