Sensex trades flat; Infosys rises 2.7%

Sensex trades flat; Infosys rises 2.7%

Mumbai: The 30-share bellwether BSE Sensex on Thursday was trading flat tracking weak cues from Asian equity markets.

At 09.17am, the Sensex was trading lower by 0.03%, or 8.09 points, at 25,481.98 points, while the National Stock Exchange’s (NSE’s) broader 50-share Nifty was trading down 0.03%, or 2.45 points, at 7,624.40 points.

The gainers included Infosys Ltd that was trading up 2.74% at Rs.3,265.95 per share as the company named former SAP AG executive board member Vishal Sikka as chief executive officer. Sikka will take over from current chief executive S.D. Shibulal, one of the seven engineers who founded Infosys in 1981, on 1 August, the company said.

Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) was trading up 1.18% at Rs.2,231.25 and Cipla Ltd rose 1.08% to Rs.416 per share.

The BSE IT index was the top sectoral gainer, up 1.28%.

Shares of Bharti Airtel Ltd was trading down 2.26% at Rs.346.20, Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (Bhel) was down 1.34% at Rs.243.80 and Axis Bank Ltd fell 1.07% to Rs.1,920.55.

China’s Shanghai Composite was trading down 0.35%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was trading down 0.47% and Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average gained 0.77%.

Overnight, US markets lost on Wednesday, The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.60%, as the S&P 500 was down 0.35% and Nasdaq Composite lost 0.14%, as the World Bank forecast in a report that the global economy will expand 2.8% this year, down from a January projection of 3.2%.