Erasing most of the opening gains, domestic equity market benchmarks Sensex and Nifty were trading flat to positive on Thursday. HUL, TCS, HCL Tech and Infosys were among major index contributors. S&P BSE Sensex was trading 55 points or 0.14 per cent higher at 38,465 points, while the broader Nifty 50 index was ruling flat at 11,257 points. “Markets are currently witnessing roller-coaster ride and we do not see this ending anytime soon. Traders have no option but to align their trades accordingly and prefer hedged bets,” Ajit Mishra, VP – Research, Religare Broking Ltd said.

HUL top Sensex gainer- As many as 20 stocks out of 30 Sensex stocks were trading higher. HUL, the Sensex gainer, was up over 2 per cent, followed by HCL Tech, Sun Pharma, TCS and Asian Paints. While, ICICI Bank, down 1.51 per cent was the top laggard on the index. LT, RIL, Maruti and Power Grid were among other losers on the index.

Most of the sectoral indices slip in red- Nifty FMCG index was the top gainer with a growth of 1.25 per cent led by HUL, Britannia and Godrej Consumer Properties. While Nifty Realty index slipped nearly 2 per cent dragged by Prestige, Mahindra Lifespace Developers and Sunteck Realty.

Global markets- In Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei rose 0.8 per cent and hard-hit Australian shares finally managed a bounce of 1.6 per cent. E-Mini futures for the S&P 500 dipped 0.4 per cent after its overnight jump. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1,173.45 points, or 4.53 per cent, to 27,090.86, the S&P 500 gained 126.75 points, or 4.22 per cent, to 3,130.12 and the Nasdaq Composite added 334.00 points, or 3.85 per cent, to 9,018.09.

FII and DII data- On Wednesday, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) were sellers of domestic stocks to the tune of Rs 878 crore while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) were net buyers to the tune of Rs 764 crore, as per the NSE data.

Coronavirus cases in India nears 30- The total number of known coronavirus cases in India rose sharply to 29 on Wednesday, including 16 Italian tourists who had tested positive for the disease as well as an employee of a digital payments company who had travelled to Italy, as per Reuters.