BackShares seesaw; techs rise, financials fall
Shares seesaw; techs rise, financials fall
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Mumbai: Indian shares were trading 0.3% higher on Tuesday after flip-flopping as mixed Asian markets offered little comfort and euro zone’s sovereign debt troubles kept investors wary.
Export-focused software stocks rose while financials were among the losers.
By 10:37 a.m. (0507 GMT), the 30-share BSE index was trading up 0.27% at 15,978.66, with one-third of its components declining.
The benchmark has dropped more than 8% so far in 2010, after rallying 81% in 2009.
Traders said heavy selling by foreign funds in recent sessions, largely due to concerns in their home market, was keeping the market under pressure.
Foreign funds have withdrawn around $1.7 billion from Indian equities in the last 10 sessions, after ploughing in about $17.5 billion in 2009.
IT bellwether Infosys Technologies rose 1.5% and Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro climbed 1.7% and 1.6% respectively, after the rupee hit a seven-week low in the previous session.
“Valuations have turned attractive for the IT sector. Also, depreciating rupee is helping to an extent," said Harit Shah, a research analyst with Karvy Stock Broking.
Private-sector lenders ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank shed 0.1% and 0.3% respectively.
“For banks, things are not likely to improve this quarter," said R.K. Gupta, managing director of Taurus Mutual Fund. “Treasury income is likely to be subdued and credit offtake and asset quality are still a concern."
Mortgage lender Housing Development Finance Corp dropped 0.2%, but top lender State Bank of India bucked edged up 0.1%.
Energy giant Reliance Industries, which has the highest weight on the Sensex, dropped 0.4% to Rs992.05.
Tata Steel, the world’s eighth-largest steel maker by output, gained 1.1% to Rs539.70, after declining 4.5% in the previous session. In the broader market, gainers led losers in a ratio of 1.7:1 on volume of 92 million shares.
The 50-share NSE index was up 0.3% at 4,775.40.
Stocks on the move
Jet Airways was up 2.3% atRs484.70 , after the Mint newspaper reported the largest Indian private carrier was in initial talks with FedEx Corp to launch a dedicated cargo airline.
Strides Arcolab was up 4.8% at Rs287.40 as the drug maker said it had received US Food and Drug Administration nod for its generic hypertension drug.
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