The Sensex and the Nifty firmed up once again in early afternoon trade. At 12:17 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 150.65 points or 0.43% at 35,313.13. The Nifty 50 index was up 26.05 points or 0.25% at 10,610.80. Shares of auto and non-banking financial companies came under selling pressure.
Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was down 0.62%. The BSE Small-Cap index was down 0.61%. Both these indices underperformed the Sensex.
The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was negative. On BSE, 925 shares rose and 1413 shares fell. A total of 115 shares were unchanged.
Shares of non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) tumbled. Indiabulls Housing Finance (down 8.86%), Edelweiss Financial Services (down 6.66%), Muthoot Capital Services (down 5.2%), Reliance Capital (down 4.37%), Bajaj Finance (down 3.28%), IIFL Holdings (down 3.2%), Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services (down 2.65%), Shriram Transport Finance Corporation (down 2.65%), Cholamandalam Investment and Finance Company (down 2.62%), Bajaj Finserv (down 2.19%), IDFC (down 1.9%), Manappuram Finance (down 1.47%) and LIC Housing Finance (down 0.97%), edged lower. Muthoot Finance was up 0.10%.
Auto shares declined. TVS Motor Company (down 2.7%), Maruti Suzuki India (down 1.87%), Eicher Motors (down 1.76%), Ashok Leyland (down 1.37%), Mahindra & Mahindra (down 1.28%), Bajaj Auto (down 0.95%), Tata Motors (down 0.43%) and Hero MotoCorp (down 0.26%), edged lower. Escorts was up 0.53%.
Shares of Hero MotoCorp were down 0.30%. Net profit of Hero MotoCorp declined 3.39% to Rs 976.28 crore on 8.59% rise in net sales to Rs 9090.94 crore in Q2 September 2018 over Q2 September 2017. The result was announced after market hours yesterday, 16 October 2018.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, & amortization (EBITDA) for the quarter stood at Rs 1379 crore, reflecting 15.2% EBITDA margin (vs. 15.6% in Q1 June 2018 and 17.4% in the corresponding period last year). The company reported volumes of 21,34,051 units in Q2 September 2018, a growth of 5.5% over corresponding period.
Overseas, Asian shares rose across the board on Wednesday following a strong bounce on Wall Street overnight. In US, the major indices saw their best day since March, with stocks rising on the back of upbeat earnings and robust economic data.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump continued his criticism of the Federal Reserve, calling it his biggest threat as it was raising rates too fast. Trump had previously said the Fed has "gone crazy" and attributed last week's plunge on Wall Street to the US central bank.
On the data front, US industrial production rose 0.3% in September, according to the Federal Reserve. The number of job openings in the US reached another all-time high of 7.1 million in August, according a report released Tuesday morning by the Labor Department. The same report showed that American workers were voluntarily quitting their jobs at a rate of 2.4% in August, matching the July reading, which was the highest since 2001.
The National Association of Home Builders Confidence Index ticked up one point to 68 in October, though it remains down from a cycle high of 74, reached in December 2017.
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