Sensex, Nifty close lower on caution ahead of Q4 GDP data

3:30 pm Market Closing: Equity benchmarks closed lower on profit booking as investors maintained cautious stance ahead of GDP data due later today.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 13.60 points at 31,145.80 and the 50-share NSE Nifty slipped 3.30 points to 9,621.25 despite positive market breadth.

About 1375 shares advanced against 1294 declining shares on the BSE.

3:15 pm Market Check: Equity benchmarks erased gains amid consolidation. The Sensex was down 17.57 points at 31,141.83 and the Nifty fell 5.30 points to 9,619.25.

3:00 pm Interview: Kamal Baheti, CFO of Mcleod Russel (India) said that any tea plantation company based in north India will have a loss in the Q4 because of seasonal nature of the business.

He further mentioned that Q2 and Q3 are seasonally strong quarters.

According to him, excessive production in Kenya impacted prices last year. However, India opened the season with good prices, he added.

Mcleod Russel is looking to export 20 million kilogram of tea in FY18.

2:50 pm Market Check: The market gained some momentum amid consolidation in afternoon, with benchmark indices hitting fresh record highs.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 57.58 points at 31,216.98 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 12 points to 9,636.55.

The broader markets also climbed further, with the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices rising 1 percent each.

Mahindra & Mahindra retained its top position in the buying list among Sensex stocks, up 5 percent followed by ICICI Bank, Lupin, Maruti Suzuki, Dr Reddy's Labs and Cipla with 1-2 percent upside.

However, the sellling pressure in Infosys, HDFC, Reliance Industries, ONGC, ITC and HUL capped gains.

2:35 pm Buzzing Stock: Shares of IDBI Bank were lower nearly 3 percent intraday on Wednesday after its Indian deposit receipts got a downgrade from a ratings agency.

The bank's long term IDR was downgraded to BB+ from BBB-, but maintained an overall stable outlook.

Apart from this, the bank's short term IDR, viability rating, support rating and a medium term note programme was also downgraded by the ratings agency.

2:14 pm Market Check: Benchmark indices extended their gains from the morning session, with the indices clocking record high levels.

The Sensex is up 73.75 points at 31233.15, while the Nifty was up 16.85 points at 9641.40. The market breadth continued to be narrow as 1,394 shares advanced against a decline of 1,177 shares, while 155 shares were unchanged.

M&M, Lupin and UltraTech Cement gained the most on both indices, while Tata Steel, Infosys, Vedanta and Bharti Infratel lost the most.

1:50 pm SEBI nod sought: HDFC Mutual Fund has sought the Securities and Exchange Board of India's approval to launch HDFC Housing Opportunities Fund-Series 1, according to information on the regulator's website.

Under the Scheme, the fund house proposes to offer 3 plans of tenure ranging between 24 and 66 months. The duration of the plans under the scheme will be decided at the time of launch.

The close-ended thematic equity fund will invest at least 70 percent of its corpus in equity and equity-related instruments of entities in housing and its allied business activities, while it can also deploy up to 30 percent of its assets in shares of entities other than housing and its allied business.

1:34 pm Buzzing Stock: BEML share price spiked nearly 9 percent intraday Wednesday after reporting strong earnings for the quarter ended March 2017.

The PSU company said profit during the quarter grew by 27.1 percent to Rs 186.40 crore compared with Rs 146.65 crore in same quarter last fiscal.

Total revenue increased 18.2 percent to Rs 1,345.67 crore from Rs 1,138.59 crore in corresponding quarter of last fiscal.

1:10 pm Market Check: Consolidation phase ruled the market largely through the morning session on both the indices, with the Nifty comfortably placed above 9600-mark.

The Sensex was up 23.56 points at 31182.96, while the Nifty was up 5.75 points at 9630.30. The market breadth was narrow as 1,396 shares advanced against a decline of 1,105 shares, while 145 shares were unchanged.

Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M), Lupin and UltraTech Cement were the top gainers on both indices, while Infosys, Tata Steel, Bharti Infratel and Vedanta lost the most.

Midcaps continued to gain, albeit at a slower intensity, with the index on Nifty gaining over half a percent.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 was marginally lower by 0.08 percent with most sectors moving south. Basic resources dropped the most in early deals, but major bourses were pointing in different directions.

