Sensex, Nifty trade flat; pharma stocks jump

The Indian equity markets started on a volatile note on Wednesday with benchmark Sensex and Nifty opening flat and slipping into red multiple times.

There was good buying support in pharma and some banking stocks while power and metal stocks slumped.

The 30 stock S&P Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange opened marginally in the negative at 57,892.31 points but soon surged to 58,097.07 points in the early morning trade.

At around 11.29 am the Sensex was trading at 57,920.54 points, up 0.04 per cent or 23.06 points from its previous day's close at 57,897.48 points.

The broader Nifty 50 of the National Stock Exchange was also trading flat with negative bias. Nifty 50 was trading at 17,230.10 points, 0.02 per cent or 3.15 points down from its previous day's close at 17,233.25 points.

Earlier, the Nifty opened in the negative at 17,220.10 points and slipped to a low of 17,180.95 points. The Nifty touched a high of 17,285.95 points in the intra-day.

There was good buying support in pharma stocks. Sun Pharma surged 1.80 per cent to Rs.829.70. Dr Reddy's Laboratories jumped 1.63 per cent to Rs.4820.85.

IndusInd Bank 1.36 per cent to Rs.864.30; UltraTech Cement 0.67 per cent higher at Rs.7454.70; Titan 0.76 per cent higher at Rs.2395.95; ICICI Bank 0.57 per cent higher at Rs.740.25 and HCL Technologies 0.36 per cent higher at Rs.1288.95 were among the major Sensex gainers.

Nearly half of the 30 scrips that are part of the Sensex were trading in the red. Tata Steel slumped 1.39 per cent to Rs.1111.70. ITC down 1.09 per cent to Rs.217.55; Power Grid Corporation 0.58 per cent down at Rs.204.25; State Bank of India 0.49 per cent down at Rs.458.70 and HDFC Bank 0.44 per cent down at Rs.1454.50 were among the major Sensex losers.

( With inputs from ANI )

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