Key indices continued to trade on a weak note in mid-morning trade as the Sensex hit a fresh intraday low, while the Nifty continued hovering near the day's low. At 11:20 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 113.12 points or 0.31% at 35,920.61. The Nifty 50 index was down 28.25 points or 0.26% at 11,021.40. The Sensex was trading a tad below the psychological 36,000 mark.
Key indices opened lower. After displaying some volatility in early trade, the Nifty hit fresh intraday low in morning trade and the Sensex hit fresh intraday low in mid-morning trade.
The Sensex rose 13.94 points, or 0.04% at the day's high of 36,047.67 in early trade. The index fell 143.81 points, or 0.40% at the day's low of 35,889.92 in mid-morning trade, its lowest level since 25 January 2018. The Nifty rose 8.85 points, or 0.08% at the day's high of 11,058.50 in early trade. The index fell 38.95 points, or 0.35% at the day's low of 11,010.70 in morning trade, its lowest level since 25 January 2018.
Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was down 0.83%, underperforming the Sensex. The BSE Small-Cap index was down 0.19%, outperforming the Sensex.
The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, once again turned negative from positive. On BSE, 1,318 shares fell and 1,140 shares rose. A total of 138 shares were unchanged.
IT stocks were mixed. MphasiS (up 1.63%), Persistent Systems (up 1.29%), Tech Mahindra (up 0.43%), HCL Technologies (up 0.32%) and MindTree (up 0.22%), edged higher. Infosys (down 0.57%), Hexaware Technologies (down 0.92%), Wipro (down 1.04%), TCS (down 1.09%) and Oracle Financial Services Software (down 1.18%), edged lower.
Most pharmaceutical shares declined. Dr Reddy's Laboratories (down 2.64%), Divi's Laboratories (down 2.2%), Lupin (down 1.98%), Wockhardt (down 1.86%), Glenmark Pharmaceuticals (down 1.71%), Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (down 1.49%), Alkem Laboratories (down 1.13%), Strides Shasun (down 0.91%), Cipla (down 0.76%), Aurobindo Pharma (down 0.02%) and GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals (down 0.01%), edged lower. Piramal Enterprises (up 0.01%), Cadila Healthcare (up 0.05%) and IPCA Laboratories (up 1.16%), edged higher.
Jagran Prakashan fell 1.07% after consolidated net profit fell 11.1% to Rs 87.23 crore on 0.6% decline in net sales to Rs 598.07 crore in Q3 December 2017 over Q3 December 2016. The result was announced after market hours yesterday, 30 January 2018.
The company's consolidated advertisement revenue (revenue from print, radio and digital) declined 1.9% to Rs 439.04 crore in Q3 December 2017 over Q3 December 2016. Operating profit dropped 12.71% to Rs 162.86 crore.
Steel Strips Wheels rose 1.26% after the company said that it has bagged another exports order from US truck and trailer aftermarket for its truck steel wheels plant in Chennai. The announcement was made during market hours today, 31 January 2018.
The order comprises of 4,200 truck wheels to be shipped from the company's Chennai truck plant in next 2 months. The company is in discussions with other large truck & trailer makers in USA and expects to get more orders in this segment in near future. The company expects to increase its presence in high potential truck & trailer wheels market in US & EU in the coming months.
JK Paper rose 3.43% after net profit surged 94.5% to Rs 69.81 crore on 24% growth in net sales to Rs 790.81 crore in Q3 December 2017 over Q3 December 2016. The result was announced after market hours yesterday, 30 January 2018.
The next major trigger for the market is Union Budget 2018-2019, which will be presented by the finance minister Arun Jaitley in the parliament on Thursday, 1 February 2018.
The Budget Session of the parliament began on 29 January 2018. The first phase of the budget session of the parliament is being held from 29 January 2018 to 9 February 2018. After a recess, Parliament will meet again from 5 March 2018 to 6 April 2018, as per reports.
The Economic Survey 2017-18 was tabled in Parliament on 29 January 2018. The survey estimated that India's economy should grow between 7% and 7.5% in the 2018/19 (April-March) with exports and private investment set to rebound. The survey estimated that gross domestic product will have grown 6.75% in the current fiscal year ending in March 2018.
Overseas, Asian shares were mixed as traders studied US President Donald Trump's call for infrastructure investment in his State of the Union address.
China's Shanghai Composite was down 0.45%. A monthly index showed that Chinese manufacturing started the year off at a slower pace as factory activity eased on softer demand, especially for exports. The official purchasing managers' index for January, released on Wednesday, slipped to 51.3, down from December's 51.6 and the weakest reading in eight months. The index is based on a 100-point scale where the 50 mark separates expansion from contraction.
US stocks declined on Tuesday, as heavy losses in health-care and energy shares weighed on the main indexes. Climbing US bond yields, which imply a rise in borrowing costs, also put pressure on stocks.
US Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) commenced its two-day meeting on monetary policy yesterday, 30 January 2018, with a policy decision due later in the global day today, 31 January 2018. The Fed, in a widely expected move, had raised interest rates by 25 basis points (bps) to a range of 1.25-1.5% in its December monetary policy meeting.
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