Sensex, Nifty pare early gains; metal, auto shares top losers

Benchmark indices were trading lower in afternoon session today, led by losses in metal and auto stocks. Sensex fell 20 points to 60,666 and Nifty was trading flat at 18,108.

In early trade, Sensex rose 350 points to 61,036, and Nifty climbed 108 points to 18,210. PowerGrid, Asian Paints, ITC, and Infosys were among the top Sensex gainers, rising up to 2.50% in the afternoon session.

Tata Steel was the top Sensex loser, falling 2 per cent, followed by Bajaj Auto, M&M and Bajaj Finance. Of the 30 Sensex shares, 15 were trading higher. BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices rose 12 points and fell 122 points, respectively.

On the sectoral front, metal and auto stocks led the losses today. BSE metal fell 374 points to 19,885  and BSE auto index lost 124 points to 26,207.

On the other hand, BSE healthcare index zoomed 367 points to 25,525.

The market breadth was negative with 1,246 shares trading higher against 2,053 stocks in the red. 147 shares were unchanged.

Market cap of BSE-listed firms stood at Rs 270.12 lakh crore.

In the previous session, Indian market snapped three-day losing streak backed by gains in IT and capital goods stocks. Sensex ended 767 points higher at 60,686 and Nifty rose 229 points to 18,100.

Tech Mahindra was the top Sensex gainer, rising 4.06 per cent, followed by HDFC, Infosys , Bajaj Finserv, Bharti Airtel and Asian Paints. Bajaj Auto, Tata Steel, Axis Bank and NTPC were among the top Sensex losers, falling up to 3.04%.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth Rs 511 crore on November 12, and domestic institutional investors (DIIs) purchased shares worth Rs 851 crore, as per provisional data available on NSE.

Global markets

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was trading 27 points higher at 7,470. Nikkei  rose 166 points to 29,776 and Shanghai Composite was trading flat at 3,532. Hang Seng index rose 16 points to 25,344. On Wall Street, the S&P 500 ended 33 points higher at 4,682, the Nasdaq rose 156 points to 15,860 and the Dow Jones gained 179 points to 36,100.