Sensex ends on a negative note, Nifty manages to hold 9300; IT stocks gain

3:30 pm Market at Close: Benchmark indices ended the day on a negative note, with the Nifty holding on to its 9300-mark.

The Sensex was down 26.38 points at 29894.80, while the Nifty was down 1.85 points at 9311.95. The market breadth was negative as 1,344 shares advanced against a decline of 1,504 shares, while 165 shares were unchanged.

TCS, Infosys, Bharti Infratel and PowerGrid were the top gainers on both indices, while Lupin, Tata Motors and Aurobindo Pharma lost the most.

2:58 pm Economic Growth: The Indian economy will grow 7.4 percent this fiscal and 7.6 percent in the next as the bankruptcy and GST laws will help create a better business friendly environment, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said today.

Ahead of its 50th annual meeting to be attended by finance minister and central bank governors of member nations, the multilateral agency's Chief Economist Yasuyuki Sawada said the reforms like the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and the new bankruptcy law will make it easier to do business in India.

"India's growth rate is picking up, 7.4 per cent this year and next year 7.6 per cent," he told a media briefing.

The growth rate compares to 7.1 per cent of the previous fiscal.

2:40 pm Earnings: Dewan Housing Finance's fourth quarter increased to Rs 2,217.7 crore (including exceptional gain of Rs 1,969.4 crore) from Rs 189.7 crore in same quarter last fiscal.

The company earned exceptional hain at Rs 1,969.4 crore on sale of stake in unit.

Net interest income increased sharply by 31 percent year-on-year to Rs 627.9 crore from Rs 479.3 crore.

2:20 pm Buzzing: Cummins India share price hit fresh 52-week high of Rs 1,096.20, up nearly 10 percent intraday after Morgan Stanley's double upgrade and parent company's positive outlook for India business.

Morgan Stanley has upgraded the stock to overweight and increased target price by 84 percent to Rs 1,192 (implying 20 percent upside) after raising FY18 and FY19 EPS forecasts by 2 percent and 5 percent, respectively.

The stock has underperformed the Sensex by around 4 percent over the past year, which the research firm thinks reflects 20 percent consensus earnings downgrades in CY2016. However, it believes this earnings downcycle is now behind.

Morgan Stanley also sees the potential for margin expansion helped by higher revenue growth.

In addition, with a strong balance sheet and support from its parent company, which provides access to technology, the brokerage house thinks the company will perform better relative to peers in the medium term.

2:00 pm Market Check: Equity benchmarks continued to be volatile in afternoon as investors awaited ICICI Bank earnings due later today and Federal Reserve policy meet.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 13.39 points at 29,934.57 and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 5.55 points at 9,319.35.

Bank of Baroda, Bharti Infratel, Power Grid, UltraTech Cement, TCS, SBI and Infosys gained 1-3 percent while Lupin, Sun Pharma, Tata Steel, Adani Ports, ICICI Bank, Aurobindo Pharma, Tata Power and Hindalco were under pressure.

The Nifty IT index gained 1 percent and PSU Bank index rallied over 2 percent whereas FMCG, Pharma and Metal indexes fell 0.4-0.7 percent.

1:45 pm Local steel usage mandatory? The Cabinet may clear a proposal on Wednesday to make usage of local steel mandatory for government's infrastructure projects, an official with direct knowledge of the matter said, aimed at boosting sales of local companies and global steel makers' investments.

The ministry's flagship National Steel Policy, which seeks to outline a roadmap to increase the country's annual steel production to 300 million tonnes by 2025, is also expected to be passed in the cabinet, the official told Reuters.

1:30 pm Buzzing stock: Shares of Steel Strips Wheels rose over 3 percent intraday on Wednesday after the company bagged an exports contract.

The company bagged another exports order for supply of steel wheels for EU Caravan market. The order covers supplies of approximately 19,000 wheels, with mix of 13'' and 14'' steel wheels, in a period of 3 months. ''The wheels will be shipped from the company's Chennai plant beginning this month,'' it said in a statement to exchanges.

1:00 pm Market Check: Benchmark indices remained sluggish among consolidation in afternoon trade as investors awaited the outcome of two-day Federal Reserve policy meeting due tonight.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 28.95 points at 29,892.23 and the 50-share NSE Nifty slipped 8.25 points to 9,305.55.

The market breadth also turned in favour of declines. About 1418 shares declined against 1216 advancing shares on the BSE.

