Sensex, Nifty Little Changed; PSU Stocks In Demand
(RTTNews) - Indian shares struggled for direction in early trade on Tuesday, tracking mixed cues from global markets.
The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex was up 3 points at 81,358 while the broader NSE Nifty index was down 4 points at 24,832.
Financials drifted lower, with Bajaj FinServ, HDFC Life, Shriram Finance and SBI Life falling 1-2 percent.
Exide Industries fell more than 1 percent. The storage battery major said it is committed to drive export growth to around 20 percent of its total sales in the next few years.
PNB Housing Finance declined 1.3 percent on reports that private equity firm Carlyle is likely to sell up to a 12.8 percent stake in the company through block deals.
PSU stocks were in demand, with BPCL, Power Grid Corp and NTPC climbing 3-4 percent.
Colgate-Palmolive India soared 5.3 percent after posting 33 percent growth in quarterly profit.
Pfizer rallied 3.5 percent as Q1 net profit zoomed 61 percent year-on-year.
Jindal Saw surged 3.8 percent after Q1 net profit jumped 67 percent.
Indian Bank added 1 percent on reporting a 41 percent increase in quarterly profit.
HPCL rose half a percent even as Q1 net profit plunged 90 percent due to weak gross refining margins.
Tata Consumer Products was slightly higher ahead of its earnings release.
Arvind shed 0.7 percent on disappointing results.
ACC edged up slightly despite reporting a 23 percent fall in Q1 net profit.
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