Sensex, Nifty trim gains; ICICI Bank down over 1%

Benchmark indices have come off intra-day’s highs after trimming their early gains as the losses in select index heavyweights like ICICI Bank, Infosys and RIL have kept the gains limited at higher levels.  
 
At 1:03PM, the 30-share Sensex was up 97 points at 29,192 and the 50-share Nifty was up 24 points at 8,829.
 
 In the broader market, both the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices, up 0.2% and 0.1% each have underperformed the front-liners. Market breadth in BSE is marginally negative with 1,384 declines against 1,216 advances.     
 

As per the official data released today, wholesale prices declined an annual 0.39% in January, their second fall in three months, on the back of falling fuel prices, even as food inflation rose during the period. The official data released on Monday revised November wholesale price inflation to -0.17% against provisional estimates of 0% earlier. The data came a few days after retail inflation rose 5.11% in January against 4.28% in December.

 
Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors bought equities worth Rs 390 crore on Friday, as per provisional stock exchange data.
 
Buzzing Stocks
 
8 of the 12 sectoral indices of BSE are in green. BSE Realty index, up 1.5%, is the top gainer followed by BSE FMCG index, up 1.3% and BSE Power and Auto indices, up 0.8% each.  BSE Consumer Durables, down 0.8% has lost the most.
 
ITC is trading higher by around 2%, extending its previous session’s gain, after the company acquired trademarks for 'Savlon' and 'Shower To Shower' in India from Johnson & Johnson for an undisclosed amount.

 
HDFC Bank has gained 1% on better-than-expected third quarter earnings. HDFC Bank, India’s second largest private sector bank, has reported a 20 per cent growth in net profit in October-December quarter to Rs 2,794.5 crore.
 
SBI is trading higher by 0.4% and HDFC is up 1.3% while ICICI Bank is down 1.1% and Axis Bank is down 1.4%.
 
Select auto shares have gained in today’s session with M&M, up 2.5% emerging as the top gainer in the sector. Tata Motors is up 1.6%
 
IT shares are trading mixed. TCS and Wipro are trading higher by 1.5% and 0.5% each while Infosys is down 0.9%. Infosys has announced a definitive agreement to fully acquire Panaya Inc., a leading provider of automation technology for large scale enterprise software management, in cash, for an enterprise value of $200 million.

 
Metal stocks have trimmed their early gains but are still trading firm. Sesa Sterlite is up 0.7%, Hindalco is up 0.1% and Tata Steel is up 1.5%.
 
On the second day of the coal block e-auction, Hindalco won the Kathautia coal block in Jharkhand for Rs 2,860 a tonne. This means, the company would pay Rs 228 crore a year and Rs 6,800 crore for the life of the block, which is 30 years.
 
ONGC is trading higher by 0.2% despite its net profit for the third quarter dropping 50 %. The net profit dropped to Rs 3,571.2 crore during the quarter, compared to Rs 7,125.9 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous financial year (2013-14).

 
RIL has shed early gains and is currently trading lower by 0.5%. Stung by lower-than-expected rise in natural gas prices, Canada's Niko Resources has put up for sale its stake in Reliance Industries' KG-D6 gas block, saying there is uncertainty over the long-term price outlook in India. Niko holds 10 per cent stake in the KG-D6 block, where a total of 20 oil & gas discoveries had been made and three out of these are in production.
 
Sun Pharma has lost nearly 2.6% after the drug major reported a 6.92% decline in its consolidated net profit at Rs 1,425.07 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2014. The company had posted a net profit of Rs 1,531.09 crore for the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.