Sensex, Nifty inch up; key corporate results awaited

REUTERS – Indian shares were little changed on Tuesday after hitting record highs in the previous session, as investors turned cautious ahead of key corporate results and as profit booking in index heavyweights such as Reliance Industries Ltd and Tata Motors Ltd capped gains.

India’s third-largest software services exporter Wipro Ltd, Axis Bank Ltd, the third-biggest private sector lender by assets, are set to report second-quarter results later in the day.

“As markets touch record-high levels, it is only natural to see some profit-booking,” said Sudhakar Pattabiraman, head of research operations at MarketSmith India, which is part of financial services provider William O‘Neil India.

“The key focus now is on how the corporate results season will pan out this quarter, but overall, we are very bullish on the markets and see no major hiccups at this point.”

The Nifty rose as much as 0.2 percent to scale a third consecutive record peak, and was up 0.13 percent at 10,244.45 as of 0558 GMT.

The NSE index has risen around 4.7 percent so far this month, on growing optimism of an economic recovery and encouraging corporate earnings so far.

The benchmark Sensex was 0.06 percent higher at 32,655.07 after touching a record high on Monday.

Reliance Industries lost as much as 0.6 percent after the oil-to-retail conglomerate hit record highs in each of the previous three sessions.

Tata Motors shed about 1.6 percent after rising in the last three sessions. The Nifty Auto index fell as much as 0.5 percent.

Drugmaker Lupin Ltd declined as much as 0.9 percent after a three-session gain.