The most active stocks included Indiabulls Housing Finance, IndusInd Bank, Max Financial Services, IRCTC and Aurobindo Pharma.
The Indian equity market is trading flat ahead of the much anticipated US President Donald Trump visit to India. Sensex is down 31.84 points or 0.08 percent at 41291.16, and the Nifty shed 3.40 points at 12122.50.
The auto index added half a percent in the morning trade with Ashok Leyland gaining over 3 percent on hopes of better sales in H1 next fiscal.
Bharat Forge, Mahindra & Mahindra, Motherson Sumi Systems, Tata Motors and MRF were the other gainers adding up to a percent on February 20.
Selective pharma names were also buzzing led by Biocon which jumped 3 percent followed by Dr Reddy's Labs, Glenmark Pharma, Piramal Enterprises and Sun Pharma.
Metal stocks were also showing signs of recovery with Tata Steel gaining 2 percent followed by SAIL, Ratnamani Metals, MOIL, Jindal Steel & Power and Hindustan Copper among others.
Markets are mostly going to be flat and are looking forward for the meeting between the United States and India and will react accordingly," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.
Share price of Thomas Cook (India) rose 20 percent on February 20 after company to consider buyback of its shares. It was also the top BSE midcap gainer.
A meeting of the board of directors of the company is scheduled to be held on February 26, 2020 to consider and approve proposal for buyback of equity shares of the company, as per press release.
It was followed by Max Financial Services which climbed 15 percent on report of Axis Bank likely buying 20 percent stake. "Axis Bank is set to acquire more than 20 percent stake in Max Life Insurance through fresh issue of equity," reports The Economic Times quoting multiple sources.
India VIX was down 2.57 percent and was trading at 13.66 level.
The top gainers from Nifty are IndusInd Bank, Zee Entertainment, Tata Steel, ONGC and YES Bank while the top losers included Cipla, Asian Paints, Hindustan Unilever, Nestle India and Wipro.
The most active stocks included Indiabulls Housing Finance, IndusInd Bank, Max Financial Services, IRCTC and Aurobindo Pharma.
66 stocks hit new 52-week high on BSE including Max Financial Services, Muthoot Finance, Rallis India, IRCTC, Balkrishna Industries, SRF, Apollo Hospitals and Dr Reddy's Labs among others.
69 stocks hit 52-week low on BSE including Sterling and Wilson Solar, Sobha, Duke Offshore and Rolta India among others.
About 1170 shares have advanced, 780 shares declined, and 104 shares are unchanged.
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