Sensex, Nifty Listless In Early Trade

(RTTNews) - Indian shares struggled for direction on Friday as strong U.S. economic data released overnight led traders to push back the timing for the first full quarter-point Federal Reserve interest-rate cut to December from November earlier.

The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex was up 35 points at 75,453 in early trade while the broader NSE Nifty index was virtually unchanged at 22,969.

NTPC rose half a percent and Hindalco Industries rallied nearly 2 percent ahead of their earnings results.

Larsen & Toubro climbed 1.5 percent while Bharti Airtel, SBI and Bajaj Finance all rose around half a percent.

Adani Ports fell over 2 percent on profit taking after rising sharply in the previous session.

Hero MotoCorp, Sun Pharma, Shriram Finance and Apollo Hospitals Enterprise all were down around 1 percent.

SpiceJet rose over 1 percent after it sought a refund of Rs 450 crore from its former promoter Kalanithi Maran, and his firm, KAL Airways.

Zee Entertainment added 1.7 percent after it asked Sony Group Corporation's India media unit, Culver Max Entertainment and Bangla Entertainment Pvt Ltd (BEPL), to pay $90 million as part of termination fee.

Vodafone Idea jumped almost 6 percent after UBS upgraded its rating on the stock to 'buy'.

Allcargo Logistics was slightly higher after its arm ECU Worldwide bought the remaining 25 percent of Fair Trade for EUR 2.9 million (Rs 26.15 crore). InterGlobe Aviation shed 0.6 percent after Q4 profit more than doubled.