Sensex, Nifty rangebound; L&T, Infosys, Sun Pharma decline

Moneycontrol Bureau12:58 pm Market Update: Benchmark indices were little changed over the last half an hour of trade. The BSE Sensex was at 25840, up 20 points and the Nifty rose 5 points.

HDFC (2.1 percent), HUL (2.1 percent), ONGC (2.0 percent) and Reliance (1.4 percent) were the top gainers in Nifty. Among the losers are Tata Motors (-0.2 percent), Bharti Airtel (-0.2 percent), BHEL (-0.1 percent) and M&M (-0.1 percent).In sectoral performance, as reflected by the respective indices, oil & gas (1.0 percent), metals (0.4 percent) and power (0.1 percent) gained, while capital goods (-0.7 percent), auto (-0.5 percent), IT (-0.4 percent) and healthcare (-0.2 percent) were under pressure.     

Market breadth was positive, with nearly two stocks rising for every one which fell.     

The rupee was quoting at 66.36 to the dollar, up 11 paise over its previous close.     

In Asia, Singapore’s Straits Times was up 24 points at 2927, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 83 points at 22582. China’s Shanghai closed at 3615, up 5 points over its previous close, Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed at 19924, up 45 points , Korea’s KOSPI closed at 2016, up 12 points , and Taiwan’s Taiwan Index closed at 8400, down 85 points or 1 percent .

12:50 pm Lanco on fund raising: Lanco Infratech is looking to raise between USD 750 million and USD 1 billion over the next 18 months through a stake sale and listing of its power assets to cut its debt, its chief financial officer said today.

Lanco, which has been losing money in recent years amid a high debt load and delays in finishing its power projects, said it returned to profitability in the three months ending Sept. 30 after revenue jumped as work restarted at its plants.

The company also wants to raise fresh capital by selling one large power project in 2017 once all its plants are fully operational, CFO T. Adi Babu told Reuters in a telephone interview.12:40 pm Reliance Capital in News: Nippon Life Insurance (NLI) today signed definitive agreements to increase its stake in Reliance Life Insurance (RLIC), a part of Reliance Capital, from existing 26 percent to 49 percent.

“We are delighted that the outstanding relationship between our two companies has now grown into an equal partnership, with NLI increasing their stake – first in asset management business, and now, in life insurance business - to 49 percent," Anil D Ambani, chairman, Reliance Group said.12:20 pm FII View: Mahesh Nandurkar, CLSA says mood of foreign investors at CLSA's India forum was visibly less upbeat against last year, adding, corporate commentary was also more balanced.

He believes that this is a healthy resetting of expectations, especially as some green shoots are becoming visible now.

While earnings downgrades are not over yet, their pace should slow down in H2FY16, he feels.

Also read - Nifty may breach 7.5K if Q3 disappoints but 9.5K possible in '16; GST key: Kumar12:00 pm Market Check

The market remained rangebound in noon trade with the Nifty hovering around 7850. FMCG, oil and select banking & financials stocks supported the market while technology, auto, pharma and infra stocks dragged.

The 30-share BSE Sensex rose 4.51 points to 25823.85 and the 50-share NSE Nifty declined 1.45 points to 7847.80. The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices continued to outperform benchmarks, rising 0.2-0.4 percent.

The market breadth remained positive as about 1375 shares advanced against 916 declining shares on the BSE.

Infosys, L&T, Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors and Sun Pharma topped selling list on Sensex, down more than 1 percent. HDFC, HUL and ONGC gained 2 percent each.