Choppy Nifty, Sensex flat; Sun Pharma falls over 2%

Indian equity benchmarks were volatile ahead of July inflation data. Analysts on an average expect it in the vicinity of 7.24% as against 7.25% in June, but that is still above the RBI's comfort level of 7%. Hence, the central bank may not cut policy rates in September policy.

The BSE benchmark declined 23.29 points to 17,610.16 and the NSE benchmark was down 7 points to 5,341.15. The broader markets too were flat.

Housing finance company HDFC fell 1.5% and private sector lender HDFC Bank was down 0.4%.

Cigarette major ITC, engineering and construction major Larsen & Toubro and software services exporter Infosys were trading marginally lower.

Among auto stocks, Bajaj Auto and Maruti Suzuki declined 1% each while Hero Motocorp slipped 0.7%. Tata Motors and M&M were up nearly 1%.

Power producers NTPC and Tata Power dropped more than 1%.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries and country's largest private sector lender ICICI Bank moved up 0.7% each.

Private steel producer Tata Steel and India's largest coal mining company Coal India gained 1.7% and 2%, respectively.

The Indian rupee dropped by 36 paise to 55.70 against the US dollar.