The domestic equity markets started off the week on a flat to negative note as the benchmark indices slipped red at the market opening on Monday, August 16.
The primary market however continues to be the talk of the town as four companies are scheduled to list on the exchanges today. These are Krsnaa Diagnostics, Windlas Biotech, Exxaro Tiles and Devyani International.
At 9:57 AM, the BSE Sensex was down 49.29 points at 55,388.00, while the Nifty-50 was at 16,505, down 24.10 points. Shares of Bajaj Auto, Power Grid Corp, and Maruti Suzuki were the top drags for the Sensex as they declined over a per cent each in the morning trade.
However, on the flipside, the technology stocks continued to perform good for the second consecutive week. Amid selling across the board, the Nifty IT index was trading green led by advances in Mindtree(+1.81 per cent), MphasiS (+1.31 per cent), and TCS(+1.00 per cent). Auto and Pharma were the top losing sectors in the morning trade.
However, experts feel that the overall market sentiment will remain positive for the upcoming sessions as fund flows have turned positive and strong earnings will also provide some healthy action moving further.
On August 13, Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net purchased shares worth Rs 819.77 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) net bought shares worth Rs 149.50 crore, as per provisional data available on the exchanges.
Later today, Devyani International and other new companies will be in major focus post their listing on the exchanges. Devyani International will be in prime focus among others as the company's Rs 1,838-crore public issue was oversubscribed by 116.71 times.
In the overall market breadth, 1154 shares declined and 562 shares advanced at the time of filing in the NSE.
