Shares turn range bound

Key benchmarks turned range bound in early afternoon trade. At 12:18 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 121.76 points or 0.34% at 35,911.97. The Nifty 50 index was down 32.45 points or 0.29% at 11,017.20. The Sensex was trading a tad below the psychological 36,000 mark.

Overseas, Asian shares were mixed as traders studied US President Donald Trump's call for infrastructure investment in his State of the Union address.

China's Shanghai Composite was down 0.45%. A monthly index showed that Chinese manufacturing started the year off at a slower pace as factory activity eased on softer demand, especially for exports. The official purchasing managers' index for January, released on Wednesday, slipped to 51.3, down from December's 51.6 and the weakest reading in eight months. The index is based on a 100-point scale where the 50 mark separates expansion from contraction.

US stocks declined on Tuesday, as heavy losses in health-care and energy shares weighed on the main indexes. Climbing US bond yields, which imply a rise in borrowing costs, also put pressure on stocks.

US Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) commenced its two-day meeting on monetary policy yesterday, 30 January 2018, with a policy decision due later in the global day today, 31 January 2018. The Fed, in a widely expected move, had raised interest rates by 25 basis points (bps) to a range of 1.25-1.5% in its December monetary policy meeting.

Meanwhile, among secondary barometers back home, the BSE Mid-Cap index was down 1%. The BSE Small-Cap index was down 0.42%. Both these indices underperformed the Sensex.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was negative. On BSE, 1,487 shares fell and 1,098 shares rose. A total of 144 shares were unchanged.

Cement shares witnessed selling pressure. Ambuja Cements (down 1.4%), ACC (down 0.68%) and UltraTech Cement (down 0.25%), edged lower.

Grasim Industries was down 0.23%. Grasim has exposure to cement sector through its holding in UltraTech Cement.

Telecom shares were mixed. Bharti Airtel (up 1.03%), Idea Cellular (up 0.43%) and MTNL (up 0.19%%), edged higher. Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) (down 0.86%) and Reliance Communications (down 2.33%), edged lower.

Telecom tower infrastructure provider Bharti Infratel was up 0.38%.

Orient Bell surged 5.30% after net profit rose 58.6% to Rs 4.25 crore on 16.8% growth in net sales to Rs 165.53 crore in Q3 December 2017 over Q3 December 2016. The result was announced after market hours yesterday, 30 January 2018.

IFB Industries was down 5.23%. The company's consolidated net profit rose 12.3% to Rs 17.29 crore on 19.9% growth in net sales to Rs 549.37 crore in Q3 December 2017 over Q3 December 2016. The result was announced after market hours yesterday, 30 January 2018.

Shares of IFB Industries had witnessed a pre-result slide. The stock had fallen 8.62% in the prior five trading sessions to settle at Rs 1,302.10 yesterday, 30 January 2018, from its closing of Rs 1,425.05 on 22 January 2018.

The next major trigger for the market is Union Budget 2018-2019, which will be presented by the finance minister Arun Jaitley in the parliament on Thursday, 1 February 2018.

The Budget Session of the parliament began on 29 January 2018. The first phase of the budget session of the parliament is being held from 29 January 2018 to 9 February 2018. After a recess, Parliament will meet again from 5 March 2018 to 6 April 2018, as per reports.

The Economic Survey 2017-18 was tabled in Parliament on 29 January 2018. The survey estimated that India's economy should grow between 7% and 7.5% in the 2018/19 (April-March) with exports and private investment set to rebound. The survey estimated that gross domestic product will have grown 6.75% in the current fiscal year ending in March 2018.

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