Nifty still below 8700, Sensex flat; Adani Ports, SBI, M&M gain

Moneycontrol Bureau9:55 am Q1 poll:  Utility vehicle and tractor maker Mahindra and Mahindra's (M&M) first quarter profit on standalone basis is seen rising 2 percent year-on-year to Rs 870 crore, according to average of estimates of analysts polled by CNBC-TV18.

Revenue is likely to grow 11.5 percent to Rs 11,080 crore in April-June quarter compared with Rs 9,830.4 crore in same period last year on healthy volume growth in auto and tractors segments.

Analysts expect a good quarter as tractors did well due to good monsoon and low base. New launches in the utility vehicle segment, KUV100 and TUV300 have seen good demand.

M&M sold 1.96 lakh units in Q1, a growth of 14 percent over a year-ago period. Auto sales grew by 10.9 percent to 1.21 lakh units and tractor volumes increased 19.6 percent to 74,594 units YoY.

9:45 am Tax kitty: Reflecting an upturn in economic activity, government's revenue collection showed an impressive growth in April-July period of this fiscal, with total direct and indirect tax mop-up rising to Rs 4.3 lakh crore.

Indirect tax collections rose by 29.9 percent during the first four months of the current fiscal to about Rs 2.71 lakh crore, mainly on account of 50.8 percent jump in excise revenues.

Direct tax revenue rose 24.01 percent to Rs 1.59 lakh crore in April-July, driven mainly by higher mop-up in personal income tax due to early advance tax collections.

The indirect and direct tax collections till July account for 34.90 percent and 18.82 percent of the annual budget target, respectively.

 9:30 am Market outlook: The notoriously bearish Marc Faber is doubling down on his dire market view. The editor and publisher of the Gloom, Boom & Doom Report said Monday on CNBC's "Trading Nation" that stocks are likely to endure a gut-wrenching drop that would rival the greatest crashes in stock market history. "I think we can easily give back five years of capital gains, which would take the market down to around 1,100," Faber said, referring to a level 50 percent below Monday's closing on the S&P 500.Don't miss: Investment strategies: 4 stocks to sell, 1 stock to buy

The market has opened in green but the Nifty is below 8700. The 50-share index is up 8.45 points at 8686.70 and the Sensex is up 42.38 points at 28127.54. About 243 shares have advanced, 87 shares declined, and 16 shares are unchanged.

Adani Ports, SBI, M&M, Coal India, ICICI Bank are top gainers while BHEL, GAIL, Infosys, ITC and TCS are losers in the Sensex.

The Indian rupee opened at 66.68 a dollar, up 16 paise compared with 66.84 a dollar in previous session.

NS Venkatesh of IDBI Bank says the rupee seems to strengthen because of growing confidence that the Federal Reserve will hike rates in this year. According to him, the rupee is expected to trade today in a range of 66.85-67.05 per dollar.

Meanwhile, the British pound fell after a Bank of England policymaker said that more quantitative easing was probably necessary if the UK’s economic decline worsens.

Asian shares held near one-year highs as investors pared expectations slightly for a Federal Reserve interest rate increase following weak US productivity data, which drove the dollar and Treasury yields lower.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares excluding Japan. Japan's Nikkei fell 0.6 percent on the yen's gains.

Wall Street eked out gains on Tuesday following a strong session for European stock markets. Additionally, the Bank of England's reverse bond auction failed to meet its target on Tuesday, highlighting the scarcity of investors willing to sell from a quickly dwindling pool of long-term bonds with positive yields.