Sensex, Nifty Trade Flat; Tata Steel, HDFC Top Gainers, Reliance Industries Weak

The benchmark indices are subdued in afternoon trading as gains in heavyweights such as Tata Steel and HDFC have been negated by losses in Reliance Industries, M&M and Maruti Suzuki. As of 1:00 pm, the Sensex was at 52,883, up 16 points and the Nifty was at 15,814, down three points. The broader markets, including the BSE Mid- and small-cap indices, were also trading flat in line with their large-cap peers.

In the currency markets, the rupee depreciated 15 paise to 74.70 against the US dollar on Wednesday amid a weak risk appetite in the region. At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 74.60 against the dollar and then fell to 74.70.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers on Tuesday as they offloaded shares worth Rs 543.30 crore, exchange data shows. The equity benchmarks edged lower on Tuesday, with the Sensex ending lower by 19 points at 52,861 and Nifty index declining 16 points to settle at 15,818.

On the stock-specific front, select financial stocks were seeing buying interest. Bajaj Finserv, IndusInd Bank and HDFC gained 1-2 per cent each on the BSE. L&T, Bharti Airtel and Tata Steel were the other significant gainers among the BSE stocks.

On the other hand, Titan, M&M and Reliance Industries had losses of around a per cent each on the BSE.

And Tata Motors rebounded from intra-day lows and was trading flat. Tata Motors shares had crashed as much as 10 per cent before closing with losses of 8 per cent on Tuesday, after luxury carmaker Jaguar Land Rover Automotive issued a profit warning citing the impact of semiconductor chip shortage on vehicle production.

The BSE market breadth was mildly positive. Out of 3,232 stocks traded on the BSE, there were 1,662 advancing stocks as against 1,419 declines.