Sensex, Nifty flat; Cipla shoots up 6% after Q1 nos

The BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty started off trade on a flat note on Wednesday as it seemed to have entered into consolidation mode after a rally in previous three sessions.

The market seems still hopeful for some form of action in terms of reforms or diesel price after the Cabinet reshuffle. P Chidambaram will be new Finance Minister and Sushil Kumar Shinde will become new Home Minister. Veerappa Moily will hold additional charge of power.

The BSE benchmark moved up 7.35 points to 17,243.53 and the NSE benchmark was up 0.60 points at 5,229.60.

Asian markets were mixed ahead of outcome of Federal Reserve' meeting (that will be ending today) and European Central Bank's meet that will begin on Thursday. Shanghai rose 1% after HSBC final manufacturing PMI for July increased to 49.3 as against 48.2 in previous month.

Nikkei was down 1% while Hang Seng, Kospi, Straits Times and Taiwan Weighted were flat.

Back home, drug producer Cipla shot up more than 6% after stronger than expected numbers in the first quarter of FY13. Its net profit jumped 58% YoY to Rs 401 crore.

Bharti, Bank of Baroda, Kotak Mahindra Bank, SBI, Ambuja Cements, Dr Reddy's Labs and Ranbaxy Labs were on buyers' radar.

However, Coal India went down 1% after the company agreed to supply at least 80% of the coal needed to fuel new power projects, a condition set by the government, but stipulated it could use a mix of 15% imported coal versus 65% domestic.

Tata Power, SAIL, Sterlite, Hindalco, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries, Tata Motors, ITC and L&T were under pressure in early trade.

The CNX Midcap Index rose just 10 points to 7,179. The market breadth was neutral.

In the second line shares, Unitech fell 1.4% after Uninor decided to auction its business of mobile services and issued public auction notice with August 6 deadline.

Voltas dropped 3% ahead of first quarter numbers today.

After results announced yesterday, IDBI Bank, HOEC, Bhushan Steel and Elecon Engineering were down 1-2.5%. However, Delta Corp gained 2%.

OnMobile Global gained 1.6% after the company doubled its profit to Rs 9.5 crore in the quarter ended June 2012 YoY.

Dishman Pharma shot up 6%. Sun TV Network added another 2% to yesterday's rally.

Godrej Properties went up 2% as the company is going to develop 1.85 lakh sqft Ghatkopar Township.

Petronet LNG was up 1%. Manappuram Finance rose 3% ahead of Q1 numbers today.