At 10:30 AM, the Sensex is trading at 18,611, down 17 points, while the Nifty is flat at 5,609.

NTPC, GAIL India, Tata Power, TCS, RIL, L&T, ICICI Bank, BHEL, Infosys and Sun Pharmaceutical is leading while Bharti Airtel, Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto, Jindal Steel, Hindalco Industries, Mahindra & Mahindra, Maruti Suzuki, Wipro and SBI are seeing some weakness.

Among sectors, power, IT, oil and gas, capital goods, realty, consumer durables and FMCG are gaining while auto, metal, healthcare and banking disappoint.

In the futures and options space, huge put writing is happening at 5600 while call writing is being witnessed at 5700. This indicates that the Nifty may trade in a tight range of 5600-5700.

The rupee has depreciated by eight paise to 59.74 per dollar on Wednesday as against its previous day’s closing of 59.66 per dollar.

In global news, the People’s Bank of China has provided liquidity to some financial institutions to stabilise money-market rates. It will use short-term liquidity operations and existing lending-facility tools to ensure steady markets.

On Tuesday, US markets ended flat. Asian markets too are trading mixed. The Nikkei is up 0.5%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index is up over 1% while South Korea’s Kospi index is flat. China’s Shanghai index is trading marginally lower.

Stocks In News :

Godrej Properties is trading down 1.21% at Rs. 526.50 per share. News reports suggests the company plans to launch Rs. 7bn rights issue in September. A part of the proceeds would be utilised to pare down its debt.

Strides Arcolab stock is trading up 1.61% at Rs. 872.10 per share after receiving World Health Organisation (WHO) pre-qualification for its anti-malarial tablets. 

Bajaj Auto stock is down 1.61% at Rs.1,771 per share  after workers at its Chakan plant have struck work.