Markets trim gains; Nifty below 7,800

Markets trimmed gains as investors booked profits at higher levels

Markets continue to remain rangebound in noon trades on Wednesday as investors booked profits after the Nifty hit a record high of 7,809 in early trades. The gains were led by renewed buying interest in IT majors Infosys and TCS.

At 1:30PM, the 30-share Sensex was trading 77 points higher at 26,103 and the 50-share Nifty was up 14 points at 7,782.

In the broader markets, the small-cap shares which had rallied in the previous few sessions also witnessed profit taking and the BSE Small-cap index was down 0.6% while the Mid-cap index was trading flat with negative bias.

The Indian rupee was trading higher at Rs 60.15 compared to the previous close of 60.24 tracking gains in the domestic stock markets on the back of robust foreign fund inflows. Meanwhile, dollar demand to meet crude oil imports is likely to cap further gains in the rupee.

Asian markets were trading mixed with Japanese shares witnessing profit taking after gains in the previous sesssion. The benchmark Nikkei ended down 0.1% at 15,328.56. Among other majors in the region, Shanghai Composite was up 0.1%, while Hang Seng gained 0.7% and Straits Times was up 0.6%.

European shares were also trading rangebound in early trades as earnings from major corporates continued to weigh on market sentiment. The CAC, DAX and FTSE were up 0.1-0.4%.

The BSE IT index was the top sectoral gainer on the BSE up 1.8% followed by Capital Goods and Bankex. Realty, Auto and FMCG indices were among the top losers.

Infosys was up 2.3% after the company said it has entered into a multi-year agreement with German auto giant Daimler for the management of infrastructure services and data centres.

TCS also witnessed renewed buying interest and the IT major hit a fresh all-time high of Rs 2,565. TCS has become the first company entered into the Rs 5,00,000-crore market cap club fuelled by the surge in its share price after reported a strong earnings during the recently concluded quarter.
Wipro was up 1.5%.

Other shares which contributed the most to Sensex gains include, ICICI Bank, L&T, SBI and M&M among others.

Sun Pharma which had gained post the approval from the stock exchanges for the merger deal with Ranbaxy also witnessed profit taking and was down 0.7%.

Among other shares, Ceat has dipped 7% to Rs 578, extending its Tuesday’s 6% fall, after reporting 21% year on year decline in consolidated net profit at Rs 52 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2014 (Q1), first time in past two years. The tyre maker had profit of Rs 65 crore in the same quarter last year.

Financial Technologies (India) has locked in upper circuit for second straight day, up 10% at Rs 332 on BSE, extending its past two days rally, after the company on Monday announced that it has entered into a share purchase agreement (SPA) to sell its 15% stake in Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) to Kotak Mahindra Bank for Rs 459 crore.

KPIT Technologies plunged 7% to Rs 162 on the BSE after consolidated net profit dropped 17% to Rs 51 crore on 2% decline in revenue to Rs 690 crore in Q1 June 2014 over the corresponding period last year.

Market breadth continued to remain weak with 1,616 losers and 1,146 gainers on the BSE.