Market muted, midcaps stable; Manappuram loses 8%

Moneycontrol Bureau

In the absence of positive cues from the globe, Indian equity benchmarks opened muted, with industry heavyweights ITC, Reliance, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Larsen weighing on the indices. NTPC was trading with 1 percent gains. The company's offer for sale (OFS) opened today; the government has fixed the floor price at Rs 145 per share for 9.5% stake sale in NTPC.

Midcaps opened stable aided by IT companies like Hexaware Tech However, investors walloped Manappuram Finance after it posted dismal quartely numbers. The stock  fell 8 percent in the morning trade. Jubilant Foodworks continues to gain for the second session today. Speciality Restaurants too found takers and the stock was up 1.5 percent.

At 09.28 AM, the Sensex fell 45.39 points at 19594.33, and the Nifty lost 13.05 points to trade at 5946.15.

Tata Motors, HDFC and Mahindra and Mahindra were top gainers, but the upmove has been marginal.

ACC, Ambuja Cements, Aurobindo Pharma, Bombay Dyeing, Hathway Cable will be in focus today ahead of their quarterly numbers. Advance GDP estimates for 2012/13, which is scheduled today, will also be watched for any greenshoots in the economy after recent reform steps.