It’s a sluggish start for the Indian stock market Wednesday, with investors treading a bit cautiously after previous session’s splendid rally on the back of BJP’s resounding victory in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand assembly elections. Mostly subdued Asian markets and a lack of any positive lead from Wall Street are also contributing to the subdued trend in early trades in the Indian market.The BSE benchmark Sensex, which declined to 29,405.23, is currently up 23.95 points or 0.08% at 29,466.58. The Nifty50 of the National Stock Exchange is up 10.70 points or 0.12% at 9097.70. In the forex market, the rupee opened at 65.76 against the U.S. dollar, its highest since November 2015, up 6 paise from its previous close of 65.82.Adani Ports is gaining 1.6%. Cipla, Reliance Industries, ITC, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, State Bank of India and Dr Reddy’s Laboratories are up 0.5% – 1%.Idea Cellular is gaining more than 3%. The country’s third largest telecom company has introduced a new scheme called ‘Idea Select’ for both prepaid and postpaid customers. Customers enrolling for Idea Select will get advanced support from the customer care executive and at the customer care centres as well. The users will be given exclusive offers on monthly usage on voice, SMS, and data, also they won’t be required to give security deposits for international roaming and international calling.Aurobindo Pharma, Bank of Baroda, Eicher Motors, ACC, BPCL, BHEL and Bharti Infratel are up 0.7% – 2%. Hindalco, Kotak Bank and Tata Power are up marginally. Information technology stocks are mostly weak with the rupee’s strong upmove against the U.S. dollar weighing on sentiment. Among IT majors, Tata Consultancy Services is down 1.4% and Infosys is lower by 1%, while Wipro is trading 0.4% down. HCL Technologies, MindTree, Tech Mahindra and Oracle Financial Services are also weak. Bharti Airtel, Hindustan Unilever, NTPC, Asian Paints, Yes Bank, IndusInd Bank, ICICI Bank, GAIL India, Larsen & Toubro and UltraTech Cement are down with modest losses.
