Sensex Turns Choppy; Metals Fall, IT Stocks Gain

The BSE benchmark Sensex turned choppy in the late morning deals on Wednesday owing to selling pressure in metal, healthcare and realty stocks.

 

The 50-share Nifty was trading below its crucial psychological level of 8,750 led by losses in heavyweights like Hindalco, Cipla, Sun Pharma and ONGC.

 

Meanwhile, the broader markets were also in line with the benchmark indices. The BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices were trading on a flat note.

 

Selling pressure was visible in metal, pharma, realty and oil & gas stocks. At the same time, some amount of buying was seen in FMCG, power and IT stocks.

 

Hindalco was the top loser among the Nifty stocks. The stock slumped 5 per cent to Rs 131 after a Delhi court summoned the company's chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla as an accused in a case linked to Coal-Gate, the alleged scam that saw mining rights being assigned without any transparency to private firms.

 

Hindalco, which is part of the $45 billion Aditya Birla Group, had first been refused the coal field it sought, but the decision was later reversed.  The company has denied any wrongdoing.

 

Pharma stocks which were outperforming the benchmark indices since past few trading sessions also came under selling pressure on account of profit-booking. Lupin, Cipla, Dr Reddy's Labs and Sun Pharma were among the losers on the Nifty, down over 1 per cent each.

 

On the other hand, Wipro, HCL Technologies, NTPC, Infosys, Mahindra & Mahindra and HUL were trading in green.

 

The market breadth on the Bombay Stock Exchange turned marginally negative as 1,137 stocks were declining while 1,080 were advancing.

 

At 12:45 p.m., the markets were trading on a  flat note. Sensex was down 5 points at 28,705 and the Nifty was down 1 point at 8,711.