Mid-day Mood | Indices shed opening gains to trade lower; IT stocks drag, metals shine

Sensex was down 6.70 points or 0.01 percent at 66,466.35, and the Nifty was up 2.20 points or 0.01 percent at 19,813.50

The Indian benchmark indices gave up opening gains to move lower on October 12, as IT stocks traded lower after the September quarter earnings of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) missed street estimates. The concerns over the Israel-Hamas conflict also weighed on sentiment.

At 12:06 hrs IST, the 30-pack Sensex was trading flat at 66,497.00, and s so was the broader Nifty at 19,819.80. About 1977 shares advanced, 1089 declined, and 99 were unchanged.

The declining trend in the dollar index and the US bond yields and a drop in crude as well as FII selling in the cash market were positive for the market, VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services, said. "If the US CPI inflation data expected tonight dips below 3.6 percent that will be a shot in the arm for the bulls," he said.

TCS Q2 earnings were a mixed bag, with the top line disappointing and the bottom line and margins coming good. The market would wait for the results of Infosys and HCL Tech, due later in the day, to take a view on the IT segment. "The rally in banking stocks have more steam left," he said.

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Sectors and stocks

Among sectoral indices, Nifty media, metal, oil & gas and auto were up 0.5-2 percent, while selling was seen in the FMCG, IT and realty names.

Metal stocks soared, with 13 of the 14 constituents of the Nifty metal index seeing strong gains. MOIL jumped more than 13 percent. NMDC and Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation rallied up to 8 percent.

Hospital chain operator Aster DM Healthcare's stock soared 9.5 percent, a day after reports of a potential sale of its India business emerged.

HCL Technologies was down marginally ahead of Q2 earnings. The IT company is likely to report a sharp recovery in revenue growth and net profit growth.

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