Markets remain flat; Bharti Airtel down 2% ahead of Q3 results

ICICI Bank, Vedanta, Maruti Suzuki, Titan and Bharti Airtel are due to release their results today

Markets continue to remain flat as participants remain cautious ahead of the expiry of January derivative contracts today. Meanwhile, weakness in the US equities and a mixed trend in the Asian peers after the US Federal Reserve kept the monetary policy unchanged citing weak economic growth dented sentiment.

At 10:35 am, the S&P BSE Sensex is down 15 points to trade at 24,507 and the Nifty50 has shed 8 points to trade at 7,446.

Top 5 gainers in the Sensex pack are Dr Reddy’s Lab, HUL, Sun Pharma, ITC and TCS up between 0.5%-2%. On the flip side, top 5 losers in the Sensex pack include Bharti Airtel Tata Steel, ICICI Bank, HDFC and ONGC down between 1%-2%.

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(updated at 9:40 am)

Markets have started the session on a cautious note as participants remained cautious ahead of the expiry of January derivative contracts today. Meanwhile, weakness in the US equities and a mixed trend in the Asian peers after the US Federal Reserve kept the monetary policy unchanged citing weak economic growth dented sentiment.

At 9:40 am, the S&P BSE Sensex is down 8 points to trade at 24,484 and the Nifty50 has shed 4 points to trade at 7,434. In the broader market, BSE Midcap index is down 0.2% and BSE Smallcap index is up 0.2%.

“Nifty50 has turned from crucial support near to oversold territory and now to cross and hold above 7,450 zones to witness an up move towards 7,480 and 7,539 levels. On the downside if it sustains below 7,420 zones, profit booking may drag it towards 7,380 and 7,365 zones. Traders are required to remain cautious ahead of the third quarterly result season which may give stock specific action to the market,” said Anand Rathi in a morning note.
 

Back home, the telecom regulatory authority TRAI The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has recommended auction of 700 MHz spectrum for the first time, at a reserve price of Rs 11,485 crore per MHz.

Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors were net sellers in equities to the tune of Rs 367 crore on Wednesday, as per provisional stock exchange data.

GLOBAL MARKETS

Asian shares recouped early losses and were trading flat with positive bias. Japanese benchmark Nikkei was flat while Shanghai Composite was down 0.5%. Meanwhile Straits Times was up 0.3% and Hang Seng gained 0.1%.

US stocks ended over 1% lower after the US Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged citing growth concerns and said that it was "closely monitoring" global economic and financial developments. The Dow Jones industrial average ended down 1.4% at 15,944. The broader S&P 500 ended down 1.1% at 1,883 and tech-laden Nasdaq Composite ended down 2.2% at 4,468.

RESULT CALENDAR

Some of the notable companies are due to release the December quarter earnings today such as ICICI Bank (up 0.3%), Maruti Suzuki (down 1%), Bharti Airtel (down 1%), Vedanta (up 1%) and Titan (down 0.6%)

RESULT REACTION

Mortgage lender HDFC posted a marginal 6.7% growth in standalone net profit at Rs 1,521 crore for the third quarter ended December 2015, on lower income from investments and higher provisions for standard loans. It had posted a net profit of Rs 1,425 crore in October-December 2014 (Q3FY15). HDFC has emerged as the top loser and is down over 1%.

Power Grid Corporation of India is trading 2% higher after reporting a 31% jump in its standalone net profit at Rs 1,613.12 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2015 on account of increase in revenue from transmission business.

IDFC Bank is up 25 after  it reported a net profit of Rs 242.2 crore in the October-December quarter. Net interest income, the difference between interest earned and interest expended, for the quarter stood at Rs 404.2 crore. Other income for the quarter ended December stood at Rs 200 crore.

Neyveli Lignite Corporation slumped 5% after the net profit dropped 85% to Rs 47.61 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2015. The company had reported a net profit of Rs 309.47 crore in the year-ago period.

SKS Microfinance is up 0.5% after it posted nearly twofold increase in net profit at Rs 79,4 crore for the third quarter ended December 31. The microfinance company had a net profit of Rs 41 crore in the similar quarter of the previous fiscal. 

JustDial cracked 9% after it reported 8.03% increase in net profit at Rs 32.14 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2014. The company had reported a net profit of Rs 29.75 crore in the corresponding quarter a year ago.