Nifty, Sensex erase gains; Rupee rises 60 paise

Indian equity benchmarks were trading off day's high due to fall in Reliance Industries and Infosys. State Bank of India and ITC too were under pressure. However, the buying in HDFC Bank, TCS, HDFC and ONGC was quite supportive.

The BSE benchmark went up just 5.5 points to 17,238.03 while the NSE benchmark was down 0.55 points to 5,234.70. The Indian rupee extended recovery, appreciating by 60 paise to 55.33 against the US dollar.

Country's second largest software services exporter Infosys dropped 0.75% due to dismal performance in the quarter ended June 2012. However, its rival TCS stayed 1.77% higher after better than expected earnings in the first quarter.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries slipped 0.6% and top lender State Bank of India declined 0.4%. FMCG majors ITC and HUL were down 0.2-0.4%.

Among metals stocks, Jindal Steel tumbled over 2%. Tata Steel, Sterlite Industries and Hindalco were down 0.9-1.2%.

Private sector lender HDFC Bank remained on buyers' radar ahead of results.

Shares of HDFC, ONGC, Bharti Airtel, GAIL and Hero Motocorp gained 0.4-1%.

The market breadth was slightly in favour of advances; about 1356 shares advanced while 1221 shares declined on the BSE.

In the second line shares, SKS Microfinance dropped nearly 7% as the company is likely to incur loss in the first quarter of FY13.

Bajaj Corp, Motilal Oswal, Tube Investment, MTNL and SPARC rose 4-6%.