Auto stocks outperform in a weak market; Tata Motors up 2%

Auto stocks outperformed in a weak market led by Tata Motors after robust retail JLR sales in June

Benchmark share indices remained weak while auto stocks emerged as outperformers with Tata Motors leading the gains after the auto major reported robust retail JLR sales in June.

At 1:30pm, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 68 points at 27,134 and the Nifty50 was down 14 points at 8,324. In the broader market, the BSE Midcap was up 0.2% while the Smallcap indices was trading flat with negative bias.

Private lenders ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank continued to be the top Sensex losers along with HDFC, ITC and Bharti Airtel.

Tata Motors was up 2.5%. Tata Motors-owned Jaguar Land Rover on Thursday reported 22 per cent jump in global retail sales to a record 2,91,556 units in the first half this year riding on robust demand in Europe and the UK. Among other auto stocks, Hero MotoCorp and Maruti Suzuki were up 0.6%-1.6% each.

IT majors recovered after a correction in the previous session. Infosys and TCS were trading with marginal gains.

Other Sensex gainers include, Asian Paints gained over 2% on hopes of better volume growth for the quarter ended June 2016.
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(Updated at 11:50am)
Benchmark indices continue to trade lower and have hit more than one-week low tracking weak global cues along with selling among telecom and financials leading the fall. 

At 11:50 am, the the S&P BSE Sensex was down 113 points at 27,088 and the Nifty50 was down 31 points at 8,307. In the broader market, the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices were trading mixed. 

Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services says, “The Market is consolidating while awaiting the next triggers from the start of earnings season next week and the monsoon session of parliament to take cues on the sustainability of the recent rally. Indeed, 7th pay recommendation and the initial development of monsoon have been gradually discounted by the market."

Among global markets, Asian stocks edged lower as investors awaited US jobs data to get a clearer picture of the health of the world's biggest economy. US stocks closed mostly lower yesterday tracking sinking oil prices, but the market pared losses late in the session as investors sought bargains ahead of the closely watched jobs report. 

Private-sector employment picked up a bit in June, suggesting the weak May nonfarm-payroll report may be an anomaly, Automatic Data Processing Inc. reported yesterday and initial jobless claims fell last week to a nearly three-month low, showing no evidence of rising layoffs. The US government will announce nonfarm payroll report for June 2016 today.

Back home, the Southwest Monsoon was 35% above average during the week ended Wednesday, pushing overall rainfall numbers since the start of the season to one per cent above average.

Telecom stocks have declined after reports suggested that that the telecom department is likely to soon send out demand notices to some carriers for under reporting of revenues. Reliance Communications (down 2.19%), Bharti Airtel (down 2.48%), Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) (down 2.08%) and Idea Cellular (down 3.24%) declined.

Other notable losers are Adani Ports, L&T, ICICI Bank, GAIL, ONGC and Coal India, all declining between 1.5%-2%. 

Tata Motors has gained around 2%. Tata Motors-owned Jaguar Land Rover on Thursday reported 22 per cent jump in global retail sales to a record 2,91,556 units in the first half this year riding on robust demand in Europe and the UK.

Lupin has secured a partial relief as the US Food and Drug Administration has closed the July 2015 inspection of its Goa plant. The stock is up 1%. 

Shares of print media companies are up on reports that the government is planning to raise the foreign direct investment limit in newspapers and periodicals to 49% from 26% at present. H T Media (up 3.63%), Jagran Prakashan (up 1.59%) and D B Corp (up 1.53%) edged higher. Currently, the foreign direct investment (FDI) policy permits 26% FDI in the publishing of newspapers and periodicals dealing with news and current affairs through government approval route. 

Gujarat Gas was trading higher by 3% at Rs 559 on the BSE in otherwise weak market after the company announced that it has received approval from the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board’s (PNGRB) to lay, build, operate or expand city or local natural gas distribution networks (CGD) in Panchmahal and Anand districts of Gujarat.

Zee Learn has surged 14% to Rs 34.10 on the BSE in early morning trade on back of heavy volumes after its net profit for the first quarter ended June 2016 (Q1FY17) more than doubled to Rs 8.02 crore. Essel Group Company engaged in education business had profit of Rs 3.96 crore in June 2015 quarter.

8K Miles Software Services has moved higher by 10% to Rs 1,950 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) after the company reported 57% jump in consolidated net profit at Rs 19.33 crore for the quarter ended June 2016 (Q1FY17) on a sequential basis.