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Banking and capital goods stocks were out of favour, while oil and auto stocks saw buying interest.
The benchmark indices ended a choppy session of trade marginally in the negative as weak results declared by capital goods major BHEL led to fresh concerns on the earnings front and caution lingered ahead of US jobs data to be released later in the day.
The Sensex gyrated in a range of around 100 points between an intra-day high of 28,335 and a low of 28,193 before ending at 28,564, lower by 62 points or 0.2% and the Nifty settled at 8,564, down 24 points, as gains in oil and auto stocks were offset by losses in the banking and capital goods space.
The midcap and smallcap indices also ended flat at 11,557 and 12,104 respectively.
The market breadth was mildly negative.
Out of 3,041 stocks traded on the BSE, there were 1,382 advancing stocks as against 1,539 declines.
Investors are keenly awaiting the US jobs data later in the day for cues on whether the Fed would raise interest rates in the near future.
Rupee
The rupee was trading lower by 4 paise to 63.81 against the dollar in early-noon trades due to persistent demand for the dollar from banks and importers.
Stock trends
Banking and capital goods stocks were out of favour, while oil and auto stocks saw buying interest.
Banking stocks felt the heat. SBI slid by more than 2% ahead of the quarterly results later during the week.
Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Axis Bank, HDFC and HDFC Bank were among the other major losers among banking scrips, shedding 0.5%-2% each.
Capital goods stocks also had a rough ride. BHEL plunged by 5.8% to Rs 265 after reporting a sharp 82% year-on-year (YoY) decline in net profit at Rs 34 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2015 (Q1), on account of lower operational income.
The state-owned company had posted a profit of Rs 194 crore in the same quarter last year. Coal India also lost more than 3%.
On the other hand, state-owned oil and gas companies such as ONGC (up 4.6% at Rs 283), BPCL (up 2% at Rs 957) and IOC (up 1.7% at Rs 426) ended higher in an otherwise subdued market on the back of renewed buying interest.
HPCL rallied nearly 7% to Rs 970, also its new lifetime high, ahead of its April-June (Q1) quarter earnings scheduled on August 11.
And index heavyweight RIL gained 1.5%. Auto major Tata Motors also ended higher by more than 2% ahead of the quarterly results scheduled later in the day.
M&M, however, surrended its early gains to end lower by 0.4% at Rs 1387 after posting a 3.4% decline in net profit for the quarter ended June 30, 2015 due to lack of new products in the passenger vehicle space and drastic fall in demand for tractors.
Among other stocks, Vedanta rose by over 2% on the news that it is likely to start iron ore mining operations at the Codli mines in Goa on August 10.
Vedanta will restart iron ore business in Goa on August 10 after a closure for nearly 3 years. Nestle bounced back by nearly 1% at Rs 6,552.
The stock had plunged by nearly 5% in the previous session on the news that food regulator FSSAI had trashed all-clear reports from two of its empanneled labs to Maggi noodles.
