Sensex, Nifty trade flat; Pharma index surges, Realty top loser

Benchmark indices parred early gains and were trading flat in the afternoon trade on Thursday.

BSE Sensex trading 20 points or 0.06 per cent higher at 31,587.72 while Nifty50 held on to the 9,850 mark and was trading 5 points or 0.05 per cent higher at 9,5857.

Even though the indices were trading in green, barring Nifty Pharma (up 2.87 per cent) and Nifty IT (up 0.56 per cent) all sectoral indices were trading in the red at around 12.10 pm (IST).

In the Pharma index, shares of Cadila Healthcare (up 7.86 per cent), Divi's Laboratories (up 4.35 per cent), Lupin (up 3.70 per cent) and Sun Pharma (up 3.15 per cent) were the top gainers.

Nifty Realty was the top loser, losing 0.42 per cent to 274.15 at around the same time.

9.20 am: Sensex, Nifty50 start on a firm note; Infosys, Sun Pharma top gainers
Domestic equity markets opened in green on Thursday following mixed global cues.

The BSE Sensex opened 105 points, or 0.33 per cent, up at 31,673, while NSE Nifty index opened 28.70 points, or 0.29 per cent, up at 9,881.

As many as 29 stocks in Nifty index were trading in green with Infosys were trading over 1 per cent up, followed by Tech Mahindra (up 0.87 per cent), TCS (up 0.80 per cent), Tata Power (up 0.76 per cent) and Lupin (up 0.64 per cent).

Watchdog Sebi will look afresh into complaints of alleged corporate governance-related lapses at Infosys amid a high profile leadership crisis and public spat between founders and top management of the IT firm.

On the other hand, Dr Reddy’s Labs, ACC, Zee Entertainment, Coal India and Indiabulls Housing Finance were down between 0.45 per cent and 1 per cent.

Barring the BSE Bankex, other sectoral indices were trading positive in early trade.

Foreign portfolio investors sold shares worth Rs 727.63 crore on Wednesday with gross purchases and gross sales of Rs 3,474.55 crore and Rs 4,202.18 crore, respectively.

Fag end buying in banking stocks, spurred by Cabinet decision on consolidation of public banks, pulled markets higher on Wednesday as the 30-share Sensex settled 276 points up, in line with a firming global trend. The Nifty index also closed above 9,800 in the previous trading session.