Markets at day's low; July WPI near 2-year high

Markets extended losses in noon trades after July WPI stood at 23-month high

Benchmark share indices extended losses amid profit booking in select index heavweights after July WPI increased to 3.55%, which was higher-than-expected.

At 12:15pm, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 184 points at 27,968 and the Nifty50 was down 61 points at 8,611.

Among the index heavyweights, Infosys, HDFC and Reliance Industries were down over 1.5% each. Other index losers include, Tata Motors, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank and Sun Pharma among others.
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(Updated at 11:10am)
Benchmark share indices continued to remain flat in late morning trade as losses in index heavweight capped further upsides.
 

At 11:10am, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 20 points at 28,132 and the Nifty50 was down 11 points at 8,662.

Adani Ports extended gains and was up 5% after the company recently posted robust June quarter earnings.

SBI trimmed some of its early gains. The state-owned banking major reported lower-than-expected rise in bad loans in the June quarter.

Other gainers inlcude, ICICI Bank,L&T and ITC among others.

Infosys trimmed early losses and was down 1.4%. Reports suggest that its key client Royal Bank of Scotland cancelled a project to set up a separate bank in the United Kingdom.

Axis Bank eased over 1% on profit taking after recent gains. Other losers include, Tata Motors and Sun Pharma among others.

Among other shares, Divis Laboratories has rallied 5.5% to Rs 1,255, also its record high on the BSE, after the company reported 23% year on year jump in standalone net profit at Rs 302 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2016 (Q1FY17), on the back of strong revenue growth. The pharmaceuticals company had registered a profit of Rs 245 crore in the same quarter year ago.
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(updated at 9:38am)
Markets opened flat on Tuesday, amid weak Asian cues, with index heavyweight Infosys leading the decline. Further, an uptick in consumer price inflation also dampened sentiment.

At 9:38am, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 3 points at 28,149 and the Nifty50 was down 5 points at 8,667.

Industrial production in volume terms continued to show signs of weakness even as it recovered to grow 1.2% in May, after a 0.8% contraction in April, data released on Tuesday showed.

CPI inflation inched up to a 22-month high of 5.77% in June, from 5.76% in May.

Meanwhile, the July inflation data based on wholesale price index (WPI) is scheduled to be announced later today.

Infosys emerged as the top loser down 2.2% amid reports that its key client Royal Bank of Scotland cancelled a project to set up a separate bank in the United Kingdom. The reports suggests that Infosys may lose as much as $50 million in the current year due to the project cancellation. (for details please click here)

Other index losers include, Tata Motors, HDFC, L&T among others.

SBI extended gains and was up over 1% after state-owned banking major reported lower-than-expected rise in bad loans in the June quarter. Among others, ICICI Bank and Yes Bank were up 0.5%-1.5% each.

Power Grid Corporation was up over 2% ahead of its June quarter results later today.


GLOBAL MARKETS

Asian stocks pared early gains and were trading with marginal losses. Earlier, stocks in the continent had touched one-year highs on the back of uptick in global crude oil proces and sharp overnight gains on Wall Street. China's Shanghai Composite down 0.5% while Hang Seng eased 0.2%. In Japan, the benchmark Nikkei was down 1.2% while Straits Times eased 0.1%.

US stocks hit fresh record higher on Monday after an increase in crude oil prices boosted sentiment. All the major stock indices touched new intra-day highs with the Dow Jones industrial average ended up 0.3% at 18,636, S&P 500 gained 0.3% at 2,190 and the Nasdaq settled 0.6% higher at 5,262.