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Index heavyweights ITC was the top gainer along with RIL and HDFC
The benchmark Sensex snapped a two-day losing streak, amid a choppy trading session, on renewed buying interest in index heavyweights led by ITC.
The S&P BSE Sensex ended up 85 points at 27,860 and the Nifty50 settled 17 points higher at 8,592. In the broader market, the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices ended flat with mixed bias. Market breadth ended weak with 1506 losers and 1175 gainers on the BSE.
"Markets taking a breather at current juncture. SBI numbers tomorrow will decide near term market movements. In near term Nifty upside seems capped around 8700 while in the event of SBI numbers disappointing it may correct to 8300 levels. Traders should remain cautious and long positions should be hedged by buying puts," says Dharmesh Kant , Head-Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Securities.
Foreign institutional investors were net buyers in equities worth Rs 413 crore on Wednesday, as per provisional stock exchange data. They have bought equities worth Rs 4,600 crore in August so far.
Index heavyweights ITC and Reliance Industries which had lost over 2% in the previous trading sessions gained on renewed buying interest. ITC gained 2% while Reliance Industries and HDFC ended 1% higher.
Other gainers include, ICICI Bank, TCS, Lupin and Asian Paints among others.
On the losing side, Bank of Baroda ended down 8.5% after the bank’s gross net performing assets (NPA) as a percentage of total loans rose to 11.15% at the end of the June 2016 quarter as compared to 9.99% in the March quarter and 4.13% in the June 2015 quarter.
Sun Pharma edged 1.1% lower on the back of weak earnings from its overseas subsidiary Taro Pharmaceuticals.
SBI ended down 2% ahead of its June quarter earnings tomorrow.
Grasim ended down over 6% ahead of its June quarter earnings. Further, the company in a clarification to the stock exchange said that there are no proposals for merge between the company and Aditya Birla Nuvo.
Mahindra & Mahindra closed 1.9% lower. The auto major posted a standalone net profit of Rs 955 crore, a growth of 12%, compared with Rs 850 crore posted in the corresponding quarter last year. Among others, Tata Motors and Maruti Suzuki were down 0.5%-1% each.
Dilip Buildcon which made its debut on the bourses at 10% premium to its offer price of Rs 219 ended up 15% at Rs 252.
Among others, Tata Communications ended flat. The Lok Sabha passed the Taxation Laws (Amendment) Bill. The Bill, when enacted, will put to rest the Tata Communications- Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) surplus land issue and boost the government’s plans for non-core asset sales in large public sector undertakings (PSUs) that have land banks, Business Standard report suggests.
Escorts zoomed 17% after the company announced divestment of its OEM & export business of auto product division to Badve Engineering, Pune in an all cash deal.
Ipca Laboratories surged 4% after net profit more than doubled to Rs 47.57 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2016 (Q1FY17). The pharmaceutical company had registered a profit of Rs 20.92 crore in the same quarter year ago.
