Nifty, Sensex trade flat in morning trade; financials outperform

• JSW Steel, Tata Steel, HCL Technologies are the major gainers.
• Infosys, NTPC, Hindustan Unilever are among the main laggards.
• The Nifty Bank is up 0.4% and outperforming the benchmarks.

Benchmark equity indices, the Sensex and the Nifty, climbed in early trade on Wednesday after facing heavy drubbing in the previous trade, amid positive trends in global markets and foreign fund inflows. Softening crude oil prices also helped in markets recovery. However, at the time of publishing both the benchmarks are trading flat with a slightly positive bias.

The 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 193.64 points to 64,765.52 in early trade. The Nifty advanced 54.55 points to 19,336.30. The Nifty Bank is up nearly 200 points, that is 0.4% and outperforming the benchmarks.

Among the Sensex firms, JSW Steel, Tata Steel, HCL Technologies, Kotak Mahindra Bank, State Bank of India and Axis Bank were the major gainers.

Infosys, NTPC, Hindustan Unilever and Titan were among the laggards.

In Asian markets, Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong traded in the positive territory while Seoul quoted lower.

The US markets ended in the green on Tuesday.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.07% to USD 88.13 a barrel.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought equities worth Rs 252.25 crore on Monday, according to exchange data.

"The uncertainties associated with the Israel-Hamas conflict will continue to weigh on markets in the near term.

"Positive news like decline in the US bond yields and weakening crude can help the market to revive but it may not sustain given the uncertainty surrounding the West Asian conflict," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

Equity markets were closed on Tuesday on account of Dussehra festival.

The BSE benchmark plunged 825.74 points or 1.26% to settle at 64,571.88 on Monday. The Nifty fell 260.90 points or 1.34% to 19,281.75.

(With text input from PTI)