Markets trim losses; Nifty reclaims 8,600

Top losers from the Sensex pack are NTPC, Bajaj Auto, L&T, ITC and Sun Pharma

Markets re trading in a narrow range with negative bias as investors’ have turned cautious ahead of the August F&O expiry and Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's speech on Friday.

Investors' focus will shift to Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's speech on Friday at the annual central bankers' meeting in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, to assess the odds of an interest rate hike in the coming months.

At 2:43pm, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 66 points at 27,920 and the Nifty50 slipped 20 points to trade at 8,609.

Top losers from the Sensex pack are NTPC, Bajaj Auto, L&T, ITC and Sun Pharma, all slumping between 1%-2%.

Shares of mid and small cap cement companies are in focus with India Cements, Prism Cement and HeidelbergCement India trading higher by more than 3% each on the BSE in otherwise subdued market.

Besides these three, Mangalam Cement, Sanghi Industries and Saurashtra Cement are quoting at their respective 52-week highs on the bourses.

NCL Industries, KCP, JK Lakshmi Cement, Kakatiya Cement, Panyam Cement, Shree Digvijay Cement, Gujarat Sidhee Cement, OCL India and Dalmia Bharat up 1%-4% on the BSE.


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Updated at 11:30 am

Markets remained rangebound in late morning trades after gains in IT majors helped offset most of the losses in FMCG and financials.

At 11:30am, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 29 points at 27,957 and the Nifty50 slipped 8 points to trade at 8,621. In the broader markets, the BSE Midcap index was down 0.3% while the Smallcap index was trading flat with positive bias.

Foreign portfolio investors turned net sellers after a buying spree over the last few weeks. They were net sellers in equities worth Rs 301 crore on Monday, as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges.

Moody’s Investors Service on Monday said continued reforms to enhance business environment and moderate inflation would help India achieve robust growth but cautioned that rising contingent liability risks in the banking sector could affect its credit quality.

Aurobindo Pharma and Tata Power Company are scheduled to announce Q1 June 2016 earnings today.

IT majors were the top gainers on renewed buying interest at lower levels. Infosys and TCS were up 2% each while Wipro gained nearly 1%.

Infosys on Monday said it has laid off "a few" people on grounds of non-performance and disciplinary issues but denied reports of 500 jobs being cut by the country's second largest software services company.

GAIL (India) was up 1% after the state-owned firm and Silicon Valley-based Bloom Energy signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to deploy revolutionary natural gas-based fuel cell technology to generate electricity.

NTPC was marginally down on profit taking after recent gains. The state-owned power major   registered 4% growth in standalone net profit at Rs 2,370 crore for the June 2016 quarter compared with Rs 2,277 crore in the same quarter last year.

HPCL eased nearly 4%. The company posted 30% increase in its net profit for the first quarter (Q1) of the current financial year (FY) to Rs. 2,098.38 crore, against Rs. 1,614.13 crore during the same period of the last FY.

However, HPCL’s average gross refining margin during the quarter ended June 30,2016 was $6.83 per barrel, compared to $8.56 per barrel against Q1 of the previous FY.

Among others, Welspun India was locked in the 20% lower circuit for the second straight day at Rs 65.85 on the BSE. US-based Target Corp announced last week it was terminating business with the Indian manufacturer for substituting the cotton in bedsheets with a different type than the contracted Egyptian one.

Shares of select paper and paper product companies touched their respective 52-week highs in an otherwise subdued market after reporting a strong set of numbers for the quarter ended June 30, 2016 (Q1FY17).

Seshasayee Paper and Boards, West Coast Paper, Star Paper Mills, Ruchira Papers, N R Agarwal Industries, Tamil Nadu Newsprint & Papers, Kuantum Papers and Kushal Tradelink were trading at 52-week highs on the BSE.