Mumbai: Indian shares were little changed on Wednesday, while market heavyweight Reliance Industries Ltd hit a record high as a cut in mobile interconnect fee is seen benefiting the company’s telecom unit.

“For Bharti Airtel and the like, the impact from the IUC (interconnect usage charges) cut will be larger as they are purely telecom operators as opposed to Reliance Industries, which is more diversified,” said Anita Gandhi, whole-time director, Arihant Capital Markets. “There is a general fatigue in the market after a rally with some amount of consolidation. Markets are expected to consolidate till companies report their September-quarter earnings,” said Gandhi.

Moreover, the US Federal Reserve is expected to announce details of its plan to start shrinking the $4.5 trillion balance sheet later on Wednesday. Here are the latest updates from the markets:

3.34pm: BSE Sensex closed lower by 2 points, or 0.01%, to 32,400.51, while the Nifty 50 inched lower by 6.40 points, or 0.06%, to 10,141.15.

■ 2.50pm: Bank of Baroda gained 3% after huge block deal. Around 2.22% stake or 51.2 million shares of the bank changed hands in a single block deal, according to Bloomberg report. However, details of the buyers and sellers were not known.

■ 2.43pm: Karnataka Bank added 5% to Rs 162.50 after the bank said in a notice to BSE that its board will meet on 24 September to consider transformation opportunities.

■ 2.31pm: BSE Sensex rose 51 points, or 0.16%, to 32,453, while the Nifty 50 inched lower by 7 points, or 0.07%, to 10,155.

■ 2.25pm: The BSE auto index lost the most and was down 0.50%, followed by the telecom, down 0.46%. Meanwhile, the BSE capital goods index rose 0.76% and healthcare index gained 0.71%.

■ 2.16pm: The rupee was trading at 64.33 a dollar, down 0.01% from its Tuesday’s close of 64.33.

■ 1.42pm: BSE Sensex rose 32 points, or 0.10%, to 32,434, while the Nifty 50 inched lower by 5 points, or 0.05%, to 10,143. Dr Reddy’s Labs, ONGC and ITC were top gainers to gains to the tune of 3.70%, 1.69% and 1.33%, respectively.

■ 12.52pm: Dr. Reddy’s Labs rose 3.23% to Rs2,311.50 and was the top gainer after moneycontrol.com reported that global brokerage house CLSA gave a positive view on the stock.

■ 12.30pm: BSE Sensex rose 11 points, or 0.03%, to 32,413, while the Nifty 50 inched lower by 4 points, or 0.04%, to 10,144.

■ 12.28pm: Divi’s Laboratories Ltd shares rose 6.14% to Rs917 following the company’s announcement that the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) has completed its inspection at the company’s Visakhapatnam plant.

■ 12.23pm: ONGC shares rose 1.69% to Rs168.90 after Reuters reported that India’s largest oil explorer found gas to the west of its Mumbai High offshore fields. The latest ONGC discovery is estimated to hold in place reserves of about 20 million tonnes, Reuters said, citing people familiar with the matter.

■ 11.27am: BSE Sensex edged up 14 points, or 0.04%, to 32,417, while the Nifty 50 inched lower by 7 points, or 0.07%, to 10,141.

■ 11.24am: Larsen and Toubro Ltd shares rose 1.27% to Rs1,242 after the company announced that it has received a contract worth Rs1,700 crore from Kuwait Oil Co.

■ 11.20am: Strides Shasun Ltd gained 2.5% to Rs1,033.45 after the company said it got US drug regulator’s approval for Omega3 generic

■ 10.17am: BSE Sensex rose by 19 points, or 0.06%, to 32,422, while the Nifty 50 edged up 4 points, or 0.4%, to 10,152.

■ 9.55am: Tyre stocks trading higher. JK Tyre surged 9%, Ceat Ltd 2%, Apollo Tyres Ltd 3%, MRF 2% and Balkrishna Industries 2%.

■ 9.53am: Tata Steel Ltd rose 1.4% to Rs686 after the company said it and Thyssenkrupp is in a pact for a 50:50 joint venture.

■ 9.50am: Power companies trading higher. Reliance Power Ltd rose 3%, Adani Power Ltd 2%, Torrent Power 1.7% and Tata Power Co. Ltd 1.1%.

■ 9.25am: BSE Sensex opened higher by 60 points, or 0.18%, to 32,462, while the Nifty 50 edged up 10 points, or 0.10%, to 10,157.

■ 9.20am: Bharti Airtel Ltd fell 4.7%, while Idea Cellular Ltd declined 7.2%, Reliance Communications Ltd slumped 3%, while Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) gained 3.4%. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Tuesday more than halved the so-called interconnect usage charge (IUC) to six paise with effect from 1 October and abolished it all together for all local calls starting 1 January 2020, dealing a big blow to older telecom firms, such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular, and a potential boost to newcomer Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd.

■ 9.17am: SBI Life Insurance Co. Ltd’s Rs8,400 crore initial public offering (IPO) set to hit the market on Wednesday, with a price band of Rs685-700 per share. SBI Life Insurance’s IPO will the biggest to hit the market since Coal India Ltd’s issue in October 2010. It is also the fourth-largest IPO by issue size.

■ 9.15am: The rupee was trading at 64.26 a dollar, up 0.12% from its Tuesday’s close of 64.33. The rupee opened at 64.26 a dollar.

■ 9.13am: The 10-year bond yield was at 6.590% compared to its previous close of 6.592%. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.

■ 9.10am: Asian currencies were trading higher. South Korean won was up 0.32%, China renminbi 0.23%, China offshore 0.22%, Philippines peso 0.18%, Indonesian rupiah 0.11%, Singapore dollar 0.1%, Taiwan dollar 0.09% and Japanese yen 0.06%. The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, was trading at 91.732, down 0.07% from its previous close of 91.793.

Source:livemint.com