JSPL, Bajaj Finance top midcap gainers; Sensex, Nifty volatile

Moneycontrol Bureau12:57 pm Market Update: Equity benchmarks remained directionless in afternoon trade. The Sensex was up 10.98 points at 28106.32 and the Nifty fell 6.90 points to 8628.75.About 1252 shares advanced against 1222 declining shares on the BSE.12:40 pm Europe opens: European markets opened mixed, as traders digest another slew of earnings, ahead of two important central bank meetings due to take place this week.

The pan-European STOXX 600 was hovering around the flatline but slightly lower.12:35 pm Goa mining hit primary sector growth: Turmoil in Goa's iron ore mining industry has led the primary sector tumbling into the negative zone during 2014-15, according to the State's Economic Survey 2015-16 report.

The report, tabled in the Legislative Assembly here yesterday, stated that the growth in the primary sector slipped largely due to continued crisis in state's major revenue earner iron ore mining industry.

"The growth rate under primary sector, which was around 10 percent during 2013-14 (provisional), fell drastically to minus (-) 16.44 percent during 2014-15," the 233-pages Economic Survey report read, which diagnoses the financial health of the State.

"This can be attributed to a huge fall in mining and quarrying sub sector," it said.

After the ban of over two-and-a-half years on mining, the Supreme Court had conditionally allowed export and extraction of iron ore in the coastal State in 2015.12:20 pm Interview: Bajaj Corp reported decent set of first quarter earnings which were in line with Street estimates and the volume growth in almond oil stood at 2.2 percent which beat market estimates.

In an interview CNBC-TV18, Sumit Malhotra, MD of Baja Corp said that the first quarter was disappointing in terms of volume growth as poor rural growth led to less consumption.

He said that the total hair oil market has declined by 1 percent in terms of volume and the urban growth is down by 5 percent.

Commenting on Patanjali's foray into the FMCG space, he said that it does not compete directly with any of Bajaj Corp brands and brands like Kesh King and Indulekha will be affected by its entry.Also read - US biz may drag Dr Reddy's Q1, net seen down 27% at Rs 456 cr12:00 pm Market Check: Equity benchmarks remained rangebound in noon trade while the broader markets continued outperformance.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 31.63 points at 28126.97 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 1.95 points to 8637.60. The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices gained 0.4-0.6 percent as about 1248 shares advanced against 1156 declining shares on the exchange.

Jindal Steel and Power was the biggest midcap gainer, up more than 13 percent followed by Bajaj Finance with 4 percent rally post earnings.

Bajaj Finance's first quarter (April-June) profit increased sharply by 54 percent to Rs 424 crore on strong net interest income despite higher provisions. The board of directors today approved issue of one fully paid bonus equity share for one share held and sub-division of equity shares of face value of Rs 10 each into Rs 2 each, subject to approval of the shareholders.