Sensex, Nifty consolidate; Midcap & Smallcap outperform, SBI up

Moneycontrol Bureau10:30 am Buzzing: Ahluwalia Contracts (India) shares gained nearly 5 percent intraday on bagging construction projects worth Rs 472.81 crore.

".....has secured orders aggregating to Rs 472.81 crore for construction of institutional, hospital and residential building, including electrical, plumbing and firefighting services," the New Delhi-based construction company said in its filing.

Out of which, Rs 313 crore is for construction of residential complex for National Cancer Institute at Jhajjar Haryana, Rs 115.60 crore for construction of regional centre for National Security Guard at Kolkata and worth Rs 44.21 crore for civil, finishing and plumbing works for Tata Medical Centre at Kolkata.

With this, total order inflow during FY16-17 stood at Rs 965.46 crore, it said.

10:15 am FIIs investment: Overseas investors have infused more than USD 2 billion into the Indian capital markets so far this month on rising hopes of passage of the GST Bill in the Rajya Sabha and expectations of better corporate earnings.The investment in July is followed by an outflow of Rs 4,373 crore in the preceding two months (May-June). The pullout was mainly due to outflows in debt markets. According to depositors' data, the net investment of foreign portfolio investors (FPI) stood at Rs 8,086 crore in the stock market during July 1-22 while it was Rs 6,917 crore in the debt market, taking the total inflows to Rs 15,003 crore (USD 2.2 billion).Experts are hopeful that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill will be passed in the Upper House of Parliament.Also read - Buy, sell or hold? Quick trading tips for 6 key stocks10:00 am Market Check

Equity benchmarks continued to consolidate ahead of expiry of July derivative contracts while the broader markets outperformed with the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices rising over half a percent.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 22.52 points at 27780.72 and the 50-share NSE Nifty declined 3.90 points to 8537.30. About two shares advanced for every share declining on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Axis Bank lost 2 percent after disappointing set of earnings in Q1. Profit fell 21 percent on account of sharp spike in provisions for bad loans and also NPA worsened.

Dr Reddy's Labs declined nearly 2 percent while State Bank of India and Cipla gained 1 percent each.