ICICI Bank was the leading contributor to Sensex' fall, down more than 1 percent ahead of quarterly earnings due later today.

Lupin was the biggest loser among Sensex stocks, down 2.7 percent followed by ITC, HDFC, L&T, Maruti Suzuki and Adani Ports whereas TCS (up 1.9 percent) and Infosys (up 1.4 percent) continued to support the market.

12:54 pm Buzzing: Subex share price gained nearly 13 percent intraday on receiving a 5-year multi-million dollar framework contract with BT.

"The new framework contract will cover the ongoing provision of Subex's ROC (revenue operations centre) portfolio software solutions, applications/operations support, and managed services," the Bangalore-based IT company said in its filing.

These are delivered across BT's domestic and international interconnect billing and settlements, revenue assurance and event integrity domains.

12:43 pm Europe opening: European markets opened lower. Investors digested the latest in Brexit negotiations and corporate earnings.

The Britain's FTSE was trading at 7,237, up 0.16 percent.

12:32 pm Bond outlook: Dhawal Dalal of Edelweiss MF says government bond prices have been drifting lower amid lack of any positive triggers and position adjustment ahead of key events on the global front.

He expects the 10-year benchmark bond yield to cross 7 percent in the near term as market participants await announcement of the new 10-year government bond auction.

FPI flows have also slowed down last week, Dalal says.

12:28 pm Earnings Estimates: Country's largest private sector lender ICICI Bank is expected to see pressure on its earnings due to likely elevated provisions and higher slippages on sequential basis but year-on-year numbers may be higher due to low base in year-ago period.

Profit during January-March quarter is seen rising 202 percent to Rs 2,119.9 crore and net interest income is likely to increase 0.2 percent to Rs 5,416.3 crore compared with corresponding quarter of last fiscal.

Analysts expect slippages to remain on the higher end between Rs 6,500-7,000 crore. While income will be under pressure, low cost deposit flow should aid in topline momentum, they say.

Movement of stressed assets and loan growth will be closely watched.

12:15 pm Market Check: After remaining rangebound in the morning session, benchmark indices were trading in the red.

The Sensex was down 22.08 points at 29899.10, while the Nifty was down 3 points at 9310.80. the market breadth was negative as 1,223 shares advanced against a decline of 1,333 shares, while 157 shares were unchanged.

A fall in ICICI Bank dragged the indices lower, while Lupin, Adani Ports and Tata Power lost the most. Meanwhile, IT stocks TCS and Infosys continued to gain.

12:00 pm Rupee Outlook: Ashutosh Raina of HDFC Bank says the USD-INR pair continued to trade in a narrow range of 64-64.30 against the US dollar, ahead of the FOMC meeting today, as markets will be awaiting the accompanying statements from Fed.

He expects the pair to continue trading in the 64.00-64.30 range today also.

11:54 am Buzzing: RBL Bank share price hit a fresh all-time high of Rs 600 after reporting stellar earnings growth despite higher provisions and weak asset quality performance. The stock gained as much as 2.5 percent intraday.

The bank said profit grew by 54 percent year-on-year to Rs 130.1 crore in the quarter ended March 2017. The growth was driven by net interest income, other income and operating income.

Net interest income, the difference between interest earned and interest expended, shot up 46.6 percent to Rs 352.2 crore in March quarter FY17 year-on-year, with loan growth of 39 percent and net interest margin at 3.5 percent (against 3.2 percent YoY and 3.4 percent QoQ).

Asset quality weakened in January-March quarter as gross non-performing assets rose 14 basis points to 1.20 percent and net NPA increased 12 bps to 0.64 percent compared with previous quarter.

11:40 am Rupee update: After having opened higher against the dollar, the rupee traded in a tight range for the first couple of hours as exporters and custodian banks continued to sell dollars. The rupee was trading at 64.13, up 8 paise from its previous close.

Analysts said the strength in the rupee was also partly due to strength in the domestic equity market and a weak dollar overseas. After opening below 99, the dollar index continued to trade between 98.90 and 99 for some time, before slowly inching above the 99 level.

11:15 am Market Check: Benchmark indices were rangebound during the morning session, with indices holding on to key milestones.

The Sensex was up 31.63 points at 29952.81, while the Nifty was up 13.25 points at 9327.05. The market breadth was narrow as 1,300 shares advanced against a decline of 1,091 shares, while 145 shares were unchanged.

