The key equity indices sharply pared gains and traded near the flat line in mid-morning trade. The Nifty slipped below the 17,050 mark. Metal stocks witnessed value buying after declining in the past three sessions.

At 11:25 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 68.03 points or 0.12% to 57,681.75. The Nifty 50 index advanced 37.60 points or 0.22% to 16,989.30.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.79% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index gained 0.76%.

The market breadth was strong. On the BSE, 2030 shares rose and 1220 shares fell. A total of 118 shares were unchanged.

Trading could be volatile today as traders roll over positions in the F&O segment from the near month March series to April series. The March 2023 F&O contracts will expire today, 29 March 2023.

The domestic stock market will remain shut on Thursday, 30 March 2023 on account of Ram Navami.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Metal index added 1.09% to 5,388.35. The index had slipped 3.05% in the past three sessions.

Adani Enterprises (up 6.69%), Welspun Corp (up 3.1%), Vedanta (up 1.8%), Hindustan Copper (up 1.32%) and JSW Steel (up 1.14%) were the top gainers.

Among the other gainers were Ratnamani Metals & Tubes (up 0.85%), Steel Authority of India (up 0.74%), Jindal Steel & Power (up 0.6%), Jindal Stainless (up 0.32%) and National Aluminium Company (up 0.13%).

On the other hand, Hindustan Zinc (down 8.8%), APL Apollo Tubes (down 0.8%) and Hindalco Industries (down 0.6%) moved lower.

Stocks in Spotlight:

NHPC shed 0.20%. The power generation company on Tuesday announced that its board has approved raising of debt upto Rs 5,600 crore during financial year 2023-24 via corporate bonds and/or raising of term loans or external commercial borrowings.

Larsen & Toubro (L&T) gained 0.29%. The EPC major said that its Minerals & Metals (M&M) business has secured 'large' orders from the Vedanta Group. As per L&T classification, the value of the large project is Rs 2,500 crore to Rs 5,000 crore.

D B Corp slipped 0.73%. The company's board approved the appointment of Lalit Jain as chief financial officer (CFO) of the company with effect from 1st April 2023.

Global Markets:

Asian stocks are mostly higher on Wednesday as Alibaba's Hong Kong-listed shares spiked at the open after the Chinese tech giant announced it will split into six business groups.

Australia's monthly inflation pace for February came in at a slower pace at 6.8% compared to the same period a year ago. This is lower than January's figure of 7.4%. Data from the country's statistics bureau revealed that the most significant price rises were in the housing, followed by food and non-alcoholic beverages, then in transport.

US stocks ended slightly lower on Tuesday as investors weighed comments from a top US regulator on struggling banks and sold shares of technology-related names after their recent strong run.

Consumer confidence inched up in March after two straight monthly declines. The Conference Board reported Tuesday that its consumer confidence index rose to 104.2 in March from 103.4 in February. The board said that despite the uptick in confidence, the index remains below 2022's average level of 104.5.

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