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Benchmark shares indices ended at record closing highs with the Nifty rallying for the tenth straight day following the expiry of January derivative contracts.
The 30-share Sensex provisionally ended up 117 points at 29,676 and the 50-share Nifty ended up 33 points at 8,947.
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(Updated at 2:35PM)
Benchmark shares indices continued to trade lower, amid weak global cues, weighed down by profit taking in financials shares ahead of the expiry of January derivative contracts today.
At 2:35PM, the 30-share Sensex was down 98 points at 29,461 and the 50-share Nifty was down 32 points at 8,882.
The Indian rupee was trading lower at 61.50 to the US dollar compared to previous close of 61.41 on the back of month-end dollar demand from importers.
Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors were net buyers in Indian equities worth Rs 1,723 crore on Wednesday, as per provisional stock exchange data.
BSE Metal index was down 1.1% followed by Bankex, Auto, IT and Capital Goods indices while Realty, Oil and Gas indices were up 1.4-2.9% each.
HDFC was down 2.7%. The mortgage lender reported a Q3 net profit of Rs 1,425 crore, up 11.5% from the year-ago quarter. It had reported net profit of Rs 1,277 crore in the quarter ended 31 December, 2013. Among others, ICICI Bank and SBI were down 1-2% each.
Coal India was down nearly 3% after the government on Wednesday decided to sell up to 10% stake in the company through offer for sale (OFS) on Friday.
Infosys has lost nearly 0.5% after foreign brokerage Jefferies downgraded the stock to underperform from hold; cuts price target to Rs 1,790 from Rs 2,040.
In the metal pack, Sesa Sterlite and Tata Steel were down over 1%. Tata Steel said it will soon start operation of its Sukinda chromite mine in Jajpur district following the third renewal of the mining lease by the state government recently.
Other Sensex losers include M&M and Sun Pharma among others.
However, HDFC Bank was up 2% after after the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Wednesday approved HDFC Bank’s proposal to raise up to Rs 10,000 crore by selling shares to foreign investors.
Dr Reddy's Labs was up 1%. The pharma major today reported a third quarter net profit of Rs 575 crore, down 7% from Rs 618 crore in the year-ago quarter. However, the operating margin came in at 18.8%, with EBITDA at Rs 1,050 crore.
RIL is trading higher by 2.3%. According to media reports, RIL has won the contract to supply diesel to the Indian Railways replacing Indian Oil Corporation.
Asian Paints was down 2% because of single digit volume growth in the decorative paint segment due to sluggish demand. However, the company reported 11.78% increase in consolidated net profit at Rs 368.18 crore for the third quarter ended December 2014.
In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap was down 0.3% while the Small-cap index was trading flat.
Market breadth was weak with 1,487 losers and 1,288 gainers on the BSE.
