Sensex, Nifty Remain Subdued As Banking Stocks Drag

The benchmark indices are trading sideways this afternoon as banking stocks are exerting pressure on the bourses. At 12:20pm, the Sensex was at 41,938, higher by five points and the Nifty was at 12,350, up four points. The broader markets were continuing their recent out-performance; the BSE Midcap index gained 0.5 per cent at 15,716 and the smallcap index added 0.3 per cent at 14,700.

Overnight, Wall Street had rallied to fresh record highs with the S&P 500 topping the 3,300 mark for the first time on Thursday, driven by a slew of strong earnings reports, economic data and continued optimism after Beijing and Washington inked the highly anticipated phase-one trade deal.

In stock-specific news, market heavyweight Reliance Industries gained 2.3 per cent at Rs 1,573 and TCS was trading lower by 0.4 per cent at Rs 2,238 ahead of its Q3 numbers. Among other stocks, Hero Motocorp, Sun Pharma and M&M have added about half a per cent to one per cent each.

On the other hand, financial stocks are exerting pressure on the indices. IndusInd Bank, SBI, HDFC Bank and HDFC have shed between half a per cent to 2 per cent each.

Among telecom stocks, Bharti Airtel strengthened by 5.7 per cent at Rs 501, while Vodafone Idea nosedived by 24 per cent at Rs 4.5. In a major setback for mobile service providers, the Supreme Court on Thursday had rejected telecom companies' plea seeking a review of its earlier order that allowed the government to collect dues worth Rs 92,000 crore from them.

The market breadth was positive. Out of 2,440 stocks traded on the BSE, there were 1,252 advancing stocks as against 1,036 declines.