Indian shares are struggling for direction in early trading on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve gave no signal on what steps it would take to support U.S. growth. Asian markets are turning in a mixed performance and the euro is holding steady versus the dollar, giving investors little cause to buy riskier assets. However, the Indian rupee is gaining ground for the second straight session on robust FII inflows.
Trading near its day's lows, the benchmark BSE Sensex is currently down 35 points or 0.21 percent at 17,070, while the broader Nifty index is down 12 points or 0.23 percent at 5,181.
Automakers are pacing the decliners amid continued speculation of fuel price hike after the presidential elections. Mahindra & Mahindra is down 1.6 percent, Tata Motors is declining 1.5 percent on going ex-dividend and Hero Moto Corp is losing 1.4 percent.
Two-wheeler manufacturer Bajaj Auto is moving down a percent ahead of its quarterly results today. Among the prominent gainers, ONGC, Tata Power and Coal India are up 1-2 percent.
Reliance Industries is down 0.4 percent after the government reportedly asked the energy giant to hand over all documents relating to its D6 gas block to the Controller and Auditor General for audit. Jindal Steel & Power is edging down 0.1 percent as it terminated a contract with the Bolivian government to invest $2.1billion in an iron ore and steel project.
TCS is down 0.3 percent despite bagging a multi-year contract from Scandinavian Airlines for an undisclosed amount. Essar Oil is down 0.4 percent after the Supreme Court ordered the company to pay Rs. 1,000 crore to the Gujarat state government by July 30 towards sales tax dues.
Telecom stocks are subdued ahead of an empowered group of ministerial meeting today to discuss the issue of 2G spectrum pricing. Bharti Airtel is up marginally, while Reliance Communication and Idea Cellular are down more than a percent each.
Reliance MediaWorks is up a whopping 9 percent on reports of stake sale in its film and media services division. Bajaj Finserv is rallying 4.7 percent after reporting a 51 percent jump in quarterly net profit.
GTL Infrastructure is climbing 8.6 percent after its promoters infused Rs 930 crore into the company and its subsidiary as part of a corporate debt restructuring. Axis Bank is gaining 0.9 percent on short covering after falling 2 percent yesterday on concerns over rising non-performing assets.
Key benchmark indexes Sensex and the Nifty ended largely unchanged on Tuesday following hawkish comments from Reserve Bank of India on inflation and the interest rate outlook.
by RTT Staff Writer
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