Sensex, Nifty rangebound; Midcap, Smallcap outperform

Moneycontrol Bureau11:40 am Market Expert: The market is expecting the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to cut interest rates by 25 basis points tomorrow, and even if the RBI were to deliver that, any resulting rally will be short lived, says Pramod Gubbi, VP, Institutional Equities at Ambit Capital.On the possible upside for the market from these levels, Gubbi says much will depend on the global factors at play.If one were to leave aside global factors, corporate earnings are estimated to grow 5-8 percent this fiscal, and theoretically that will be the potential upside for the market, Gubbi says.However, given the aversion of global investors to emerging markets in general, the price earning multiple they are willing to pay for Indian equities could shrink, and that may cap upsides.11:20 am China growth woes: Profits earned by Chinese industrial companies declined 8.8 percent in August from a year earlier due to rising costs and persistent falling prices, official data showed today, adding to signs of weakness in the world's second largest economy

Also hurting firms was the stock market slump, which pushed down their investment returns while yuan fluctuation increased companies' financial costs in August, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.

During August, profits of industrial companies suffered the biggest annual fall since the NBS began monitoring such data in 2011.

For the first eight months of this year, profits were down 1.9 percent from the year-earlier period, according to the NBS.Also read - Will take a call on base rate cut post RBI meet: SBI11:00 am Market Check

The market continued to see rangebound trade with the Nifty moving in tight range of 7840-7880. Banking and select pharma stocks gained strength while index heavyweights like Infosys, Reliance Industries & HDFC declined.

The Sensex fell 25.47 points to 25838.03 and the Nifty plummeted 5.90 points to 7862.60. The market breadth was positive as about 1304 shares have advanced against 786 shares declined on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Sun Pharma (-3 percent), Coal India (-3 percent), UltraTechCement (-2 percent) and Infosys (-2 percent) were the big losers in the Nifty. Other laggards in the index were HDFC (-1 percent),Reliance (-1 percent),ONGC (-1 percent) and BHEL (-1 percent).

Gainers included Dr Reddy's Labs (5 percent), Idea Cellular (3 percent), Lupin (3 percent) and Adani Ports (3 percent).

In sectoral performance as reflected by the respective indices, metals (-1.3 percent), IT (-0.4 percent), auto (-0.2 percent) and capital goods (-0.1 percent) were under pressure, while consumer durables (1.5 percent), bank (0.7 percent), healthcare (0.7 percent) and FMCG (0.4 percent) gained.    

IDBI Bank (6 percent), Dewan Housing (5 percent), DLF (4 percent), Unitech (3 percent) and Oriental Bank (3 percent) were the big winners in the midcap space. Other notable gainers included GMR Infra (3 percent), Reliance Infra (3 percent), Wockhardt (3 percent), Petronet LNG (3 percent) and Cadila Health (3 percent).    

The rupee was quoting at 66.05 to the dollar, up 10 paise over its previous close. Brent crude was trading at USD 48.54/barrel, down USD 0.38 or 0.8 percent over its previous close.