Sensex, Nifty Turn Flat; IT Shares Gain, Pharma, FMCG Shares Fall

The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes turned flat in late morning deals as gains in information technology shares were offset with losses in FMCG, metal, auto and pharma shares. The benchmarks staged a gap up opening in pre-market session but soon turned range bound as investors turned cautious considering surging domestic cases of the novel coronavirus and the passage of a contentious farm bill by lawmakers in the upper house of parliament yesterday, analysts said.

As of 11:32 am, the Sensex was down 23 points at 38,822 and Nifty 50 index slipped 18 points to 11,487.

Rajya Sabha on Sunday passed two contentious farm bills, which have triggered protests by farmers at several places, amid uproar by opposition members.

The two bills -- Farmer's Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, and the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020 -- were passed by Lok Sabha on Thursday. The House also rejected the demand of several opposition parties to send the two bills to a Rajya Sabha Select Committee for greater scrutiny.

Meanwhile, selling pressure was visible across the sectors as all the 11 sector gauges, barring the index of IT shares, were trading lower led by the Nifty Realty index's over 1.5 per cent decline. Pharma, PSU banking, metal, FMCG and auto shares were also witnessing heavy selling pressure.

Mid- and small-cap shares were also witnessing selling pressure as the Nifty Midcap 100 index fell 0.83 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index declined 0.58 per cent.

Among the individual shares, the cloud communication services provider Route Mobile, which had concluded its initial public offering (IPO) on September 11, made a strong debut on the stock exchanges today. The shares of Route Mobile listed at Rs 708 on the BSE, a premium of 102.29 per cent compared to the issue price of Rs 350 per share. On the NSE, the shares listed at Rs 717, a premium of Rs 104.86 over the issue price.

Tata Motors was top Nifty loser, the stock dropped over 3 per cent to Rs 143. Bharti Airtel, Hindustan Unilever, Maruti Suzuki, Nestle India, ICICI Bank, Bharti Infratel, UltraTech Cement, Britannia Industries, Hindalco, Bajaj Finance and Cipla also fell between 1.6-2.5 per cent.

On the flipside, HCL Technologies, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, Wipro, TCS and Reliance Industries were among the notable gainers.

The overall market breadth was bearish as 1,472 shares were declining while 943 were advancing on the BSE.