Markets erase intraday gains after L&T's results

Larsen & Toubro, country's biggest engineering and construction major, said its net profit dropped 12 per cent

Markets pared most of their earlier gains and traded flat in the late afternoon session after Larsen & Toubro, country’s biggest engineering and construction major, said its net profit dropped 12 per cent as global slowdown impacted order flows.

At 2:50PM, the 30-share Sensex was down 23  points at 20,216 and the 50-share Nifty declined 4  points at 6,025 levels

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Updated at 1:45PM IST

Markets traded firm in the afternoon session this Monday, moving in tandem with global peers after Japanese Prime Minister won Sunday’s Upper House elections paving way for aggressive reflationary policies .

Meanwhile expectations that the US Federal Reserve will sustain stimulus also supported risk-on sentiments.

At 1:45PM, the 30-share Sensex gained 92  points at 20,240 and the 50-share Nifty rose 25  points at 6,054 levels.

Asian stocks traded positively. Japan’s Nikkei rose 0.4% to 14,659, Singapore Straits Times gained 0.6% to 3,234, China’s Shanghai Composite index was up 0.6%  at 2,004 while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was tad up 0.2% to 21,416 today.

European shares traded lower. France’s CAC declined 0.1% to 3,921, Germany’s DAX dropped 0.03% to 8,328 while UK’s FTSE shed 0.13% to 6,622.

Among the key sectoral indices bankex, power, realty indices gained while consumer durables and oil & gas sectors dropped on the BSE.

The gainers included counters such as HDFC rising 3%, Sun Pharma gained 2.5%, Mahindra & Mahindra added 2.3%, Hindalco Industries was up 1.9% while ICICI Bank gained 1.5% on the BSE.

The laggards were BHEL shedding 5%, ONGC dropped 2.5%, Reliance Industries declined 1.5%, GAIL was down 1.4% on the BSE.

The key notable movers included counters such as Blue Star Infotech that has surged 11% to Rs 81 on reporting nearly five fold jump in its consolidated net profit at Rs 10.38 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2013 on back of strong growth in operational income. The small-cap IT software products provider had registered a profit of Rs 0.90 crore in the year ago quarter.

Ambuja Cements has dipped nearly 5% to Rs 197 in early noon deals on BSE after the Credit Suisse downgrades the stock to "neutral" from "outperform".

The broader markets traded higher with mid-caps and small-caps gaining 0.1-0.3 per cent on the BSE.

The market breadth was negative. Out of 2,222 stocks traded so far, 1,077 stocks declined while 999 stocks advanced on the BSE.