Sensex, Nifty Erase Gains; Auto, Energy Shares Among Top Losers

The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 Indexes erased opening gains and were trading lower owing to weakness in auto and energy shares like Bajaj Auto, Eicher Motors, Hero MotoCorp, Reliance Industries, ONGC, Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Tata Motors. However, losses were capped as HDFC, HDFC Bank, ITC and Tata Consultancy Services were witnessing buying interest. The benchmarks opened higher with the Sensex rising over 100 points and Nifty 50 Index advancing above important psychological level of 11,750.

As of 10:33 am, the Sensex traded 40 points or 0.1 per cent lower at 39,155 and the NSE Nifty 50 Index 0.1 per cent or 11 points to 11,712.

"Nifty is likely to consolidate in range of 11,420 on the downside and 11,620 on the upside and traders should stay away from taking any position in the Nifty from a near term perspective," Pradip Hotchandani, head of research at Prudent Stock Broking told NDTV over phone.

Ten of 19 sector gauges compiled by BSE were trading lower led by the S&P BSE Oil & Gas Index's 1.5 per cent decline.

Energy and Auto sector gauges also declined 1.2 and 0.8 per cent each respectively.

On the other hand, S&P BSE Telecom Index was top gainer, up 0.3 per cent.

Mid- and small-cap shares were trading on a muted note as the S&P BSE MidCap Index fell 0.3 per cent while S&P BSE SmallCap Index was little changed.

Bajaj Auto was top loser in the Nifty 50 basket of shares, the stock fell 2.14 per cent to Rs 2,813. Hero MotoCorp, Eicher Motors, Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum, ONGC, Reliance Industries and Tech Mahindra were also among the losers.

On the flipside, UPL, Yes Bank, Bharti Airtel, Adani Ports, Mahindra & Mahindra, IndusInd Bank, UltraTech Cement and Indiabulls Housing Finance were among the gainers.