Sensex lackluster ahead of key earnings’ numbers

Mumbai  :  Benchmark indices of Indian equities markets witnessed lackluster trading Thursday, after a sharp rally in the previous session, ahead of announcement of quarterly numbers by blue-chip firms.

The 30-scrip S&P Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened in the negative at 20,228.76 points, was trading at 20,229.33 points at around noon, down 0.10 percent or 19.93 points from its previous day close of 20,249.26 points.

The benchmark Sensex had rallied 1.33 percent or 265.65 points Wednesday.

The wider 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) was also witnessing lackluster session. It was trading 0.04 percent or 2.25 points up at 6,009.70 points.

Investors remained cautious ahead of the announcement of quarterly numbers by major firms.

Infosys is scheduled to announce financial results for July-September quarter Friday, while Reliance Industries will declare its results Monday.

Some buying support was witnessed in metal, auto, realty and healthcare stocks while oil and gas, FMCG, banking and power stocks were under selling pressure.

The BSE metal index was up 1.07 percent. Auto index was trading 0.94 percent higher and realty index was up 0.62 percent.

Oil and gas index was down 0.71 percent. Banking index was down 0.15 percent and FMCG index was down 0.11 percent.

Photo  : AFP