Markets erase early gains; ICICI Bank, ITC & Infosys drag

Markets have erased early gains and have slipped into negative zone weighed down by selling in select index heavyweight shares like ICICI Bank, ITC and Infosys.

At 12:13PM, the 30-share Sensex was down 64 points at 27,210 and the 50-share Nifty was down 20 points at 8,215.

Top losers on the Sensex are Bajaj Auto, NTPC, Axis Bank, Bharti Airtel, ICICI Bank, ITC and Infosys.

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Updated at 11:20

Benchmark indices are trading higher after trimming some of the early gains led primarily by the gains in pharmaceutical and information technology shares.

At 11:20AM, the 30-share Sensex was up 157 points at 27,431 and the 50-share Nifty was up 44 points at 8,278.

In the broader market, both the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices are moving larlgely in-line with the front-liners with gains of around 0.6% and 0.8% each.  Market breadth in BSE is positive with 1,474 advances against 833 declines.

Meanwhile, selling by foreign institutional investors continued and they were net sellers in Indian equities worth Rs 477 crore on Thursday, as per provisional stock exchange data.

Buzzing Stocks

BSE Realty index is the only sector in red among the 12 sectoral indices. BSE Healthcare index, up 1.9% has gained the most followed by BSE Consumer Durables index which has gained over 1%. BSE IT, up 0.8% and BSE Oil & Gas, up 0.6% are other lead gainers.

IT stocks are trading higher ahead of the third-quarter results of Infosys due later today. TCS has gained around 2% while Infosys and Wipro have gained around 0.3% and 0.4% each.

HUL is trading higher by nearly 3% extending its past four day’s gain on BSE, after Deutsche Bank upgraded the stock to buy with a target price of Rs 900 per share. The stock is currently trading at its historical high price on witnessing early signs of uptick in consumer demand across rural and urban India in the past 2/3 months.

HDFC Bank has gained around 1%. According to media reports, the bank is in the process of raising around Rs 10,000 crore from domestic and foreign investors.

Pharma stocks have witnessed significant buying in today’s session. Cipla has gained around 3%, Sun Pharma is up 1.7% and Dr Reddys Lab has gained around 1.8%. According to media reports, Indian and global companies have expressed 175 investment intentions — the total value of which could easily cross Rs 1,000 crore — in the pharmaceutical sector of Gujarat.

Tata Group shares are trading firm. Tata Steel has gained around 1.8% on receiving a rating upgrade from foreign brokerage and Tata Motors has gained around 2.4%.

Oil shares are trading higher. ONGC has gained over 1%. Media reports suggest that the government will start its stake sale in the company only after finalising a new subsidy sharing formula as it would help in fetching better price in the market.

RIL is trading higher by around 0.8%. The company third-quarter results will be released on January 16.

Among other stocks, Videocon Industries has moved higher by 8% after the company announced new discovery of oil accumulation in Farfan area in the Sergipe basin, offshore Brazil.