Sensex, Nifty off day's high; HDFC extends losses, ICICI down 1%

Moneycontrol Bureau12:59 pm Market Update: Equity benchmarks remained marginally higher with the Sensex was up 49.43 points at 28052.55 and the Nifty up 10.50 points at 8647.05.About 1401 shares declined against 1103 advancing shares on the BSE.12:50 pm Earnings: Public sector lender Indian Bank said profit in April-June quarter grew by 42.8 percent to Rs 307.4 crore compared with Rs 215.3 crore in year-ago period. It was driven by other income, operating profit and stable provisions but higher tax cost limited growth.

Net interest income, the difference between interest earned and interest expended, increased 10.4 percent to Rs 1,236.32 crore on yearly basis.

Other income for the quarter was up by 17.6 percent at Rs 441.7 crore and operating profit grew by 27.5 percent at Rs 903.2 crore compared with corresponding period of last fiscal.

Provisions for bad loans stood at Rs 417 crore during the quarter, increased by 2.2 percent year-on-year and 48.7 percent quarter-on-quarter.12:40 pm Europe opens: European stocks opened lower following negative sentiment in Asian trade and Wall Street on Monday.

The pan-European STOXX 600 was up 0.16 percent.

US equities closed mixed in choppy trade on Monday, the first day of the month, amid falling oil prices while investors digested economic data, weighing on investor sentiment in Europe.12:25 pm Fund raising: Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) is planning to sell part of its treasury shares to raise around USD 500 million, sources say. The shares will likely be sold via block deals on exchanges.

Quoting sources, CNBC-TV18 says that the share sale proceeds will be used for capital expenditure requirements.

BPCL has 9.33 percent treasury shares which are valued at over USD 1 billion. Of this, it plans to sell around one lakh shares over the next 5-6 years.

The company has also appointed an investment bank to carry out the share sale.

BPCL declined to comment on these speculations to CNBC-TV18.Also read - This rally can end only when couple of European banks go bust: Ambit Cap12:00 pm Market Check

Equity benchmarks erased some morning gains amid consolidation as investors waited the GST bill that is likely to be tabled in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 70 points at 28,073.47 and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 14.60 points at 8,651.15 while the BSE Midcap outperformed benchmarks, up 0.4 percent.

HDFC extended losses in noon trade, falling more than 2 percent followed by ICICI Bank (down 1.2 percent), Infosys (down 0.65 percent) and Wipro (down 1.7 percent).

Lupin shares fell nearly 1 percent after the Competition Commission of India imposed penalty on Lupin and Karnataka Chemists & Druggist Association (KCDA) for anti-competitive practice in the state.

ITC and Maruti Suzuki shares rallied 2-3 percent followed by HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries, L&T, HUL and Hero Motocorp.