Sensex, Nifty Little Changed; Vodafone Idea Slumps After Q4 Earnings

The Indian equity benchmarks were trading on a flat note on Thursday ahead of the weekly expiry of index derivative contracts later in the day as gains in ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries, Mahindra & Mahindra, HDFC and Asian Paints were offset by losses in Infosys, HDFC Bank, Bajaj Finance, Tata Consultancy Services, IndusInd Bank and UltraTech Cement. Meanwhile, equities in other Asian markets were trading on weak note as Japan's Nikkei fell 0.53 per cent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng declined 0.57 per cent.

As of 9:24 am, the Sensex was up 18 points at 52,501 and Nifty advanced 16 points to 15,737.

Among the individual shares, Vodafone Idea slumped 10 per cent to hit intraday low of Rs 9 after it reported loss of Rs 7,022.8 crore in January-March period as against loss of Rs 11,643.5 crore during the corresponding period a year ago.

Auto shares were witnessing buying interest, ahead of monthly sales figures, in Thursday's subdued session as the Nifty Auto index advanced over 1 per cent. Nifty Bank, Financial Services, Pharma, Private Bank and PSU Bank indices were trading on a flat note.

On the other hand, IT and Media indices were trading lower.

Mid- and small-cap shares were trading mixed as Nifty Midcap 100 index was little changed while Nifty Smallcap 100 index advanced 0.42 per cent.

Bajaj Auto was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 2.33 per cent to Rs 4,134. Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Motors, Eicher Motors, Asian Paints, Maruti Suzuki, Hindalco, SBI Life and ICICI Bank also rose between 0.6-2 per cent.

On the flipside, IndusInd Bank, Infosys, Shree Cements, Tech Mahindra, HCL Technologies, UltraTech Cement, Wipro, Bharat Petroleum, Power Grid, Bajaj Finance and HDFC Bank were among the losers.

The overall market breadth was positive as 1,581 shares were advancing while 993 were declining on the BSE.