Sensex, Nifty flat; Axis Bank dips again, Crompton tanks 6%

The market remained listless in morning trade. The Sensex rose 21.32 points to 29021.46 and the Nifty advanced 5.85 points to 8762.40. The broader markets too are flat in trade.

About 1083 shares have advanced, 808 shares declined, and 200 shares are unchanged on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

State-run oil & gas explorer ONGC rallied nearly 3 percent as government moves to iron-out the subsidy sharing formula and fast-track ONGC divestment. Oil ministry asked government not to impose any subsidy burden on upstream companies if crude prices stay at or less than USD 60 a barrel.

Sun Pharma climbed over 2 percent followed by HDFC, Infosys, Bharti Airtel, Sesa Sterlite, Tata Steel and GAIL with more than 1 percent gain.

However, Axis Bank fell another 3 percent after lossing 5 percent in previous session. Its rivals ICICI Bank and State Bank of India lost further, down 1-1.6 percent. TCS declined 1 percent.

Hero Motocorp shed more than a percent on earnings miss. Revenue in Q3 fell 0.5 percent with margins contracting 100 basis points to 12 percent on higher promotion/branding costs. Goldman Sachs cut FY15-18 EPS by 5-14 percent and target price lowered to Rs 2529.

Crompton Greaves tanked 6 percent on disappointing results, both standalone and consolidated results show year-on-year pressure on the topline and there was continued weakness in subsidiaries. JP Morgan cut FY16/17e earnings by around 11 percent and lowered target price to Rs 195 from Rs 215.