The FTSE 100 rose 0.2 percent early on Wednesday, as sterling dropped on political concerns. A YouGov poll showed late Tuesday that U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May could fall short of winning an overall majority at next week's general election. She decided to call a snap election to strengthen her parliamentary position and have more power in Brexit negotiations with the EU but her gap from the Labour party has significantly narrowed over the past few days.

12:45 pm Management Speak: In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Amritanshu Khaitan, MD of Eveready Industries India spoke about the results and his outlook for the company.

Battery and flashlight category is a seasonally weak category, he said.

The company is in the process of implementing certain price hikes in AA and AAA categories to mitigate the cost pressure which has impacted margins in Q4, he further said.

12:27 pm May auto sales estimates: While passenger vehicle to continue its growth momentum led by Maruti Suzuki and outperform the auto industry in May, 2-wheeler volume is also expected to be strong led by increase in retail off-take due to marriage season, Motilal Oswal said.

Commercial vehicle sales is expected to be weak YoY due to pre-buying impact in March-17 coupled with shortage of BS-4 components to also impact supply, the report added.

12.08 pm Market Check: Equity benchmarks continued to consolidate in noon trade as investors remained cautious ahead of fourth quarter and full year GDP data due later today.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 19.50 points at 31,178.90 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 0.25 points to 9,624.80.

The broader markets gained nearly 1 percent on positive breadth as about 1332 shares advanced against 1078 declining shares on the BSE.

Mahindra & Mahindra extended rally to more than 5 percent on value buying as brokerage houses turned bullish on the stock post earnings and on hopes of good monsoon that may boost its tractor sales in rural.

The Central Statistics Office will release gross domestic product (GDP) growth estimates for 2016-17 today that will factor in rebased factory output and wholesale price index (WPI) data. CSO's advance estimate of FY17 GDP growth is at 7.1 percent GDP and 6.7 percent for GVA.

11:46 am FII View: The sharp 18 percent rally since the beginning of the year has taken the Nifty past 2017 base case target of 9,300 and tracking near bull case target of 9,600, Bharat Iyer of JP Morgan said.

The research house has been calling for the markets to pause for a breather over the last month, he added.

"The broad market, particularly midcaps have performed in-line with our call for consolidation and are flat, but the large caps have gone up a couple of percent, albeit with thin breadth," he said.

The brokerage house continued to call for consolidation as valuations are turning rich and believes earnings growth trend could be patchy.

11:25 am Online collection for IIP: A portal is being planned for online collection of data on industrial production for greater accuracy in assessing the economic activity, Statistics Minister D V Sadananda Gowda said today.

On whether the GDP data to be released tomorrow will be more realistic after factoring in new series of Index of Industrial Production (IIP) and Wholesale Price Index (WPI) with change of base year to 2011-12, Gowda said: "Most certainly".

When asked about the impact of new series of IIP and WPI on national accounts data for the January-March quarter as well as the entire financial year, 2016-17, he said: "There is change in all systems of the economy across the country. All our data is collected by latest technology. We are coming up with data with clarity and minimum time lag."

11:05 am Market Check: Benchmark indices were trading flat in the morning session, with the Nifty holding to 9600 levels.

The Sensex was up 5.65 points at 31165.05, while the Nifty was down 5.10 points at 9619.45. The market breadth was positive as 1,335 shares advanced against a decline of 918 shares, while 102 shares were unchanged.

Mahindra and Mahindra, Lupin, and UltraTech Cement were the top gainers, while ONGC, Infosys, Bharti Infratel and Vedanta lost the most.

10:45 am Top Gainer: Shares of Mahindra and Mahindra traded 4 percent higher as investors cheered the robust results from the firm.

The utility vehicle and tractor maker reported 26.3 percent growth in profit at Rs 873.72 crore for January-March quarter year-on-year, saying its FY18 outlook is much more robust. Other income and exceptional gain boosted bottomline.

Revenue during the quarter increased 4.3 percent to Rs 10,612 crore compared with Rs 10,174.58 crore in same quarter last fiscal, impacted by slow volume growth of 2.5 percent.

