Sensex, Nifty Turn Flat; ITC Falls After December Quarter Earnings

The Indian equity benchmarks were little changed on Friday as gains in Infosys, Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and TCS were offset with losses in ITC which fell as much as 4 per cent after its profit fell 12 per cent to Rs 3,663 crore in December quarter. The Sensex moved in a band of 220 points and Nifty 50 index briefly moved above its important psychological level of 15,200. Kotak Mahindra Bank, Bharti Airtel and Hindustan Unilever were also seen dragging the indexes lower.

As of 10:05 am, the Sensex rose 56 points to 51,587 and Nifty was up 8 points at 15,187.

"There are no signs of any deeper retracements and hence, once this consolidation is over we expect the markets to resume its uptrend. The immediate supports for Nifty are placed around 15,100 followed by 14,975 whereas resistance is seen around the swing high of 15,250 above which Nifty should resume momentum," said Ruchit Jain, senior analyst - technical and derivatives at Angel Broking.

Seven of 11 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading higher led by the Nifty IT index's 1 per cent gain. Media and Realty shares were also witnessing some buying interest.

On the other hand, Nifty FMCG index was top loser, the index fell 1 per cent on the back of losses in ITC. Metal, Pharma and PSU Banking shares were witnessing selling pressure.

Mid- and small-cap shares were trading on a mixed note as Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 0.2 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index advanced 0.7 per cent.

ITC was top Nifty loser, the stock fell to an intraday low of Rs 218. Coal India, ONGC, GAIL India, Sun Pharma, NTPC, Divi's Labs, Tata Steel, Bharti Airtel and Titan were also among the losers.

On the flipside, Wipro, Infosys, Grasim Industries, Tech Mahindra, ICICI Bank, HCL Technologies and Tata Motors were among the gainers.

The overall market breadth was positive as 1,448 shares were advancing while 998 were declining on the BSE.