February 19: Mid-session report

The Indian markets are witnessing a sluggish momentum after a strong rally from last 3 days. Benchmark indices opened low. Selected banks and auto stocks showed gains while FMCG, and Pharma stocks were under pressure.

Nifty is trading down 4.85 points at 7186.90; and the Sensex by 6.07 points at 23643.15. Both the leading indicators were trading down at 0.04 and 0.03 per cent respectively.

The advance-decline ratio has shown the same trend as almost half of the stocks traded in green and half in red. 1040 scrips were trading in the positive territory, 1092 scrips were in red, however 113 stocks remained unchanged on the BSE.

Top Nifty Gainers : Punjab National Bank is leading the gainers list as it was trading up by close to 5 per cent followed by SBI, M&M, ICICI and Hero MotoCorp which were up 2.63, 2.59, 2.52 and 1.79 per cent respectively.

Top Nifty Losers : BPCL is leading the losers list down more than 3.26 per cent, followed by Maruti Suzuki and Dr Reddy’s labs which are down anywhere between 1.89 per cent to 1.73 per cent respectively.

BSE Capital Goods and Oil and gas were down with loss of 0.73 and 1.57 per cent respectively. BSE Small-Caps were trading at minor lows by 0.22 per cent. BSE Mid- Cap index too was trading down by 0.51 per cent.

Buzzer: PNB was buzzing in trade as it was trading up 5 per cent owing to a media report that the bank may consider selling stake in subsidiaries for raising funds.

Asian shares slipped from near three-week highs on Friday as a rally in oil prices reversed and investors remained cautious about the outlook of the global economy. Second half seems to remain in the negative territory as market is witnessing a sluggish momentum.