Nifty trades below 8,600 amid volatility; M&M, Sun Pharma fall

Index heavyweights RIL and ITC were the top gainers while private lenders recovered from early lows

Markets have erased early gains and have turned choppy with Sensex and Nifty swinging between negative and positive zone.

At 12:40 pm, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 37 points at 27,812 and the Nifty50 was down 6 points at 8,569.

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Updated at 11:35 am

Benchmark shares indices edged higher in late morning trades after private lenders recovered from their early lows while index heavyweights and IT majors continue to lend support.

At 11:35m, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 111 points at 27,886 and the Nifty50 was up 23 points at 8,598.

ITC was up 1.2% on renewed buying interest while Reliance Industries was up nearly 2%.

IT majors continued to trade firm with Infosys and TCS were up 0.4%-1.4% each.

On the losing side, Bank of Baroda was down 8.5% after the state-owned bank reported 60% year-on-year (YoY) drop in net profit at Rs 424 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2016 (Q1FY17) due to higher provisions and lower net interest income. Further, the bank’s gross net performing assets (NPA) as a percentage of total loans rose to 11.15% at the end of the June 2016 quarter as compared to 9.99% in the March quarter and 4.13% in the June 2015 quarter.

Sun Pharma was down nearly 1% on the back of weak earnings from its overseas subsidiary Taro Pharmaceuticals.

Grasim was down over 4% ahead of its June quarter earnings. Further, the company in a clarification to the stock exchange said that there are no proposals to merge the company with Aditya Birla Nuvo.

Mahindra & Mahindra was down 2%. The auto major posted a standalone net profit of Rs 955 crore, a growth of 12%, compared with Rs 850 crore posted in the corresponding quarter last year. Among others, Tata Motors and Maruti Suzuki were down 0.5%-1% each.

Dilip Buildcon which made its debut on the bourses was up 12% at Rs 246. The infrastructure firm which raised Rs 654-crore through initial public offering (IPO) attracted massive demand with the offer getting oversubscribed by around 21 times.

Among others, Tata Communications was up over 5% after the Lok Sabha passed the Taxation Laws (Amendment) Bill. The Bill, when enacted, will put to rest the Tata Communications- Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) surplus land issue and boost the government’s plans for non-core asset sales in large public sector undertakings (PSUs) that have land banks, the Business Standard report suggests.