The benchmark indices traded near the flat line in afternoon trade. The Nifty was a tad above the 16,350 mark. Shares of oil & gas, pharma and IT were in the green while metal, bank and financial services stocks corrected. Trading was volatile due to expiry of weekly index options on the NSE. Gains were capped due to negative global cues and persistent selling of domestic shares by FIIs. At 13:26 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 45.11 points or 0.08% to 54,937.60. The Nifty 50 index added 1.75 points or 0.01% to 16,358. In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index fell 0.12% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index slipped by 0.24%.

The market breadth was negative. On the BSE, 1,446 shares rose and 1,733 shares fell. A total of 159 shares were unchanged.

Economy:

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday (8 June) approved the increase in the Minimum Support Prices (MSP) for all mandated Kharif Crops for Marketing Season 2022-23.

The highest absolute increase in MSP over previous year has been recommended for Sesamum Rs 523 per quintal, Moong Rs 480 per quintal, Sunflower seed Rs 385 per quintal, Tur, Urad and Groundnut Rs 300 per quintal, Cotton (Medium Staple) Rs 354 and Cotton (Long Staple) Rs 355.

The government said that the hike will ensure remunerative prices to the growers for their produce and to encourage crop diversification.

MSPs are intended to act as a floor price for farm commodities and serve as a benchmark rate in wholesale markets, thereby helping to avoid distress sales.

Gainers & Losers:

Dr.Reddy's Laboratories (up 2.16%), Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) (up 1.68%), Reliance Industries (up 1.15%), SBI Life Insurance Company (up 1.05%) and Bajaj Auto (up 1.03%)were major Nifty gainers.

Tata Steel (down 3.93%), Shree Cement (down 2.29%) and Hindalco Industries (down 1.78%), Grasim Industries (down 1.77%) and Tata Motors (down 1.77%) were majority Nifty losers.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Tata Power Company fell 0.54%. Tata Power Solar Systems, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Power, commissioned a 450 MW DC capacity solar pant for Brookfield Renewable India in Rajasthan. The installation entails set up of over 800,000 modules and was completed within record 7 months timeframe. The project will produce over 800GWh of clean energy annually and will help avoid up to 600,000 tons of annual CO 2 emissions.

Rail Vikas Nigam shed 0.94%. The company has entered into an agreement with "Kyrgyzindustry" for execution of infrastructure projects in Kyrgyz Republic particularly Railway Line Network on mutual agreed terms and conditions.

BLS International Services rallied 8.36% after the company announced that it will acquire Zero Mass (ZMPL) for a total cash consideration of Rs 120 crore. Incorporated in 2007, Zero Mass Private Limited (ZMPL) has been operating as the largest Business Correspondent ("BC") network for State Bank of India ("SBI") with around 11,500 active Customer Service Points ("CSP") (about 15% of all the SBI BCs). The company has pan-India presence with CSPs located across all States and Union Territories of India. Apart from SBI, ZMPL has contracts with Utkal Grameen Bank and Karur Vysya Bank.

Tanla Platforms declined 1.40% after the company said that it has entered into an exclusive partnership with Kore.ai for five countries, viz. India, United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Philippines. This partnership is a step forward in offering enterprises and brands the ability to upraise the digital experiences of their key stakeholders: customers, partners, and employees through best-in-class conversational artificial intelligence (AI) based Natural Language Processing (NLP) system.

Global Markets:

Shares in Europe fell across the board on Thursday. Investors are focused on the forthcoming monetary policy meeting and decision from the ECB on Thursday. The European Central Bank is expected to signal a July rate hike at its policy meeting.

Most Asian shares declined on Thursday. China is set to announce its trade data for May later on Thursday.

US stocks dipped overnight ahead of May's consumer price index reading slated for Friday. The S&P 500 shed 1.08% to 4,115.77. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 269.24 points, or 0.81%, to 32,910.90. The Nasdaq Composite shed 0.73% to 12,086.27.

In the commodities market, Brent crude for August 2022 settlement was down 58 cents or 0.47% at $123 a barrel.