Infosys, TCS, PowerGrid and UltraTech were top gainers on both the indices, while Lupin, Adani Ports and Tata Power lost the most.

11:00 am Buzzing: TVS Motor Company share price gained more than 2 percent intraday after better-than-expected sales performance in the month of April.

The flagship company of the USD 7 billion TVS Group said it posted a sales growth of 8.46 percenet in April, with total sales increasing from 227,096 units recorded in April 2016 to 246,310 units in April 2017.

Total two-wheeler sales during the month increased by 8.4 percent to 241,007 units while domestic two-wheeler sales grew by 4 percent to 205,522 units compared with same month last year.

Scooters sales of the company grew by 28.6 percent to 81,443 units and motorcycles sales rose by 10.4 percent to 99,890 units in April 2017 YoY, TVS Motor said in its filing.

Exports during the month increased sharply by 41.9 percent to 40,221 units against 28,354 units exported in corresponding month last year.

10:39 am JLR sales: The luxury car maker Jaguar Land Rover has reported a solid growth of 35 percent in US sales during April against 19 percent growth in March.

The subsidiary of Tata Motors during the month sold 8,441 units in the US against 6,275 units sold in same month last year, driven by stellar performance by Jaguar.

Jaguar sales shot up 197 percent at 3,230 units while Land Rover sales grew by 0.4 percent to 5,211 units compared with corresponding month last year.

10:20 am Buzzing: Godrej Properties surged of over 14 percent intraday as investors bet positively on the company's sales figures for three projects. The stock also clocked its 52-week high mark.

In an exchange notification, the company said that it had sold over 1,000 apartments across three newly-launched projects across Mumbai, Pune and Greater Noida.

"Godrej Origins at The Trees in Mumbai witnessed sales of 130 apartments within the first week of launch. The Suites at Godrej Golf Links in Greater Noida received a tremendous response with 500 apartments being sold within the first month of its launch. Godrej 24 in Pune saw sales of over 450 apartments within the launch weekend," the company's press release said.

10.01 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks continued to consolidate in morning ahead the outcome of US Federal Reserve meeting due tonight. Investors also awaited more corporate earnings.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 28.98 points at 29,950.16 and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 14.85 points at 9,328.65.

The broader markets continued to outperform benchmarks, with the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices rising 0.4 percent each on positive breadth. About three shares advanced for every two shares declining on the exchange.

9:46 am Auto sales: Bajaj Auto said its total sales in April fell 0.3 percent to 3.29 lakh units compared with 3.30 lakh units sold in same month last year. Weak domestic sales hit total sales performance of the company.

Numbers were ahead of Motilal Oswal estimates of 2.71 lakh units.

Domestic sales declined 21 percent to 1.77 lakh units but exports shot up 46 percent to 1.51 lakh units compared with corresponding month last year.

9:30 am Market Outlook: Prashant Mittal of Ambit says Nifty's movement was subdued last week amidst continuing signs of negative divergence with lower highs being formed on momentum indicators (RSI and MACD) vis-a-vis higher highs on price charts.

Given this negative divergence, he advises investors to maintain caution as a correction on the index is likely over the upcoming sessions towards 9,000.

9:15 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks as well as broader markets opened higher on Wednesday despite mixed Asian cues. Investors awaited the outcome of two-day Federal Reserve Policy meeting due tonight.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 75.63 points at 29,996.81 and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 23 points at 9,336.80. About 682 shares advanced against 194 declining shares on the BSE.

Bajaj Auto, NTPC, L&T, Hero Motocorp, ONGC, Power Grid, Bharti Infratel, BPCL and IOC were early gainers while ITC, Maruti, Sun Pharma, TCS, HDFC, Eicher Motors and Indiabulls Housing were under pressure.

The rupee opened 9 paise higher against the dollar at 64.12, as exporters and custodian banks sold the greenback in early trade.

Analysts attributed this intraday correction to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) intervening to stem the rise of the rupee.

''The bias on the rupee is still positive,'' said a dealer with a foreign bank.

''It is quite likely that we could see another sustained rally from here on.''

Asian markets were mixed, as gains on Wall Street overnight were offset by disappointment with Apple earnings, with traders looking ahead to the US Federal Reserve meeting results.

In Australia, the ASX 200 was down 0.95 percent amid declines in banking and some resources shares. The Shanghai Composite shed 0.33 percent while South Korea's Kospi was up 0.65 percent.