Sensex, Nifty Turn Flat; Mid And Small Cap Stocks Outperform
The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes turned flat in noon deals after hitting record highs in the morning deals as gains in ICICI Bank, Larsen & Toubro, ONGC, NTPC and Titan were offset with losses in Reliance Industries, Infosys, HDFC and HDFC Bank. The benchmarks staged a gap up opening wherein the Sensex rose as much as 274 points to hit an all-time high of 46,373.34 and Nifty 50 index touched record high of 13,597.50. Investors were seen booking profits at record highs, analysts said.
As of 12:06 pm, the Sensex was up 7 points at 46,106 and Nifty 50 index was unchanged at 13,513.
Eight of 11 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading higher led by the Nifty Metal index's over 1 per cent gain. Media, PSU Banking, Pharma and FMCG shares were also witnessing buying interest.
On the other hand, auto, IT and realty shares were facing selling pressure.
Mid- and small-cap shares were outperforming their larger peers as Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 0.55 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index climbed 0.6 per cent.
Among the individual shares, Burger King made a stellar market debut. The stock opened for trading at Rs 115.35 on the BSE compared with an issue price of Rs 60. The stock rose as much as 130 per cent to hit an intraday high of Rs 138.
Cipla was top gainer in the Nifty 50 basket of shares, the stock rose 4 per cent to Rs 784 after it informed stock exchanges that it has settled its litigation with Celgene Corporation, and wholly owned subsidiary of Bristol Myers Squibb relating to patents for Revlimid.
ONGC, Coal India, Larsen & Toubro, Indian Oil, NTPC, Grasim Industries, Titan, Tata Steel, Bharat Petroleum and UPL were also among the gainers.
On the flipside, Hero MotoCorp, Eicher Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, Wipro, HDFC Life, Tech Mahindra, Bajaj Auto, Maruti Suzuki and Infosys were also among the losers.
The overall market breadth was positive as 1,736 shares were advancing while 1,068 were declining on the BSE.