Markets trim losses; Nifty nears 8,500

Markets have come off day’s low with Nifty nearing 8,500 mark owing to strength in banks and consumer durables with SBI gaining over 3% after the government launched a seven-pronged strategy to revive the ailing PSU banks.

At 12:30 PM, the 30-share Sensex was down 104 points at 27,963 and the 50-share Nifty was down 21 points at 8,498.

Top 5 gainers on the Sensex include SBI, Tata Steel, Sun Pharma, GAIL and Coal India up between 0.5-4%. 

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(updated at 11:25 PM)

Markets continue to reel under pressure on account of profit-booking in IT, capital goods, and oil and gas shares. However, PSU banks saw a renewed buying interest after the government launched a revamp plan, which includes Rs. 20,000 crore capital infusions.

At 11:25AM, the 30-share Sensex was down 266 points at 27,801 and the 50-share Nifty was down 66 points at 8,451.

The broader are also in sync with their larger peers with BSE Midcap and Smallcap down by 0.09% each. The market breadth is strongly negative with 1,230 declines against 930 advances on the BSE.

Meanwhile, the fall in the crude oil prices continued as a global glut of crude supplies showed no signs of abating in the face of sluggish demand.

The easing of macro-economic data, which was released last week, has further raised hopes a rate-cut by the central bank.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers to the tune of Rs 404 crore on Friday, as per provisional stock exchange data.

RUPEE

The rupee slipped 23 paise to 65.22 against the greenback due to appreciation of the American currency overseas.

The fall in the Indian currency is attributed to increased demand for the US currency from importers and a weak trend in the domestic equity market in early trade.

SECTORS & STOCKS

Sectorally, Oil&Gas, Capital Goods, Realty and Technology indices registered losses between 1.1-1.5% each while BSE Consumer Durables and Metal indices were gaining between 0.5-0.9% each.

Cipla has slid nearly 4% on the Sensex on account of profit taking. The company reported an over two-fold jump in its consolidated net profit to Rs 650.61 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2015 mainly on account of robust sales.

Shares of oil marketing companies were under pressure on account of a depreciating rupee. BPCL, IOC, HPCL were down between 1.1-1.4% each. Reliance Inds, Cain India were down between 0.7-3% each on account of a drop in crude oil prices.

ONGC has dipped by 3% after the company reported net profit of Rs 5,460 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2015 (Q1) against an average analyst estimates of Rs 6,029 crore.

Shares of Tata Motors are trading 1% lower after the global wholesales figures including Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) declined from 3,07,017 units in July 2014 to 73,535 units in July 2015 showing a drop of 8%.

On the flip side, shares of public sector undertaking (PSU) banks have rallied after the government proposed to infuse capital in public sector banks and has roped in private sector professionals to run two of its largest banks — Bank of Baroda and Canara Bank. Bank of Baroda has gained 12% while Canara Bank has soared 7%.

HDFC was down 1.6%. The company plans to sell 9% stake in HDFC Life to its British joint venture partner Standard Life for a little over Rs 1,700 crore.

In the banking space, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank and Axis Bank were down 0.3-1.5% each while state-owned SBI was the top Sensex gainer up by 3.6%.

Other notable gainers are Tata Steel, Coal India, and Sun Pharma , all up between 0.6-1.8% each.