Market pares losses

Key benchmarks pared losses in early afternoon trade as bargain hunting emerged at lower levels. At 12:18 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 91.62 points or 0.24% at 37,402.78. The Nifty 50 index was down 27.60 points or 0.24% at 11,291.95. Negative leads from Asian markets and overnight fall on the Wall Street spoiled investors sentiment.

Indices opened lower and hit fresh intraday low in mid-morning trade. Indices came off day's low and were hovering in narrow range in early afternoon trade. The Sensex rose 40.55 points, or 0.11% at the day's high of 37,534.95 at the onset of trading session. The index fell 195.65 points, or 0.52% at the day's low of 37,298.75 in mid-morning trade. The Nifty fell 6.9 points, or 0.06% at the day's high of 11,312.65 at the onset of trading session. The index fell 51.80 points, or 0.46% at the day's low of 11,267.75 in mid-morning trade.

Broader market bucked weak market trend. Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.22%. The BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.11%. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was positive. On BSE, 1256 shares rose and 1102 shares fell. A total of 133 shares were unchanged.

Cement shares were mixed. Ambuja Cements (up 0.13%) and ACC (up 0.37%), edged higher.

UltraTech Cement was down 1.07%. Grasim Industries was down 0.31%. Grasim has exposure to cement sector through its holding in UltraTech Cement.

Telecom shares were mixed. MTNL (up 4.5%), Reliance Communications (up 2.31%) and Bharti Airtel (up 1%), edged higher. Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) was down 2.72%.

Telecom tower infrastructure provider Bharti Infratel was down 0.29%

Idea Cellular was down 5.13%. On a consolidated basis, Idea Cellular reported net profit of Rs 256.50 crore in Q1 June 2018 as compared to net loss of Rs 814.90 crore in Q1 June 2017. Total income rose 14.42% to Rs 9454.90 crore in Q1 June 2018 over Q1 June 2017. The result was announced after market hours yesterday, 30 July 2018.

On the macro front, the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI)'s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will meet today, 31 July and tomorrow, 1 August 2018 for the third bi-monthly monetary policy statement for 2018-2019. The resolution of the MPC will be unveiled at 14:30 IST on 1 August 2018. RBI raised its benchmark policy repo rate by 0.25% to 6.25% in its second bi-monthly monetary policy for 2018-2019 on 6 June 2018.

Overseas, most Asian shares bounced back from early lows. Growth in China's services industry in July moderated for the first time in five months, an official survey showed on Tuesday, a sign activity is slowing in a major part of the world's second largest economy. The official non-manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) fell to 54.0 from 55.0 in June, well above the 50-point mark that separates growth from contraction.

Meanwhile, investors are set to focus on the Bank of Japan's decision at the end of its policy meeting later in the day. The US Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee, meanwhile, was due to begin its own monetary policy meeting on Tuesday US hours, with a decision due on Wednesday. The Fed is expected to keep rates steady at the end of its meeting.

US market declined overnight amid weakness in the technology sector. On the data front, US pending home sales rose 0.9% in June, the National Association of Realtors said Monday.

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