Sensex, Nifty open flat; HDFC twins drop 2%, IDBI up 3%

Equity benchmark indices opened flat on Wednesday tracking weakness elsewhere in Asia following a sharp drop in China’s services PMI reading for June. The BSE Sensex fell 21 points to 65,458, and the NSE Nifty50 was unchanged at 19,385.

HDFC and HDFC Bank led losses on the Sensex, shlipping 2 per cent each. Wipro, NTPC, Eicher Motors were the other frontline losers.

On the flip side, IndusInd Bank, Asian Paints, Divi’s Lab, ICICI Bank, HCL Tech, Infosys, Tech M, and HDFC Life were top gainers across the two key benchmarks.

The broader markets though were higher and outperformed benchmarks. The BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices rose up to 0.4 per cent.

Among stocks, Strides Pharma lost 5 per cent after its biologics arm Stelis Biopharma inked a pact to sell its the multi-modal facility at Bengaluru for Rs 702 crore to Syngene.

Sectorally, Nifty Financials and Realty indices dipped 0.2-0.6 per cent, while others held tepid gains.