Weakness persisted on the bourses in afternoon trade. At 13:24 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 66.54 points or 0.18% at 37,540.04. The Nifty 50 index was down 7.35 points or 0.06% at 11,349.15
The market opened higher and hit fresh intraday high in early trade. Selling emerged at higher levels, which dragged the market lower in mid-morning trade. Indices sharply recovered in early afternoon trade.
Broader market bucked negative market trend. Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.25%. The BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.28%. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.
The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was positive. On BSE, 1302 shares rose and 1208 shares fell. A total of 150 shares were unchanged.
Coal India (up 2.56%), TCS (up 1.76%), ONGC (up 1.27%), Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (up 1.72%) and IndusInd Bank (up 0.93%) edged higher from the Sensex pack.
Vedanta (down 1.8%), Maruti Suzuki India (down 1.7%) and Tata Steel (down 1.63%) edged lower from the Sensex pack.
Tata Motors rose 1%. The company reported net loss of Rs 1862.57 crore in Q1 June 2018 as compared to net profit of Rs 3199.93 crore in Q1 June 2017. Tata Motors' total income rose 8.09% to Rs 67306.06 crore in Q1 June 2018 over Q1 June 2017. The result was announced after market hours yesterday, 31 July 2018.
Finance costs increased by Rs 266 crore to Rs 1375 crore in Q1 June 2018 over Q1 June 2017. The increase is primarily due to higher borrowings in JLR. Closing net debt was Rs 62436 crore compared to Rs 39977 crore as at 31 March 2018, reflecting negative free cash flow at both Tata Motors and JLR with continued high investments.
Natarajan Chandrasekaran, Chairman, Tata Motors said that the company continued to gain market share while strongly improving profitability in both Commercial Vehicles and Passenger Vehicles. With regards to JLR, the company faced multiple challenges including temporary issues like China duty impact as well as the market issues like diesel concerns in UK and Europe.
On the macro front, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will conclude its two-day monetary policy meeting today, 1 August 2018. The resolution of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will be unveiled at 14:30 IST today, 1 August 2018. RBI raised its benchmark policy repo rate by 0.25% to 6.25% in its second bi-monthly monetary policy for 2018-2019 on 6 June 2018.
Overseas, European stocks drifted as investors sifted through the latest news on the US-China trade front and positive corporate earnings from the likes of Apple. Most Asian stocks edged higher, taking cues from the positive session seen in the US market following news that the US and China may restart official talks about their months-long trade dispute.
US stocks closed higher Tuesday, as investors continued to digest an onslaught of quarterly earnings reports, with the vast majority beating expectations. But headline news on trade continued to drive markets.
According to media reports, representatives of US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He are in private talks to resume negotiations on trade matters in a bid to avoid a trade war.
Investors will be watching data from around the Asian region, including manufacturing activity numbers from China, for indications of the outlook for the global economy.
Policy meetings of the US Federal Reserve on Wednesday, 1 August 2018, and the Bank of England on Thursday, 2 August 2018, will also keep some investors on the sidelines, although the US central bank is expected to keep rates unchanged.
On the US data front, consumer spending rose a solid 0.4% in June. Meanwhile, the employment cost index rose 0.6% in the second quarter. The S&P/Case-Shiller national index rose a seasonally adjusted 0.4% and was up 6.4% for the year in May. A measure of regional manufacturing activity in Chicago came in at the highest in six months. Chicago PMI rose 1.4 points to 65.5 in July, MNI Indicators said. Any reading above 50 indicates improving conditions. Separately, a reading of consumer confidence came in at 127.4 in July, compared with 126.5 in the previous month.
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