Sensex, Nifty consolidate; ITC climbs 1%, Infosys & TCS down

Moneycontrol Bureau11:45 am Result analysis: Share prices of Hexaware Technologies plunged 9.5 percent intraday. The company's Q1 (Jan-March) net profit was down 15.3 percent at Rs 84.2 crore versus Rs 99.4 crore on sequential basis. According to Nomura, "The revenue and margins were materially below expectations and that reinforce their cautious stance of less conviction on growth sustainability and expensive valuation." The firm has put reduce rating on the stock with a target at Rs 200 per share.

However, Morgan Stanley has an overweight rating on the stock.

11:30 am Interview: A "fairly vibrant FY17" for the steel industry is likely to aid in significant improvement in Jindal Steel & Power's operating performance, says CEO and MD Ravi Uppal. "Strong EBITDA coupled with money received from the JSW Energy deal, should help pare debt. Target is to reduce debt to equity ratio to 1.6-1.8x by 2019-20," Uppal said in an interview to CNBC-TV18. The company is also looking to sell non-core assets worth nearly Rs 3,000 crore to deleverage its balance sheet, he said. On weakness in the power business, Uppal said the fourth quarter performance was hit by transmission constraints but things are likely to look up as we head into peak summer season.Don't miss: Investing legend Druckenmiller's advice: Dump stocks, buy gold

The market seems to be consolidating snapping a three-day losing streak. The Sensex is up 114.73 points or 0.5 percent at 25216.46, and the Nifty is up 19.35 points or 0.2 percent at 7725.90. About 1094 shares have advanced, 906 shares declined, and 104 shares are unchanged.

HDFC, Tata Motors, Sun Pharma, Lupin and ITC are gainers while Adani Ports, Bharti Airtel, Infosys, M&M and TCS were losers in the Sensex.

Oil prices climbed with Brent breaching USD 45 a barrel as raging wildfires threatened to cut Canadian output and a decline in US crude production also boosted the commodity.

Authorities say wildfires are burning out of control in the Alberta oil sands region of Canada, which mines and ships heavy crude south to the US market, and oil companies have reduced operations to facilitate the evacuation of non- essential employees.

News of the Canada fires came as official data showed that US oil output sank last week by more than 100,000 barrels a day to 8.83 million barrels per day, its lowest level since September 2014.