Markets at day's low, Nifty fails to hold 8,800; Coal India down 2%

GAIL, Adani Ports, Tata Steel and Infosys were the top gainers on BSE Sensex

Benchmark indices pared gains to turn flat after opening on a higher note today following Asian markets and Wall Street hitting record high on Friday.
 
Investors awaited CPI and WPI inflation data which will be released later today after the factory output contracted 0.4% in December.
 
At 12:05 pm, the S&P BSE Sensex was trading at 28,258, down 75 points, while the broader Nifty50 was ruling at 8,768, down 25 points.
 
In the broader market, BSE Midcap and BSE Smallcap fell 0.3% and 0.4% respectively.

"Though volatility had dominated last week’s trades, lower ranges were held on anticipated lines, suggesting that uptrend is still intact. To this end, upside target of 8,950 continue to be in play. However, any more attempt to puncture the lower extremities could turn calamitous, but until then, the approach would be to stay with trend," said Geojit Financial Services said in a note.
 
Street also watched out for some major companies to declare their Q3 earnings during the day. A total of 677 firms are supposed to report their third quarter results during the day including Hindalco Industries, HPCL, Nalco, and NMDC among others.
 
On Friday, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 504.51 crore, while Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 244.76 crore, provisional data available with BSE showed.
  
Sectors and Stocks
 

GAIL India gained 1.5% after the company registered a 46% rise in Q3 net profit at Rs 983 crore. It reported Rs 676 crore net profit in the same period of 2015-16. 

Coal India fell 2% after the company reported its Q3 net profit fell 22% to Rs 2,884 crore.

Bank of Baroda declined more than 6%. The bank reported net profit of Rs 252.67 crore for the December 2016 quarter as against net loss of Rs 3342.04 crore in same quarter last year.

Idea Cellular fell 3% on weak results. The telecom major reported net loss of Rs 383.88 crore for the quarter ended December 2016, as against net profit of Rs 659.36 crore in the year-ago quarter. 

Tata Steel, GAIl, NTPC and M&M were the top gainers on BSE Sensex while Coal India HeroMoto Corp and TCS were the biggest laggards. 

 
CPI, WPI inflation today
 
The government will announce January’s CPI and WPI inflation later today. CPI inflation dipped to a 25-month low of 3.41% in December 2016 while the WPI inflation rose to 3.4% in December.
 
"We are expecting softening in inflation number following seasonality, however WPI inflation to stand slightly higher due to rise in crude oil prices," said Abnish Kumar Sudhanshu, Director & Research Head, Amrapali Aadya Trading & Investments in a note.
 
IIP contracts 0.4% in December
 
Industrial output fell 0.4% in December from a year earlier, driven down by a contraction in consumer and capital goods production, government data showed on Friday.
 
A month back, industrial production belied all expectations of huge adverse impact of demonetisation with the index rising to a 13-month high of 5.7% in November against a contraction of 1.8% in the previous month.
 
The cumulative growth of the country's factory output for the April-December period was 0.3%, much lower as compared to the cumulative growth of 3.2 % during the corresponding period of the last fiscal.
 
Fiscal policy under Trump
 
US Federal Reserve Vice-Chair Stanley Fischer said there has been a significant uncertainty about fiscal policy under the Trump administration.
 
"There is quite significant uncertainty about what's actually going to happen, I don't think anyone quite knows. At the moment we're going strictly according to what we see as our responsibility, which is maintaining full employment and getting inflation to 2%," said Fischer.
 
Global Markets
 
Asian stocks ticked up, helped by renewed optimism over Trump's tax reform plans, generally upbeat global economic data and Trump's change of tack to agree to honour the "one China" policy.
 
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gained 0.3%, led by resource-related shares. Japan's Nikkei rose 0.4%, hitting its highest level since early January.
 
The MSCI's world index, which tracks shares in 46 countries, rose to its highest level since May 2015 on Friday, with Wall Street's main stock indexes rising to fresh all-time closing highs.
 
Meanwhile, Hang Seng and Shanghai were trading higher by 0.37% and 0.47%, respectively.
 
(With inputs from Reuters)