Benchmark indices erase early gains

BHEL, Hindustan Unilever and Tata Motors among the top losers

Markets have given up some of its early gains on account of weakness in names like BHEL, Hindustan Unilever and Tata Motors. At 13 hrs, the Sensex was up 21 points at 18,646 and the Nifty was flat at 5,667.

In the broader markets, the midcap and the smallcap indices were flat with a positive bias in line with the Sensex, up 0.1%.

Stocks in Asia erased early gains as investors booked profit on concerns of economic growth and poor earnings from global corporations. The Shanghai Composite was down 0.5%, Hang Seng slipped 0.3%, Straits Times was down 0.7% and Nikkei was marginally down.

Back home, among the sectoral indices, Consumer Durables and Oil & Gas indices were leading the gains, up 1% each followed by Health Care, Realty, Auto and Metal indices adding 0.1-0.4%. Meanwhile, in the negative zone were Capital Goods down 0.8% along with Power, PSU, FMCG and Bankex down 0.1-0.3%.

The gainers among the Sensex-30 were Wipro, Hero MotoCorp, RIL, Tata Power, Bajaj Auto, Hindalco, Dr Reddys Lab, Mahindra & Mahindra, Cipla and Jindal Steel adding 1-2%.

Among the losers were BHEL down 4% n reporting a lower-than-expected net profit of Rs 1,274 crore as compared to analyst estimates of around Rs 1,418 crore for the second quarter ended September 2012.

Sterlite, HUL, Tata Motors, Gail India and Coal India down 1% each were the other notable losers.

Among individual stocks, United Breweries rallied up to 20% at Rs 882, also its record high, on back of heavy volumes. The stock has bounced back more than 27% from intra-day low of Rs 692 touched in opening deals on the National Stock Exchange.

JSW Steel has moved higher by 2% at Rs 748 after reporting a 547% year-on-year jump in standalone net profit at Rs 822 crore in September 2012 mainly on higher volumes and rupee appreciation impact. The company had a profit of Rs 127 crore in a year ago quarter.

 

KPIT Cummins Infosystems was trading higher 4% at Rs 122 after reporting a better-than-expected 157 bps improvement in operating margins at 16.66% for the second quarter ended September quarter against the company’s target of around 50 bps on quarter on quarter basis.

The market breadth was negative. 1319 stocks declined while 1250 stocks advanced on the BSE.