Nifty hovers around 8,700; Tata Motors falls 5%

Markets have commenced the trading session on a flat note tracking mixed trend on the Asian bourses.

By 9:30, the Sensex was higher by 11 points at 28,869 mark and the Nifty is flat at 8,712.

Among broader markets, BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices are trading flat with positive bias. Markets breadth on the BSE is marginally positive with 653 shares advancing and 494 shares declining.

Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors sold shares worth a net Rs 27.43 crore yesterday, 5 February 2015, as per provisional data.

GLOBAL MARKETS

Asian equities were mixed on Friday ahead of the closely-watched US jobs report while apprehension about Greece's bailout program also weighed on sentiment.

Higher oil prices were a bright spot for Asian traders; Brent and US crude traded above USD 50 a barrel after rallying 5% overnight. Friday's non-farm payrolls (NFP) report is expected to show the creation of 234,000 jobs in January, according to a Reuters survey of economists, versus 252,000 jobs in December. Major US indices rallied 1 percent on Thursday ahead of the release.

On Wall Street on Thursday, major indexes all ended with gains of 1 percent or more, and a corresponding rise in U.S. Treasury yields underpinned the U.S. dollar's lift against rivals.

SECTORS & STOCKS

BSE IT, Consumer Durables and Realty indices have gained by 1% each. BSE Auto index has plunged by almost 2%.

The main gainers on the Sensex are Infosys, Cipla, Sesa Sterlite, Wipro, TCS and Dr Reddy’s Labs, all rising between 1-2%.

Infosys, the country's second largest information technology (IT) services company, has undertaken an organisational realignment to ensure stronger effectiveness of the "new & renew" strategy laid out by chief executive officer Vishal Sikka.

Among other things, the company has decided to consolidate its delivery functions horizontally, as against the current structure, where delivery teams were in many cases linked to the several business verticals.

GAIL, Tata Steel and NMDC are due to post its Q3 results later during the day.

Struggling Indian operations and slowing sales of Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) weighed on the consolidated performance of Tata Motors, India’s biggest automobile manufacturer, with the company’s net profit for the December 2014 quarter missing estimates by a huge margin.

Though a few one-offs impacted profits during the quarter, profits at the operating and net levels would have been lower than Street expectations. Tata Motors is the top Sensex loser, slumping by almost 5%.

HDFC Bank has slipped by nearly 1%. HDFC Bank said that the special committee of the bank, at its meeting held on 5 February 2015, inter alia, declared the closure of the issue period for the QIP on 5 February 2015.

The committee approved the issue price of Rs 1,067 per equity share for the equity shares to be allotted to determined and approved eligible qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) in the QIP.

Other notable losers are M&M, GAIL, Tata Steel, HUL and Hero Moto.