Sensex trading flat; realty, capital goods stocks major gainers

The Nifty and the Sensex were trading flat after opening marginally in the green owing to lack of directional cues.

The Nifty opened 13 points up at 7,870, while the Sensex opened 77 points up at 25,945.

The 30-share BSE index Sensex was up 25.03 points or 0.1 per cent at 25,893.52 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty was up 13.3 points or 0.17 per cent at 7,869.85.

Barring metal and FMCG, all other BSE sectoral indices were trading in the green. Among them, realty index was up 1.13 per cent, followed by capital goods 0.75 per cent, auto 0.71 and healthcare 0.57 per cent. On the other hand, metal index fell the most by 0.97 per cent and FMCG 0.76 per cent.

Top five Sensex gainers were Hero MotoCorp (+3.3%), Bajaj Auto (+2.25%), Dr Reddy's (+1.44%), BHEL (+1.25%) and Lupin (+1.23%), while the major losers were Hindalco (-3.49%), Vedanta (-2.74%), ITC (-2.08%), Tata Steel (-1.85%) and Cipla (-1.23%).

A report by SMC Global said: "Asian stocks pointed higher today’s morning after US shares had their best week this year and investors shook off concerns about terror attacks in Paris and Mali. While Japan, the biggest market in the region, is closed for a holiday, Hong Kong futures are up about 0.3 per cent, and Hong Kong, China and Korea futures are also higher.Policymakers are set to review the factors that are acting as a drag on euro area inflation and will use all available tools to bring price growth to target if there are downside risks to the outlook, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said. 'If we decide that the current trajectory of our policy is not sufficient to achieve that objective, we will do what we must to raise inflation as quickly as possible,' Draghi said in a speech in Frankfurt."

Brokers said widening of positions by investors tracking gains in other Asian bourses amid growing confidence about the US Fed raising interest rates next month coupled with weekend gains in US markets bolstered the trading sentiment.

Among other Asian markets, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up 0.10 per cent, while Shanghai’s Composite index edged up 0.51 in early trade today. Japan’s financial markets are closed today on account of national holiday.

The US Dow Jones Industrial Average had ended 0.51 per cent higher in Friday’s trade.