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Markets continued to trade in an extremely narrow range in late mornings deals as stock specific movement was seen post the announcement of third quarter earnings.
At 11:30AM, the 30-share Sensex was down 9 points at 21,329 and the 50-share Nifty was down 5 points at 6,334.
The Indian rupee had breached the Rs 62 per dollar mark in early trade due to month end dollar demand from importers. Bearish equities also dampened sentiments. The rupee was quoting at Rs 61.92 against the previous close of Rs 61.81. Currency dealers believe the central bank may intervene later and save the rupee if there is too much volatility.
Asian markets were trading mixed on Thursday after weak Chinese manufacturing data during January 2014. The flash Markit/HSBC Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) for China contracted to 49.6 in January, from December's 50.5, indicating that economic growth continued to slow down in the new year. China's Shanghai Composite was down 0.4% while Hang Seng dropped 1.4%. Japan's Nikkei slipped 0.5% while Straits Times eased 0.8%.
Capital Goods index was the top gainer among the sectoral indices on the BSE followed by Healthcare index. IT, FMCG, Bankex, Oil and Gas indices were among the top losers.
Larsen & Toubro was up over 3% as the company's margins witnessed expansion during the third quarter ended December post the demerger of its hydro carbon business. The de-merger has aided margins as the hydrocarbon business has been a drag on margins. In Q3, L&T's operating margins have shown a marked improvement, rising 186 bps, year-on-year, to 11.6 per cent, which is well ahead of estimates.
Buying was seen in the pharma segment with Sun Pharma up over 2% while Cipla and Dr Reddys Labs were marginally up.
HDFC was up 0.6% after the mortgage lender posted numbers which were in line with analysts' estimates. Standalone profit after tax for the quarter ended December 2013 rose 12 per cent from a year earlier to Rs 1,278 crore. Bloomberg’s consensus net profit expectation was Rs 1,273 crore.
Bharti Airtel was up over 1% as the telecom major plans to sell its Africa tower business country-wise since it was not able to get a buyer for the entire business. The company plans to sell its Africa tower business starting with Nigeria.
Select IT majors witnessed profit taking after recent gains post the third quarter earnings. TCS and Wipro were down over 1% each.
Mahindra & Mahindra, ICICI Bank, ONGC and index heavyweight Reliance Industries were among the top Sensex losers.
Among other shares, Raymond surged over 3% to Rs 310 after it reported an over four-fold jump in consolidated net profit at Rs 56.89 crore for the third quarter ended December 31 on the back of growth across all businesses and margin expansion in key business segment.
Shares of KPIT Technologies slumped 12% to Rs 161 after sequential decline in consolidated revenue and net profit for the three months ended December 2013. The company reported revenue of Rs 678 crore for the third quarter ended December 2013, down 3.5% compared with Rs 703 crore for the previous quarter ended September 2013. Net profit for the quarter slipped 8.92% to Rs 60.78 crore from Rs 66.73 crore in the September quarter, KPIT said in a release.
The broader markets were mixed, the BSE Mid-cap index was down 0.2% and the Small-cap index was up 0.4%.
Market breadth was almost neutral with 1,065 gainers and 1,043 losers on the BSE.
