Sensex holds 28500; Dr Reddys gains 2%, Tata Steel down 3%

Moneycontrol Bureau10:45 am Earnings Poll: Bajaj Auto is likely to see a stable April-June quarter. According to a CNBC-TV18 poll, the auto major is expected to post Q1 net profit growth at 27.7 percent at Rs 945 crore from Rs 740 crore in corresponding quarter last fiscal. Revenue, during the quarter, may jump 13.3 percent at Rs 5952 crore versus Rs 5252.4 crore in year-ago period. EBITDA is seen up 30.6 percent at Rs 1209 crore against Rs 925.2 crore year-on-year while operating profit margin may come in at 20.3 percent from 17.6 percent. EBITDA margins may improve 270 basis points (bps) due to richer product mix.10:30 am Interview: KPIT Technologies is aiming for double digit margin and revenue growth by the end of this fiscal, CEO and managing director of the company told CNBC-TV18.KPIT’s dollar revenue decreased 3.3 percent to USD 118.32 million in the June quarter. Services business grew 3 percent, and there was a decline in products segment due to seasonality, Patil said. The company had warned of lower profit after a dismal performance in last quarter of FY15. Patil expects the engineering service business to be a key driver of growth.He sees improvement in various segments of the company’s digital business – internet of things (IOT), analytics and cloud.  10:15 am FII View: Mahesh Nandurkar, CLSA said the brokerage's recent meetings with investors in Singapore & Hong Kong reveal that India continues to be a 'favoured' market among regional investors.While some investors have reduced India's weightage, most investors believe in a sharp H2FY16 earnings recovery & focus on the long-term structural positives, retaining their overweight, he added.

According to him, downside risks to the market largely pertain to under-appreciation of the property sector slowdown & it's potential economy wide impact.

Nandurkar said the brokerage continued to stay cautious in the near-term on earnings downgrade possibilities. "Our top picks are Infosys, Maruti, HDFC Bank, Bharti Airtel, Coal India, Zee Entertainment, ICICI Bank, Sun Pharma & Tata Motors," he added.10:00 am Market Check

The market entered into consolidation mode after rallying mroe than 1 percent in previous session. The Sensex gained 30.98 points at 28535.91 and the Nifty advanced 8.55 points to 8642.05.

The broader markets marginally outperformed benchmarks with the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices rising 0.35 percent and 0.8 percent, respectively. More than two shares advanced for every share declining on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The recent stock market run -- the Sensex is up 18 percent since the Narendra Modi government came to power -- has largely been based on hopes the government's steps to kickstart the economy will boost corporate earnings, says Saurabh Mukherjea, CEO - Institutional Equities, Ambit Capital.

"The domestic investor sentiment has been the most positive in three-four years," he told CNBC-TV18's Latha Venkatesh and Sonia Shenoy, a belief that is borne out by inflows data into mutual funds.

Dr Reddy's Labs rallied more than 2 percent followed by GAIL and Vedanta with 1 percent upside. However, Tata Steel topped the selling list on Sensex, down 2.8 percent. HUL, Tata Motors and Bharti Airtel slipped 1-1.6 percent.