Sensex remains lacklustre; NTPC, Honeywell in bull grip

The BSE Sensex stayed lacklustre since morning trade, but the broader markets were under pressure with the BSE Midcap losing 0.6 percent.

The 30-share BSE benchmark was up just 0.38 point to 18,309.75 and the 50-share NSE benchmark went up 7.5 points to 5,566.55.

Country's largest power producer NTPC rose 1.2 percent as the company commissioned its unit 5 of 500 MW of Rihand super thermal power station today. "With this the commercial capacity of Rihand STPS will reach 2500 MW and that of NTPC Group will be 37674 MW," the NTPC said in a release.

CNBC-TV18 learnt from sources that Honeywell Inc is considering delisting of its Indian subsidiary Honeywell Automation . Honeywell Auto India delisting is likely via reverse book build, sources say but the company said they would not comment on market speculation. Honeywell Asia Pacific Inc holds 81.24% stake in Indian arm.

Cigarette major ITC extended gains to 1.7 percent. Telecom operator Bharti Airtel maintained its uptrend since last week, gaining 3 percent today.

Top car maker Maruti Suzuki surged further, rising 4.11 percent. Sources say Maruti is eyeing to ramp up export of components to Suzuki plants . It is in talks to export completely knocked-down (CKD) kits for assembly in its Asian plants. This is a move to increase its export volumes to counter yen exposure, sources add.

Utility vehicle major Mahindra & Mahindra and two-wheeler major Hero Motocorp were up 1 percent each.

Shares of Reliance Industries, HDFC, TCS, Larsen & Toubro, Sterlite Industries, Tata Steel and Hindalco were down 1 percent each.

India's largest lenders State Bank of India and ICICI Bank fell 0.26 percent each. Private power producer Tata Power extended losses to nearly 3 percent.