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Benchmark share indices continued to trade flat in noon trades on Tuesday as gains in IT major Infosys helped offset most of the losses in pharma major Sun Pharma and FMCG shares.
The monsoon session of the parliament has got off to a stormy start today with Lalitgate issue taking centre stage as of now. Meanwhile, investors will keenly await key developments on the GST rollout and the land acquisition bill.
At 1:25pm, the Sensex was up 9 points at 28,429 and the Nifty was up 5 points at 8,609.
The broader markets were also trading marginally lower with the Midcap and smallcap indices down 0.2-0.3% each.
GOLD
Gold futures were ruling steady find support just above its five-year low. Gold August futures were trading at $1,105 per ounce in electronic trade.
RUPEE
The rupee was trading marginally higher at 63.64 compared to its previous close of 63.67.
RESULTS CORNER
Some of the prominent companies due to announce results today are Idea Cellular (up 0.5%), Hindustan Unilever ( down 2.5%), Cairn India (down 1.9%), Eicher Motors ( up 1.1%), Sanofi India (down 0.6%), SKF India (up 0.1%), Bayer CropScience ( up 0.5%), Whirlpool of India (up 0.5%), Indiabulls Housing Finance (down 1.3%).
SECTORS & STOCKS
BSE IT index was the top gainer up 4.7% while BSE Healthcare index was the top loser down 4.9%.
Infosys zoomed 10% after the IT major reported better-than-expected net profit and upped its dollar revenue growth for 2015-16. After several quarters the company raised its US dollar revenue guidance from 6.2-8.2% in dollar terms to 7.2-9.2%. Net profit for April-June 2015 was up 5% on a year-on-year basis at Rs 3,030 crore, against average analyst estimates of Rs 2,993 crore. However, on a sequential basis profit was down 2.1%. Its peer Wipro was up 2.7%.
Bharti Airtel jumped 5% after the company said it has entered into exclusive talks with France's Orange to sell its subsidiaries in Africa.
Sun Pharma slumped nearly 14% after the drug maker said its profit might be "adversely impacted" in financial year 2015-16 (FY16), owing to expenses related to its integration with Ranbaxy, as well as remedial action at plants under the scanner.
Metal shares are down on profit taking. Tata Steel eased 2.6%. Vedanta is down 3.5% ahead of the announcement of Cairn India quarterly results.
HDFC Bank was marginally down.
Oil shares were trading lower after global crude oil prices eased and on concerns of oversupply of both crude and refined products. RIL, ONGC and GAIL down between 0.6-1.5% each.
Among other shares, shares of Thomas Cook were up nearly 2% at Rs 222 after the company said that rating agency ICRA has upgrade its non-convertible debenture (NCD) programme.
Asian Paints was down 1% on profit taking. The paints major reported a net profit of Rs 428 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2015 compared with Rs 309 crore for the same quarter last fiscal.
