Choppy Sensex ends below 28K, Nifty falls; Mid, Smallcap up

It was a sluggish day on Dalal Street as benchmark indices ended in red amid consolidation on Thursday. Capital goods, pharma, technology and metals stocks were weak while telecom, FMCG and select auto stocks gained.

The market erased some previous day's gains. The 30-share BSE Sensex declined 75.07 points to 27945.80 and the 50-share NSE Nifty lost 8.15 points to 8444.90. However, the broader markets consistently outperformed benchmarks for the third consecutive session. The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices rose 0.5 percent each.

Experts feel the market may remain volatile ahead of Greek Referendum. From next week onwards, earnings will be the key for market, they said.

Tushar Pradhan of HSBC said the market is currently being driven by Greek related news. However, all eyes are on earnings season now which is expected to be a mixed bag this quarter, he added.

On the global front, European markets were flat ahead of Sunday's Greek Referendum. Asian markets closed mixed with the Shanghai Composite falling 3.5 percent despite margin lending rules being eased.. Other Asian benchmarks ended positive with the Nikkei rising nearly 1 percent.

Meanwhile, after a Digital India launch yesterday, the government unveiled more flag ship projects today. It launched the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Ssinchai Yojana committing to spend Rs 50,000 crore on the scheme over the next 5 years. The cabinet also launched an initiative to create a single pan-India market for farm products and the scheme targets e-auction of farm products for better price discovery.

RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan said FII limits on purchases of government bonds will be reviewed twice a year. He welcomed the government's move of more capital for banks, saying some banks may not have enough capital to clean up bad loans.

Tata Steel was in focus today as the strike threat from UK unions may be over for the company. Sources told CNBC-TV18 that UK labour unions have approved the company's new pension scheme. 85 percent of the workers are learnt to have voted in favour of the revised pension plan offered by the company. The stock was down 0.7 percent.

Oil market companies were strong. HPCL and IOC rallied 6 percent each. BPCL gained 1.4 percent after the government has decided new kerosene subsidy sharing formula for FY16. According to the formula, the finance ministry will now bear Rs 12 per litre of kerosene as a subsidy for FY16, reports CNBC-TV18 quoting unnamed sources.

Telecom operators Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular gained 2 percent ahead of launch of full mobile number portability from July 3, the deadline for a national rollout of MNP.

Two-wheeler maker Bajaj Auto was up 1.7 percent after reporting a 8 percent growth in June auto sales against a 2 percent drop in previous month. Overall auto sales were mixed for June month. Mahindra & Mahindra rose 2 percent while Tata Motors and Maruti Suzuki fell 1-2 percent.

However, HDFC Bank, Infosys, ONGC, Dr Reddy's Labs, Cipla, Hindalco and Vedanta were major losers, down 1-2 percent.

In the midcap space, Ramco, Vakrangee, Dhanlaxmi Bank, Astra Microwave, Dreding Corporation, Escorts, Indiabulls Housing, TVS Motor, Pennar Industries and Shrenuj rallied 4-20 percent. Jain Irrigation (up 2 percent), Shakti Pumps (up 2 percent) and Finolex Industries (up 8 percent) reacted to government's new irrigation plan.