The S&P BSE benchmark Sensex washed out initial gains by slipping 13 points in late morning session on Friday due to fresh selling pressure in metal, power, PSU, auto and banking counters.
The BSE-30 share index, Sensex, opened higher at 19,399.55 points and moved up further to a high of 19,451.70 on initial buying mainly in consumer durables, IT, tech and refinery sectors following government’s decision to relax foreign direct investment (FDI) rules in a number of sectors.
However, it declined afterwards to 19,296.10 before quoting 19,304.57 points at 1030 hours.
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It showed a loss of 12.62 points or 0.07 per cent from its last close.
The NSE 50-share index Nifty also moved down by 14.05 points, or 0.25 per cent, to 5,713.80 at 1030 hours.
Major losers were - Jindal Steel (6.75 per cent), Coal India (2.77 per cent), Sterlite Ind (2.33 per cent), Tata Steel (2.19 per cent), Hindalco Ind (2.00 per cent) and Dr Reddy’s Lab (1.84 per cent).
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However, Wipro firmed up by 2.82 per cent, RIL 1.64 per cent, TCS 1.20 per cent and Infosys 1.13 per cent.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 177.78 crore, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.
Asian stocks rose in their early trade as global manufacturing reports beat forecasts and central banks in Europe vowed to maintain stimulus.
Key benchmark indices in Hong Kong, China, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea rose by 0.22 to 1.79 per cent.