Markets pare morning gains, Sensex slips below 30,000 ahead of Fed meet

The S&P BSE Midcap and the S&P BSE Smallcap indices gains 0.3% and 0.6%, respectively

The benchmark indices pared all its morning gains tracking mixed trend seen in global markets ahead of US Federal Reserve's two-day policy meeting which begins later in the day.

At 09:55 am, the S&P BSE Sensex was trading at 30,888, down 30 points, while the broader Nifty50 was ruling at 9,297, down 7 points.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Midcap index shed initial gains to turn flat, while the S&P BSE Smallcap index was up 0.1%.

Going forward, a minor resistance for the Nifty is placed at 9,367, but looking at the weekly close, we expect it to be surpassed soon. We would continue with our bullish stance on the market and expect the index to gradually march towards our targets of 9,500-9600," said brokerage Angel Broking in a technical note. 

"On the flipside, the penultimate week’s resistances of 9,160-9,200 will now act as a strong support for the index," it added.

Buzzing stocks

Maruti Suzuki hit fresh record high after gaining nearly 3% after the country's largest car maker posted a 19.5% jump in total sales at 1,51,215 units in April, against 1,26,569 units in the same month last year. Its domestic sales rose 23.4% during the month to 1,44,492 units compared to 1,17,045 units in April 2016. 

Ambuja Cements slipped over 3% to Rs 238 after the company on Friday reported a 357% increase in its standalone net profit to Rs 247 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2017 as compared to Rs 54 crore in the corresponding period of previous financial year. The stock was the leading Nifty loser. 

Tata Motors (down 1%) fell the most in two weeks to Rs 451 after the automobile major reported a 21% decline in its total sales, including exports, of passenger and commercial vehicles during April 2017.

Early-bird Q4 results disappointing 

At first glance, the revenue growth of 17.6% year-on-year, that the 135 early-bird companies have reported for the January-March quarter, looks good. But if two of these companies — the country’s largest company in terms of revenue and the most efficient metal producer — are removed, the growth drops to just 7.9%. Net profit growth, year-on-year, was an insipid 8.6% with a large chunk of it coming from a handful of companies. If three of the top five profit earners during the quarter — Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank and Hindustan Zinc — are removed, this growth falls to a mere 3.2%. CLICK HERE FOR FULL REPORT

Fed meet begins today

US interest rate futures were little changed on Monday ahead of a Federal Reserve monetary policy meeting, with traders widely expecting the central bank to leave rates unchanged in a target range of 1.00-1.25%. The Federal Open Market Committee, the central bank's policy setting group, will meet on Tuesday and Wednesday.

China's Caixin PMI

China's factory sector lost momentum in April, with growth slowing to its weakest pace in seven months as domestic and export demand faltered, a private survey showed on Tuesday. The Caixin/Markit Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' index (PMI) fell to 50.3 in April, a significant decline from March's 51.2.

The findings echoed those in official manufacturing and service sector data on Sunday, reinforcing views that China's economic growth remains solid but is starting to moderate after a surprisingly strong start to the year.

Trump opens door to North Korea 

US President Donald Trump on Monday opened the door to meeting North Korea's Kim Jong Un, saying he would be honored to meet the young leader under the right circumstances, even as Pyongyang suggested it would continue its nuclear weapons tests. This has somewhat eased worries about tensions over the Korean peninsula

Global markets

Asian shares advanced on Tuesday, helped by rising optimism on the technology industry and easing concerns over North Korea.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.1%. Japan's Nikkei and Hong Kong's Hang Seng indices rose 0.7% and 0.3%, respectively, while China's Shanghai Composite bucked the trend to dip 0.3% after Caixin PMI data.  

On Wall Street, although the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.13% on Monday, the S&P 500 gained 0.17% and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.73% to a record closing high.

Notably, the world's five largest companies by market capitalization - Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook - all hit intraday or closing highs - or both - on Monday.

(With inputs from Reuters)