Stock Market: Sensex, Nifty Trade Flat In Early Trade Amid Volatility. IT Stocks Top Drag

Stock update: TechM, Infosys, HCL, Wipro, TCS, ICICI Bank emerged losers during early trade

The two key equity benchmarks, Sensex and Nifty, on Tuesday were trading flat tracking weak global cues amid volatility. At 9.55 am, the BSE Sensex was trading marginally down by 45 points to 62,741. On the other hand, the NSE Nifty was trading at 18,588, down 6 points.

On the 30-share Sensex platform, UltraCemco, Titan, Kotak Bank, Asian Paints, Axis Bank, Maruti, Bajaj Finserv were among the early gainers. On the downside, TechM, Infosys, HCL, Wipro, TCS, ICICI Bank emerged losers.

In the broader markets, Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 swinged between red and green.

Sectorwise, Nifty IT index was the worst performer as it dropped over 1 per cent. On the other hand, Nifty Auto and Nifty Metal indices, on the contrary, gained up to 0.6 per cent.

In the previous session on Monday, the S&P BSE Sensex it settled at 62,787, up 240 points, while the Nifty50 hit a high of 18,640 during the day before closing at 18,594, up 60 points.

"Markets could retreat in early Tuesday trades owing to overnight weakness in key US indices, while denting sentiments a bit would be FII selling that continued for the second consecutive day. In a bullish Monday’s session at Dalal Street, FIIs sold local shares worth Rs 701 crore," Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities Ltd, said in his pre-opening market comment.

In Asian markets, Tokyo, Shanghai, and Hong Kong were trading in the green. The US markets ended lower on Monday.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude dipped 0.20 per cent to $76.54 a barrel.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 700.98 crore on Monday, according to exchange data.

Meanwhile, the rupee gained 7 paise to 82.56 against the US dollar in early trade on Tuesday tracking the weakness of the American currency in the overseas market. Rupee is trading in a narrow range as market participants are vigilant ahead of the RBI's monetary policy later this week. RBI is expected to leave the repo rate unchanged at 6.5 per cent.

At the interbank foreign exchange, the domestic unit opened at 82.56 against the dollar, registering a gain of 7 paise over its previous close. On Monday, the rupee closed at 82.63 against the US currency. The dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, fell 0.04 per cent to 103.96.