Nifty edges past 6,545; Infosys caps gains

IT major Infosys tanked a whopping 8.5% to Rs 3,358.90 on reports that IT major expects sluggish growth in the march quarter

Market remained range-bound amid firm trades in noon deals led by banking and oil & gas sector stocks while selling in heavyweight IT stocks capped gains.

Private lender HDFC Bank and oil & gas major Reliance Industries, which gained between 2-3%, are the top heavyweight gainers at this hour and continue to support key benchmark stock indices.

At 2.30PM, the 30-share Sensex was up 73 points at 21,929 levels and the 50-share Nifty was up 28 points at 6,545.

The Indian rupee firmed up after retail inflation data for February, announced a day earlier post market-hours was better than expectations. The partially convertible rupee was trading at 60.04-a-dollar compared to its previous close of 61.22.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) fell to a 25-month low in February and is likely to increase the clamour for the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to cut interest rates in its next monetary policy.

The combined (rural + urban) CPI inflation moderated further to 8.1% during February 2014 as compared to 8.8% in January 2014.

Around the globe

Asian markets finished mixed as of the most recent closing prices. The Shanghai Composite gained 1.07%, while the Hang Seng led the Nikkei 225 lower.

Nikkei extended losses after witnessing a dip on Wednesday as export-oriented stocks witnessed profit and metal shares edged lower over China concerns. The benchmark Nikkei ended down 0.1%.

China witnessed a marked slow-down in the economy in the first two months of 2014, as factory output, growth in investments and retail sales fall to multi-year lows.

China's industrial output grew 8.6% yoy in January and February, missing market expectations, while growth in retail sales was lacklustre too, the National Bureau of Statistics said. Retail sales rose 11.8% in the first two months of 2014 compared to the year ago period, the government said. China's Shanghai Composite was up 1%, Hang Seng was down 0.7% and Straits Times was down 0.4%.

Sector and stocks

Reliance Industries pulled the oil and Gas index to the top slot from amongst the BSE sectoral indices; it is up 2.3% followed by Bankex, Auto, metal, consumer durables among others.

Meanwhile, IT index was the top loser down 2.8%, as rupee strengthened against the greenback on back on lower inflation.

In the banking pack HDFC Bank, SBI, ICICI Bank, HDFC and Axis Bank up 1.3-2.2% each. Banking shares were in demand today as lower-than-expected consumer price inflation for February raised hopes of a policy rate cut by the central bank.

M&M, Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto, Hero MotoCorp were among the top gainers in the auto pack up 1-2.5% each.

IT major Infosys witnessed selling pressure and was down a whopping 8.5% at Rs 3,358.90 on reports that IT major expects sluggish growth in January-March (Q4FY2014) quarter mainly due to muted spending by clients, especially in the retail sector. Infosys indicated that the company has continued to see weakness in client spending throughout the current quarter ending March 31, 2014 and the company may only be able to meet the lower end of its annual revenue growth guidance.

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries has dipped nearly 4% after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued an import alert for all products manufactured at its plant at Karkhadi, Gujarat.

Jubilant Life Sciences has moved higher by 8% to Rs 153 after the company announced a price increase of 18% for Niacin feed-grade, with immediate effect.

In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap index were up 0.7% each.

Market breadth was strong with 1401 gainers and 1268 losers on the BSE.