Sensex dips almost 100 points, Nifty holds 8,150; Sun Pharma, Infosys fall

Benchmark indices continue to trade lower amid profit booking after witnessing sharp upmove in last five trading session. However, the down side is capped due to strong buying among shares of Tata Motors.

By 11:36 am, the S&P BSE Sensex slipped 81 points at 26,645 and Nifty50 dipped 20 points to trade at 8,159. Among broader markets, BSE Midcap index is marginally down whereas BSE Smallcap index has slipped 0.4%.

Top losers from the Sensex pack are Sun Pharma, GAIL, Infosys, Bharti Airtel and Adani Ports, all plunging between 1%-5%. On the gaining side, Tata Motors, NTPC, Maruti Suzuki, Lupin and Tata Steel have surged between 1%-7%.

Shares of Tata Motors zoomed 7% after the auto major reported robust earnings for the quarter ended March 31, 2016.

 
Drug maker Sun Pharma has dropped 5% to quote at Rs 770 on the BSE after the company posted results below Bloomberg estimates on both revenue and profit.

Reliance Communications has slipped 2% to quote at Rs 48 on the BSE after the company posted a 22% drop in the March quarter net profit owing to lower revenue from voice and data services.
   

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Updated at 9:50 am

Markets have turned flat with Nifty50 trading below 8,200 mark amid profit booking at higher levels. 

By 9:50 am, the S&P BSE Sensex slipped 10 points at 26,716 and Nifty50 dipped 5 points to trade at 8,174.

On Monday, shares climbed for a fifth day, led by utilities and automakers, amid optimism about the outlook for company earnings and increases in regional equities.

According to Rohit Gadia, Founder & CEO, CapitalVia Global Research, “We expect Nifty future to hit the level of 8,250, where supply is likely to come. If it breaks above this level, the rally is likely to extend further and then the target could be 8,320. Important support is at 8,000 and as long as market stays above this level trader should use every short term correction as buying opportunity and to book profit around 8,250 and 8,320 levels. Only a break below 8,000 level the short term trend is likely to change. However, seeing the technical scenario of the overall market which is extremely positive a deep cut is not expected going forward. At most we may see market after almost a week of strong bullish movement to consolidate in short term, before resuming its uptrend."

Meanwhile, caution is seen as investors patiently wait for the GDP data for the March quarter and fiscal deficit data for the month of March later today.  India's GDP growth for the fourth quarter of 2015-16 is likely to be around 7.1 per cent, but slow private sector capital expenditure (capex) spending and stressed banking sector will weigh on the economy's growth potential this year, says a DBS report.

Besides, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 355.54 crore yesterday as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges.

Asian shares recovered from a wobbly start on Tuesday, but remained on track for a monthly loss, while the dollar edged away from recent peaks scaled on expectations the US Federal Reserve will raise interest rates as soon as next month.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gained 0.4%, poised to end the month down 1.9%. Japan's Nikkei stock index slipped 0.5% after rallying 1.4% in the previous session. It is up 2.9% for May, thanks to a tailwind from a weaker yen.

Back home, Tata Motors has surged over 7% after reporting stellar numbers for the March quarter, with 19% year-on-year consolidated revenue growth at Rs 80,684 crore. Strong sales growth of Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) across geographies and robust commercial vehicle in the domestic market drove the growth.

Most auto stocks are trading in positive zone as the companies will unveil the monthly sales data for the month of May. Bajaj Auto, M&M and Hero Moto are up 0.4%-1%.

NTPC reported 7.73% drop in its standalone net profit at Rs 2,716.41 crore in the March quarter due to low demand from discoms resulting in sales dip.  NTPC is up 1%.

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance has appointed Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BofA-ML) and ICICI Securities as lead investment bankers for its initial public offering (IPO) of equity. The company, a joint venture between ICICI Bank (the majority equity) and Britain's Prudential (26 per cent), plans to file its offer document with the markets regulator by the end of this year. Stock of ICICI Bank is up 1%.

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, India's largest drug maker, posted 92% growth in net profit in Q4 2016 on a year-on-year basis on the basis of strong revenue growth. Sun Pharma's result however came below Bloomberg estimates on both revenue and profit. The stock has slipped by almost 4%.


With Reuters input