 "Capital goods shares defy weak market trend; BHEL up 3%")
Capital goods shares continued to trade firm in late noon despite weak market trend on the back of encouraging core sector growth in February.
At 2:20pm, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 98 points at 25,243 while the Nifty50 slipped 35 points to 7,703.
Growth of eight core sector industries surged to a 15-month high of 5.7% in February 2016, almost double the 2.9% of January 2016. These industries had expanded by 2.3% in February 2015. Official data issued on Thursday showed only one segment, steel, had a fall in February output against three — crude oil, natural gas and steel — in January.
Foreign institutional investors were net buyers in equities worth Rs 4,057 crore on Thursday, as per provisional stock exchange data.
SECTORS & STOCKS
BSE IT, Oil & Gas indices were among the top losers while Realty was the top gainers up over 2% followed by Capital Goods and Power indices.
Capital goods shares were among the top gainers on the back of robust core sector growth in February. L&T was up 1.6% while state-owned engineering major BHEL was up 3.4%. Further, Deutsche Bank has raised BHEL's outlook to ‘Buy’ from ‘Sell’.
Maruti Suzuki, country's largest car maker, has reported a double digit growth of 14.6% in domestic sales for March. The company posted growth of 11.5% in domestic sales in the year ended March 31, 2016. The stock was down 0.3%.
Tata Motors was down 2% after it said it has divested its entire stake in wholly-owned subsidiary Sheba Properties to another group firm Tata Motors Finance for Rs 405.37 crore.
Mahindra and Mahindra's farm equipment division has raised 35% stake in Finland's Sampo Rosenlew, a combined harvester specialist, for 18 million. M&M has lost over 1%.
ICICI Bank eased 0.6% after it put the plan to sell its subsidiary ICICI Home Finance Co. Ltd on the backburner.
Among others, IVRCL dipped to its multi-year low price at Rs 5.70 on the BSE, dropping 16% in the past two trading sessions after the collapse of the Vivekananda Flyover in Kolkata on Thursday, under execution by the company.
IDBI Bank was up over 3% on the Bombay Stock Exchange after the company announced sale of its stake in National Stock Exchange.
Ashok Leyland was up over 1% after the commercial vehicle major registered 31% growth in total sales at 16,702 units during March, 2016 as against 12,754 units the same month of 2015
