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Markets extended losses in noon trades as investors trimmed positions ahead of the outcome of the policy meetings from the Bank of Japan and US Federal Reserve which begin today.
At 1:50pm, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 131 points at 28,503 and the Nifty 50 index was slipped 39 points to 8,769.
The losses were led by index heavyweights ITC, Infosys and Reliance Industries.
Infosys was down over 1%. The exit of the seventh key executive in Sanjay Purohit weighed on investor sentiment.
Two-wheeler majors Bajaj Auto and Hero MotoCorp which had rallied in the previous sessions witnessed profit taking and were down over 2% each.
Among other shares, Kolte-Patil Developers has moved higher by 11% to Rs 134 on the BSE after the real estate company said that it expects to record 20% year-on-year growth in volume for the rest of the current fiscal (2016-17).
KPR Mill hit a new high of Rs 1,242, up 4% on the BSE in intra-day trade, after the company announced that its board will meet on October 5, 2016 to consider stock-split proposal.
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(Updated at 12:30pm
A rangebound movement was witnessed as key benchmark indices hovered in negative zone in mid-morning trade. At 12:30 PM, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 94 points or 0.3% at 28,540. The Nifty 50 index was currently down 25.85 points or 0.29% at 8,782.55. Weakness in global stocks weighed on sentiment on the domestic bourses.
The market breadth indicating the overall health of the market was positive. On BSE, 1,106 shares rose and 1,103 shares declined. A total of 150 shares were unchanged. The BSE Mid-Cap index was currently up 0.23%. The BSE Small-Cap index was currently up 0.04%. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.
In overseas stock markets, Asian stocks were mostly lower tracking lacklustre trading on Wall Street overnight ahead of a two-day Federal Reserve meeting starting today, 20 September 2016. The Bank of Japan (BOJ) begins a two-day monetary policy meeting today, 20 September 2016. The central bank will conduct a comprehensive review of its stimulus programme after failing to reach its 2% inflation target.
Investors are divided on what steps the central bank will take. Some expect that the BOJ will push back additional easing steps, while making its government bond buying more flexible to steepen the yield curve. Others expect the BOJ to launch fresh stimulus through a further push into negative territory and increased asset purchases.
The central bank had kept its pledge to increase the monetary base at an annual pace of about 80 trillion yen and left the interest rate unchanged at minus 0.1% at its July 2016 meeting. Policymakers also decided to increase the annual exchange-traded equity funds purchase target to 6 trillion yen from the previous 3.3 trillion yen.
US stocks registered tiny losses yesterday, 19 September 2016, after a choppy session, with telecommunications shares lagging. The US Federal Reserve policy makers begin their two-day policy meeting today, 20 September 2016. The Fed is expected to keep its benchmark interest rate unchanged in the wake of recent downbeat US economic indicators. The Fed left the target range for its federal funds rate unchanged at 0.25% to 0.5% for the fifth time during its July 2016 meeting.
Stocks of public sector banks were mixed. Canara Bank (up 1.21%), Bank of Baroda (up 0.72%), Union Bank of India (up 0.46%) and Bank of India (up 0.38%) edged higher. State Bank of India (down 0.04%), IDBI Bank (down 1.32%), Punjab National Bank (down 0.18%) and United Bank of India (down 0.91%) edged lower.
Stocks of private sector banks edged lower. Kotak Mahindra Bank (down 0.72%), ICICI Bank (down 0.57%), RBL Bank (down 0.6%), Axis Bank (down 0.32%) and IndusInd Bank (down 0.26%) declined. Yes Bank (up 0.41%) edged higher.
Index heavyweight HDFC Bank was down 0.14% at Rs 1,288.25. The stock hit a high of Rs 1,299 and a low of Rs 1,286 so far during the day.
Realty stocks declined. Indiabulls Real Estate (down 3.24%), Oberoi Realty (down 2.28%), DLF (down 2.01%), Unitech (down 0.47%), D B Realty (down 0.94%), Godrej Properties (down 0.31%) and Housing Development & Infrastructure (down 1.19%) edged lower. Prestige Estates Projects (up 1.68%) and Sobha (up 0.86%) edged higher.
Mangalam Cement rose 4.44% at Rs 349.35 after the company said it has commenced commercial production at the new cement grinding unit with a capacity of 0.75 million ton per annum (MTPA) at Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh. The overall capacity is now enhanced from 3.25 MTPA to 4 MTPA. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 19 September 2016.
Lloyd Electric & Engineering gained 1.22% at Rs 277.05 after the company said it was awarded major Indian Locomotive heating, ventilation and air conditioning contract by GE Transportation. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 19 September 2016. Lloyd Electric & Engineering has been awarded a contract worth $18 million by GE Transportation to supply custom designed air conditioning units for the Indian Railways Marhowra Locomotive project.
The contract is to design, manufacture, test and supply air conditioning units to be manufactured in Lloyd's factory in Bhiwadi, Rajasthan over a period of 11 years. Design of the equipment will be a collaborative effort within the Lloyd group of companies and led by Lloyd's recently acquired subsidiary Noske-Kaeser Rail & Vehicle New Zealand, based in Palmerston North, New Zealand.
The air conditioning units to be manufactured by Lloyd are to provide driver comfort for 1,000 diesel locomotives to be manufactured in a new plant being built by GE Transportation in Marhowra, Bihar. This project advances the ‘Make in India' initiative.
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