Key indices turn red; metal shares gain on value buying

The benchmarks indices pared all the early gains and traded below the flat line, with some negative bias, in morning trade. The Nifty traded below the 18,500 mark. Metal shares witness some bit of bargain hunting.

At 10:26 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 14.68 points or 0.02% to 62,413.86. The Nifty 50 index lost 2.05 points or 0.01% to 18,485.70.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.36% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index advanced 0.62%.

The market breadth was strong. On the BSE, 2150 shares rose and 1055 shares fell. A total of 137 shares were unchanged.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Metal index rose 0.99% to 5,942.50. The index had declined 1.76% in the past three sessions.

Jindal Steel & Power (up 1.97%), Hindalco Industries (up 1.97%), Welspun Corp (up 1.9%), Hindustan Copper (up 1.7%) and Ratnamani Metals & Tubes (up 1.1%) were the top gainers.

Among the other gainers were JSW Steel (up 0.97%), NMDC (up 0.94%), Tata Steel (up 0.9%), Adani Enterprises (up 0.87%) and Steel Authority of India (up 0.73%).

Stocks in Spotlight:

NHPC rose 1.15%. The company has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Vidhyut Utpadan Company (VUCL), Nepal, for joint development of Phukot Karnali HE Project (480 MW), which is a run of the river hydropower project situated in Kalikot district of Karnali Province, Nepal.

Aster DM Healthcare shed 0.17%. The company has entered into Hospital Operation and Management Agreement with Padmavathy Medical Foundation (PMF). PMF is a 130-bed tertiary super specialty hospital situated in Sasthamkotta, Kollam District, Kerala.

Paras Defence and Space Technologies jumped 8.82%. The company has entered into a joint venture agreement with CONTROP Precision Technologies, Israel, with the purpose of undertaking business of manufacturing EO/IR Systems for various applications in accordance with the Government of India`s Make in India initiative.

Aditya Birla Capital (ABCL) lost 0.76%. ABCL announced that its board of directors approved preferential issuance of Rs 1,250 crore to its Promoter and Promoter Group entity, out of the total approved equity fund raise of upto Rs. 3,000 crore. The preferential issuance will be undertaken at the price of Rs. 165.1 per equity share.

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