Markets trading firm; TCS slumps 7%

Benchmark indices were trading firm even as IT majors TCS and HCL Tech witnessed selling pressure after they reported lower-than-expected revenues for the quarter ended September 30, 2014.
 
At 9.30 AM, the Sensex is up  50  points at  26,061  and the Nifty is up  9 points at 7,757

Foreign funds continued to be net sellers in Indian stocks worth Rs 1,128 crores on Thursday.
 
The gloom hanging upon the Asian markets was partially lifted as he number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits fell to a 14-year low last week and industrial output rose sharply in September after a fall in the previous month. After rising 0.3% from a four and a half month low Nikkei index pared gains and is trading with a loss of 0.1%. Hang Seng is up 0.6% while Straits Times is gaining 0.2% though Shanghai Composite is down 0.4%

Despite strong economic data trading was choppy at US markets as investors remain cautious about a possible fall in US earnings data, worries about Ebola scare and persistent fall in crude prices. The Dow closed with a loss of 0.15% while Nasdaq ended flat. Energy shares provided the biggest boost to the S&P 500 though it ended flat too.

Hero Moto Corp, BHEL, Bharti Airtel, Tata Steel, Axis Bank, SBI and Infosys were the Sensex gainers in early trades up between 1-1.5% while TCS  and HCL  were losers in the benchmark indices and were down between 5 to 7%.

Sectors and Stocks

BSE FMCG and Capital goods indices are the biggest gainers with advances around 1% while BSE IT and Teck indices have plunged around 3%

Hero Moto Corp has gained 1.6% on the back of strong  Q2 profits  at Rs 763 crores which are the highest the firm has ever reported. The previous highest quarterly profit the company has ever reported was in the June quarter of 2012 at Rs 615 crores.Analysts presume the company's product mix has improved, which has driven the improvement in realisations.

Axis  Bank is up around 1% ahead of its Q2 results to be declared later in the day.

Among other bank shares, SBI is up around 1% while HDFC has gained around 0.2%.

IT major TCS fell more than 6% though the company  posted 13.6% annual net profit growth in the July-September quarter, which is slightly below the estimates of analysts. N Chandrasekaran, CEO and MD,  has been reappointed for another five years by the company during the quarter.The company also announced the merger of subsidiary CMC with itself, where shareholders would get 79 TCS shares of Rs 1 each for 100 CMC shares of Rs 10 each.

Among metal stocks while Tata Steel has gained around 1% while Sesa Sterlite is down % along with Hindalco which is losing around 0.1%.

In the broader market both BSE Mid cap and Small Cap have outperformed the market wih gains around 0.3%

Market breadth is positive with  917 advances against 462 declines.