 "Markets begin November series on subdued note")
Benchmark share indices firmed up after the first hour of trade led by Tech Mahindra post encouraging second quarter earnings while Tata Motors rebounded on short covering.
At 10:30am, the the S&P BSE Sensex was up 53 points at 27,969 and the Nifty50 was up 26 points at 8,641. In the broader market, the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices were up nearly 1% each. Market breadth was strong with 1445 losers and 586 gainers on the BSE.
Tech Mahindra was up 6% after revenue for the quarter grew 8.3 per cent to Rs 7,167 crore; sequentially, it was up 3.5 per cent. Bloomberg had estimated the revenue would grow 2.3 per cent and net profit to decline 6.4 per cent. However, net profit was Rs 644.7 crore, down 16.9 per cent from the Rs 776 crore a year before. From the earlier quarter, it was down 14 per cent, due to a one-time restructuring cost of Rs 85 crore.
Tata Motors witnessed short covering at lower levels after the sharp fall in the previous sessions and was up 2% while Hero MotoCorp and Maruti Suzuki were up nearly 1% each.
Private banks also witnessed buying at lower levels after the recent correction. Axis Bank, Yes Bank and IndusInd Bank were up 1%-1.5% each.
Tata Group shares were the most active. Most of these stocks had fallen in the range of 6%-13% in past three trading days after Tata Group's holding company Tata Sons on Monday abruptly ousted Cyrus Mistry as chairman and replaced him with his 78-year-old predecessor Ratan Tata, a scion of the founding family.
Among others, Gokaldas Exports slumped 17% after the company reported a huge loss of Rs 28.8 crore in the quarter ended September 2016 compared with a profit of Rs 5 crore for the same quarter last fiscal.
Shriram City Union Finance has surged 9% to Rs 2,546, also its record high on BSE, after the company reported a strong 34.3% year on year growth in net profit at Rs 204 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2016 (Q2FY17), on the back of healthy net interest income.
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(Updated at 10:30am)
Markets started the first day of the November F&O series on a subdued note, amid weak global cues, weighed down by profit taking index heavyweights.
At 9:30am, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 94 points at 27,822 and the Nifty50 was down 23 points at 8,592.
Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors continued to remain sellers in Indian equities with net sales of Rs 470 crore on Thursday, as per provisional stock exchange data.
Global Markets
Most Asian markets were trading lower amid rising prospects that the US Federal Reserve may announce hike in interest rate soon. However, shares in Japan were trading firm after the yen weakened against the US dollar. The benchmark Nikkei was up 0.5%. Chinese shares were trading marginal lower with the Shanghai Composite was down 0.1% while Hang Seng and Straits Times eased 0.4% each.
US stocks ended with marginal losses after investors pressed sales in government bonds while investors remained cautious ahead of third quarter US GDP numbers due for release on Friday. The Dow Jone industrial average ended down 0.2% at 18,170, the S&P 500 slipped 0.3% at 2,133 and the Nasdaq ended down 0.7% at 5,216.
Index Movers
Index heavyweights ITC and Infosys were down 0.5% while in the financials space ICICI Bank and HDFC were the top losers down over 1% each.
Tech Mahindra was up 6% after revenue for the quarter grew 8.3 per cent to Rs 7,167 crore; sequentially, it was up 3.5 per cent. Bloomberg had estimated the revenue would grow 2.3 per cent and net profit to decline 6.4 per cent. However, net profit was Rs 644.7 crore, down 16.9 per cent from the Rs 776 crore a year before. From the earlier quarter, it was down 14 per cent, due to a one-time restructuring cost of Rs 85 crore.
Tata Motors witnessed short covering at lower levels after the sharp fall in the previous sessions and was up 2% while Hero MotoCorp and Maruti Suzuki were up nearly 1% each.
ONGC was up over 1%. The state-owned exploration major said that the board approved bonus issue in the ratio of 1:2 and an interim dividend of 90%.
Broader Markets
Bharat Electronics gained 3% after the state-owned electronics major posted a net profit of Rs 346 crore for the quarter ended September 2016 compared with Rs 206 crore in the same quarter last fiscal.
GMR Infrastructure was up 5% after the company was awarded $270 million (Rs 1,780 crore) in compensation by a three-member international arbitral tribunal in its dispute with the Maldives government.
HMT was up 4% after the Union Cabinet on Thursday cleared the closure of Haryana-based tractor division of HMT by offering voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) or voluntary separation scheme (VSS) at 2007 notional payscales to enable the public sector unit focus on its core business of machine tools.
Torrent Power was down 1% after the company's stand-alone net profit decreased by 41.92% to Rs 138.68 crore in the second quarter as against Rs 238.80 crore in the corresponding period last year.