Its tractor volumes were strong while automotive volumes were under pressure in Q4. The company sold 1.88 lakh units in the quarter ended March 2017 against 1.83 lakh units sold in year-ago quarter.

10:30 am Betting on cement, construction and housing finance: Buoyed by the government's push for affordable housing projects under 'Housing for All by 2022' initiative, mutual funds are actively lapping up shares of companies from cement, construction and housing finance companies.

Data on sectoral investments by mutual funds on the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) reveals that investments in financial sector rose the highest last month.

As on April 30, 2017, the 43-player-strong mutual fund industry had allocated Rs 51,931 crore to finance sector as against Rs 46,798 crore in March 2017, an increase of 11 percent.

Followed by finance sector, mutual funds bet on cement and construction projects. As on April 30, fund managers deployed Rs 21,168 crore in cement sector compared with Rs 18,680 crore invested in March. In the same period, investments in construction projects stood at Rs 28,025 crore as against Rs 25,215 crore in the previous month.

10.01 am Market Check: Benchmark indices continued to be rangebound in morning trade but broader markets outperformed. Investors awaited Q4 and full year GDP due later today.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 18.29 points at 31,177.69 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 5.20 points to 9,629.75 while the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices gained nearly a percent each.

The market breadth was positive as about 1226 shares advanced against 734 declining shares on the BSE.

Mahindra & Mahindra extended gains to over 4 percent after brokerage houses remained positive, advising buy.

Maruti Suzuki, Lupin and GAIL gained more than a percent whereas Infosys, ITC, TCS, HDFC and ONGC were losers.

9:55 am Buzzing: Glenmark Pharmaceuticals share price gained more than 2 percent in morning trade on receiving final approval from the US health regulator for Atomoxetine capsules.

"Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Inc, USA has been granted final approval by the United States Food & Drug Administration for Atomoxetine capsules USP, 10 mg, 18 mg, 25 mg, 40 mg, 60 mg, 80 mg and 100 mg," the company said in its filing.

Atomoxetine capsules, a generic version of Strattera Capsules of Eli Lilly and Company, is used to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

According to IMS Health sales data for the 12 month period ending April 2017, the Strattera capsules achieved annual sales of approximately USD 1.1 billion.

9:39 am Demerger: Leisure and education travel group Cox and Kings (CKL) said it will demerge its foreign exchange division into a separate financial services entity - Cox and Kings Financial Service (CKFSL).

The company's board has approved the demerger, which is effective April 1, 2017, and is subject to High Court and other regulatory approvals, CKL said in a release.

Whilst the tours and travels and foreign exchange (Forex) businesses are complementary in nature, the businesses operate quite distinctly from each other, the company said.

9:29 am FII View: Sanjay Mookim of Bank of America Merrill Lynch said there is much investor anxiety about market valuations post the recent rally; with an increasing desire to find the still inexpensive/reasonably priced stocks.

The market is expensive and the breadth of re-rating is extraordinary, he added.

There is a strong chance the current valuations driven rally turns, Mookim said, adding the brokerage house stayed cautious with a Sensex December 2017 target of 30,000.

Recent history suggests buying inexpensive/laggard stocks does not help during such a correction, he feels.

9:15 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks were mixed in opening trade, with the Nifty holding 9,600 level amid consolidation, ahead of GDP data for the March quarter and FY17.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 9.32 points at 31,150.08 and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 0.95 points to 9,623.60.

Mahindra & Mahindra was top gainer in early trade, up 3 percent; followed by Lupin, Bharti Airtel, GAIL, ICICI Bank, IOC and Hindalco.

Infosys, ITC, TCS, NTPC, ONGC and Aurobindo Pharma were early losers.

The Indian rupee rebounded to 64.55 against the US dollar after correction in previous session. It gained 11 paise compared with previous day's closing of 64.66 a dollar.

Pramit Brahmbhatt of Veracity expects the rupee to trade neutral against the dollar.

According to him, it is likely to trade in the range of 64.50-64.80 a dollar today.

Stocks in Asia were mostly higher, but the British pound fell on new poll results that showed UK Prime Minister Theresa May's Conservative Party could potentially lose its majority in parliament.