Profit booking drags Sensex, Nifty; metals melt, TCS leads

Moneycontrol Bureau

The market saw mild profit booking amid consolidation on Tuesday after nearly a 600-point rally on Sensex in previous three consecutive sessions. Oil, metals, capital goods and select banking & financials stocks pushed market lower.

The 30-share BSE Sensex fell 58.09 points to 27306.83 and the 50-share NSE Nifty declined 13.40 points to 8261.65. However, the broader markets outperformed benchmarks with BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices rising 0.5 percent and 0.2 percent, respectively.

Experts see more upside from current levels only if earnings improve that may happen next year.

Mahantesh Sabarad, Deputy Vice President - Research at SBICap Securities is of the view that although downside for market currently seems to be capped at 7800-8000 levels, upside would depend on earnings upgrades. Earnings are likely to be upgraded only after the December quarter, he says.

Bajaj Auto, Wipro and HDFC Bank fell 0.3-1 percent ahead of September quarter earnings due on Wednesday. A CNBC-TV18 poll expects muted quarterly performance for Bajaj Auto while HDFC Bank is expected to post 20 percent year-on-year growth in net profit and Net interest income for the quarter. Wipro may report 2 percent sequential dollar revenue growth in Q2.

Reliance Industries fell 0.8 percent on profit booking post a 5.6 percent rally on strong earnings in previous session. ONGC and Cairn India lost 2-3 percent on sharp fall in crude oil prices yesterday.

Metals stocks saw sharp selling pressure in late trade. Vedanta tanked 6.4 percent followed by Tata Steel and Hindalco with 2-3 percent loss.

Drug firm Cipla was down more than 2 percent after media reports indicated that company's Indore SEZ plant received Form 483 or observations from USFDA.

Infosys, TCS, Tata Motors and Maruti Suzuki bucked the trend, up more than 2 percent.

In earnings, Adani Transmission was locked at 20 percent upper circuit after steller performance in Q2. The Adani Group company has reported a 5-fold sequential jump in consolidated profit at Rs 152.9 crore for July-September quarter, boosted by operational performance and other income.

State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur climbed 6.6 percent on reporting a massive 52.3 percent year-on-year growth in profit at Rs 180.6 crore for July-September quarter, aided by other income and lower provisions.

Bajaj Finance spiked 6 percent as its profit and net interest income jumped more than 40 percent during the quarter. Hatsun Agro Products was up 10 percent after a 3-fold increase in September quarter profit year-on-year.

SREI Infrastructure Finance was up 5 percent as sources told CNBC-TV18 that American Tower Corp will acquire 51 percent stake in Viom Networks.

Global cues were mixed. In Asia, Shanghai Composite was up 1.1 percent and Nikkei rose 0.4 percent while Hang Seng lost 0.4 percent. European markets like FTSE, CAC and DAX declined 0.5-1 percent (at 16 hours IST).