 "National Stock Exchange")
Markets have turned flat after Nifty reclaimed the 7,600 mark in the intra-day trades following India’s manufacturing activity expansion on the back of inflows of new business from both domestic and export sources. The weakness is seen in the rate sensitives including financials, auto and realty ahead of the RBI policy review tomorrow.
At 1:55 pm, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 2 points at 24,872 and Nifty50 was up 5 points at 7,568 after hitting intra-day high of 7,600.45.
AUTO STOCKS
Maruti Suzuki has slipped 3% after reporting a low single-digit growth of 0.8% in domestic sales in January. he company’s sales had growth of about 14% in the April-December period.
Hinduja Group flagship firm Ashok Leyland jumped 2% after it reported 31% increase in total sales at 13,886 units in January. The company had sold 10,643 units in the same month last year.
Eicher Motors gained 2% after Royal Enfield reported a 65% jump in total motorcycle sales at 47,710 units last month as against 28,927 units in January, 2015.
Among other stocks, BHEL is trading marginally higher after it secured 27.60 billion rupees order for Tamil Nadu's first, country's highest rating 800 MW supercritical set based power station.
Meanwhile, Lupin is up 1% after The US Food & Drug Administration (USFDA) inspected Lupin’s three plants located at Pithampur, Aurangabad, and Tarapur. All the three plants have been cleared without any observations.
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(updated at 11:40 am)
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(updated at 11:40 am)
Markets trimmed intra-day gains with losses in bank shares ahead of the RBI monetary policy review tomorrow capping upside gains.
At 11:40am, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 71 points at 24,952 and Nifty50 was up 26 points at 7,590 after hitting intra-day high of 7,600.45.
In the broader market, the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices were up 0.7% each. Market breadth was positive with 1491 gainers and 843 losers on the BSE.
Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors turned buyers in equities worth Rs 240 crore, as per provisional stock exchange data.
The Indian rupee was trading higher by 10 paise at 67.68 to the US dollar compared to its previous close.
ECONOMY
After contracting in December 2015, manufacturing registered a four-month high growth in January following inflows of new business from both domestic and export sources, according to a Nikkei purchasing managers'index (PMI) survey. PMI firmed up to 51.1 points in January 2016 from 49.1 in December 2015.
SECTORS & STOCKS
BSE Capital Goods index was the top gainer up 2% followed by FMCG among others. Bankex was the top loser. On the NSE, Bank Nifty was down 0.4% while PSU Bank Nifty 1.6% was the top loser among the sectoral indices.
L&T led the Sensex gains up over 4% after the engineering major reported a 19% increase in consolidated net profit for the third quarter on the account of improved execution of projects in its overseas.
Other Sensex gainers include, HDFC Bank, ITC, Adani Ports, Infosy, Lupin and TCS among others.
In the banking pack, ICICI Bank was down nearly 3% after the bank’s asset quality witnessed a sharp deterioration with gross NPAs jumping to Rs 6,500 crore as against an average of Rs 2,400 crore in last four quarters. Among others, SBI and Axis Bank were down 1.5%-2% each.
Maruti Suzuki was down 2.4% after the country’s largest passenger car-maker reported a 2.6% decline in total sales in January 2015 at 113,606 units, due to lower export sales. The company had sold 116,606 units in the same month in 2014.
Among other auto shares, M&M, Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto and Hero MotoCorp were down 0.2%-1% each ahead of their January sales numbers.
Sun Pharma was down nearly 1% on profit taking after nearly 13% gains in the previous few sessions.
Among other shares, Supreme Industries has hit lifetime high of Rs 754, up 2%, extending is past four day’s gain on the BSE, after the company reported more than 100% jump in net profit for the quarter ended December 31, 2015.
