Sensex, Nifty trade flat as Bank Nifty drags; global peers in the red

• Nestle, PowerGrid, banking stocks, IT stocks are seeing pressure.
• Titan, M&M, Maruti, Reliance, Sun Pharma, NTPC and Tata Steel are the major gainers.
• Asian market peers, Hang Seng, Kospi and Nikkei, are all in the red.

Benchmark stock indices Sensex and Nifty traded flat in early trade on Friday due to profit-taking in financials and IT shares amid weak global cues. The 30-share BSE Sensex opened lower and fell further by 294 points to hit a low of 65,785.64 in early trade.

The BSE barometer was trading at 65,767.85, down by 17.79 points or 0.03 per cent over the last close, at 9.40 AM.

The broader Nifty of the National Stock Exchange was marginally up 1.25 points or 0.01 per cent at 19,498.55. It moved between 19,499.55 and 19,421.60 in early trade.

It has been a good debut for Idea Forge on Dalal Street. The shares have doubled on listing as it hit the bourses at Rs 1,305.10, a 94 percent premium to issue price of Rs 672.

Among Sensex stocks, Nestle, IndusInd Bank, PowerGrid, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Finance, Kotak bank, HCL Tech, HDFC Bank, Infosys and Tech Mahindra declined due to profit-taking after a record rally.

Titan, M&M, Maruti, Reliance, Sun Pharma, NTPC and Tata Steel were among major gainers, providing support to the benchmark index.

In global markets, stocks in Hong Kong, Japan and Australia declined following overnight losses in US equities as reports suggested the US job market remains much more resilient than expected.

As a sturdy labour market keeps the economy out of a long-feared recession, it could also push the US Federal Reserve to keep interest rates higher for longer in its campaign to defeat high inflation.

"It would be difficult for this rally to sustain since the global market construct is turning unfavourable with major weakness in the developed markets and rising bond yields," V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services said.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.25 per cent to USD 76.70 a barrel.

Defying a weak trend in the global markets, the Sensex climbed 339.60 points or 0.52 per cent to settle at an all-time closing high of 65,785.64 on Thursday. The NSE Nifty rallied 98.80 points or 0.51 per cent to end at a record high of 19,497.30.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) continued their buying activity as they bought equities worth Rs 2,641.05 crore on Thursday, according to exchange data.

(Text input from PTI)