Sensex, Nifty trade flat; Nifty FMCG lone sectoral loser

Domestic market shed its early gains and was trading flat on Thursday afternoon at around 1.20 pm (IST).

BSE Sensex was 3 points or 0.01 per cent up at 31,665.76 while Nifty50 was trading at 9,926.05, up 10 points or 0.10 per cent.

Nifty FMCG (down 0.06 per cent) was the only sector trading in red.

The Nifty Realty index hit a fresh 52-week high of 292 and was trading 1.39 per cent up at 291.10 around the same time.

11.00 am: Sensex, Nifty trade in green; Nifty Realty top sectoral gainer
BSE Sensex was trading in the green on Thursday, adding 66 points or 0.21 per cent at 31,727.91 till around 11 am. (IST)

Shares of Sun Pharma (up 1.68 per cent), Hero MotoCorp (up 1.37 per cent), Dr Reddy's Laboratories (up 1.37 per cent) and Hindustan Unilever (up 1.03 per cent) were the top gainers on BSE at around the same time.

Meanwhile, Nifty 50 was trading at 9,939.20, up 23 points or 0.23 per cent.

All sectoral indices were trading in green with Nifty Realty gaining the most at 290.70, up 1.25 per cent. It was followed by Nifty Pharma (up 0.73 per cent).

09.22 am: Sensex rises over 100 points; Nifty tests 9,950; ICICI Bank top gainer
Benchmark indices opened on a positive note on Thursday, tracking strong cues from Asian markets.

At 9.22 am, the BSE Sensex was trading 140 points, or 0.44 per cent higher at 31,802, thanks to buying in index heavyweights such as Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank and ITC. Nifty50 was trading 40.90 points, or 0.41 per cent, higher at 9,957.10.

ICICI Bank, Adani Ports, Maruti Suzuki and Hero MotoCorp remained top Sensex gainers, rising up to 0.85 per cent. Coal India, Dr Reddy's Labs and Axis bank added up to 0.75 per cent. NTPC fell 1.03 per cent to Rs 168.20.

The BSE Midcap and the BSE Smallcap indices rose up to 0.9 per cent.

"Traders should resort to mean reversion strategy & look for bearish signs at the upper end of the range. Based on the time tools the ongoing consolidation is about to terminate in the coming week as the evidence in hand suggests the next probable potential reversal zone signal could occur post September 8,” Sacchitanand Uttekar – AVP – Technical (Equity), Tradebulls.

Shares of Eicher Motors rose 2 per cent amid reports the company was looking to make a binding offer to acquire the iconic Italian superbikes Ducati for $1.8 billion-$2 billion. ITC was up half-a-per cent after filed a Rs 1,000-crore defamation suit against Mumbai-based proxy advisory firm Institutional Investor Advisory Services India (IiAS) for allegedly making defamatory comments against the company and its directors.The suit has been filed before the Calcutta High Court.

Punj Lloyd jumped 8 per cent after the company's JV won a Rs 1,177-crore project in Myanmar from the National Highways Authority of India.

Himachal Futuristic shot up 10 per cent after Bulk deal data on NSE website showed Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo-Emerging Markets Quality Fund bought 1.1 crore shares or 0.89 per cent stake in the company at Rs 23.92 per share.

Earlier in the day, Asian shares ticked up after US President Donald Trump and congressional leaders agreed to raise the government debt limit until December, eliminating the risk of a government shutdown for now. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gained 0.3 per cent while Japan's Nikkei rose 0.6 per cent.

Meanwhile, the Rs 600 crore initial public offering (IPO) of Noida-based consumer electronics manufacturer Dixon Technologies was subscribed 78 per cent on the first day of the bidding on Thursday. The issue received bids for 18,58,776 shares as against the total issue size of 23,76,557 shares. On the other hand, the IPO of Bharat Road Network was subscribed 22 per cent on the first day of the bidding process on Thursday. The issue received bids for 64,09,765 shares against 2,93,00,000 shares on offer.