Nifty trades below 8,500; HUL slumps 3%

Losses in FMCG majors ITC and HUL continued to weigh on markets capping further upsides

Benchmark Indices have turned weak amid choppy trades weighed down by selling pressure among FMCG major HUL and HDFC twins. Weak opening of European markets has also dampened the sentiments.

At 14:25 pm, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 73 points at 27,673 and the Nifty50 was down 21 point at 8,488.

Top losers from the Sensex pack are HUL, M&M, Hero Moto, HDFC Bank and HDFC, all falling between 1%-3%.

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Updated at 11:30

Markets continued to remain rangebound in late morning deals as losses in FMCG majors capped further upsides while.

At 11:30am, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 13 points at 27,734 and the Nifty50 was up 1 point at 8,509. In the broader markets, BSE Midcap was up 0.3% while the Smallcap index was trading flat with positive bias. Market breadth remained positive with 1217 gainers and 976 losers on the BSE.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers in equities worth Rs 599 crore, as per provisional stock exchange data.

Hindustan Unilever is the top loser down over 2% post its first quarter earnings on volume growth concerns. The company reported an increase of 9.79% in standalone net profit to Rs 1,173.90 crore for the first quarter ended June 30. It peer ITC was down over 1% ahead of its first quarter earnings on Thursday. For the second straight quarter, HUL reported only a four per cent volume growth, lower than the six-seven per cent band it had seen in previous periods.

Two-wheeler majors retreated after gains in the previous sessions. Bajaj Auto and Hero MotoCorp were down 0.2%-1% each.

Tata Steel was up nearly 1%. The steel major said it will seek shareholder approval at an annual general meeting (AGM) on 12 August 2016, to issue non-convertible debentures on private placement basis worth Rs 10000 crore. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday.

Tata Motors has extended gains and was up 1.5%. Overseas arm Jaguar Land Rover recently reported 22% jump in global retail sales to a record 2,91,556 units in the first half this year riding on robust demand in Europe and the UK.

In the mid-cap segment, JSW Energy was up 2% after the Sajjan Jindal-promoted company acquired the 500-megawatt (Mw) power plant of debt-laden Jaiprakash Power Ventures at Bina in Madhya Pradesh for Rs 2,700 crore, 10 months after the two firms got into a binding agreement. JP Associates was up nearly 4% while JP Power Ventures was up 7%.

Piramal Enterprises was up over 1% after the company said its board will meet on July 21, 2016 to consider and approve the issue of secured non-convertible debentures amounting upto Rs. 1,000 crores on private placement basis.

Among other shares, YES Bank eased nearly 1%. Rating agency Moody’s on Monday said YES Bank’s baseline credit assessment of “Ba1” reflected potential weaknesses in funding and liquidity profile.

Mindtree touched 52-week lows in intra-day trade today after the IT firm posted a 3.7% drop in consolidated net profit at Rs 123.5 crore in the first quarter of the ongoing fiscal. The stock was down nearly 6%.

Exide Industries was down over 2% on profit booking after the company reported 24.5% year-on-year (YoY) jump in net profit at Rs 193 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2016 (Q1FY17), on back of double digit growth in operational income. The stock had gained over 10% in the past one month ahead of its earnings annoucement.