Markets open flat for second day; turns negative soonafter

New Delhi: Markets opened on flat note for the second day on Thursday but minutes into the trading it turned negative.

The BSE Sensex fell 44.25 points or 0.12 percent to 36,064.22 while the NSE Nifty dropped 27.95 points or 0.26 percent at 10,803.55.

Major gainers include ITC, PowerGrid, NTPC, HCL Tech, Asian Paint, HUL, Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Finance, Bharti Airtel, TCS, Maruti Suzuki, ONGC and SBI, rising up to 1.64 percent.

On the other hand, Tata Motors, Infosys, Tata Steel, M&M, Coal India, L&T and IndusInd Bank were under selling pressure, limiting the gains on key indices.

Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) made purchases worth Rs 583.77 crore, while FIIs sold shares worth a net of Rs 775.82 crore on Wednesday, as per provisional data.

The rupee strengthened 14 paise to 71.19 against the dollar at the interbank forex market Thursday on increased selling of the American currency by exporters and banks.

Asian shares rose on Thursday after Wall Street managed to end higher, a Reuters report said. MSCI`s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.2 percent. It has gained 3.8 percent so far this month.

Australian shares were 0.1 percent higher while Japan`s Nikkei lost more than 0.3 percent in early trade. On Wall Street, all three major U.S. equity indexes closed in positive territory, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average booking the largest gains. The S&P 500 gained 0.22 percent.

With Agency Inputs