Nifty rise above 8800, Sensex flat; Axis & Wipro gain 3%

1:55 pm Result: Bharat Forge surpassed street expectations on Monday by reporting 108.8 percent growth in the bottomline during October-December quarter. Net profit increased to Rs 196.3 crore from Rs 94 crore on year-on-year basis. A poll of CNBC-TV18 had expected profit at Rs 174.2 crore on revenue of Rs 1,202 crore for the quarter. Revenue of the forging company grew 44 percent to Rs 1,198 crore in the quarter ended December 2014 from Rs 832.1 crore in the year-ago period, which was in line.

1:45 pm Market check: The market recovers a bit as the Nifty manages to rise above the 8800-level. The 50-share index is up 2.00 points at 8810.90. The Sensex is down 10.85 points at 29172.10.  About 1557 shares have advanced, 1163 shares declined, and 231 shares are unchanged.

Hindalco is up 4 percent while Axis Bank and Wipro gain 3 percent each. GAIL & L&T are up 1.5 percent.

1:30 pm FII View: Shane Lee Director, Economist & Strategist-Equity Research, CIMB says the expectations around India's growth is worrisome since the only way it can pick up is through investments, which at the moment looks sluggish.  Lee says he is overweight on financials and consumer discretionaries in India but  underweight on cement.  However, he says Indian equities may not repeat the tops achieved last year. He has kept a Nifty target of 5500 this year.

Speaking about US market, Lee said the US GDP numbers may force the Fed to push back its interest rate raising programme. However, a lot of capital flew into US bond market over the last few weeks.

Profit booking continues on Dalal Street dragging the indices sharply. The Sensex is down 190.68 points or 0.6 percent at 28992.27. The Nifty slips 50.20 points or 0.6 percent at 8758.70. About 1504 shares have advanced, 1152 shares declined, and 242 shares are unchanged.

Bharti Airtel, Dr Reddy's Labs and ICICI Bank are down 3 percent while Bajaj Auto and HUL are other losers in the Sensex. Among the gainers are Hindalco, Wipro, GAIL, Sun Pharma and TCS.

Japanese share prices fell after soft US and China economic data raised doubts over global growth prospects, while shares in two printer manufacturers tumbled after disappointing earnings. Beneficiaries from sliding oil prices in the past several months - ranging from airline companies and rubber makers to power companies -also took a big hit after oil prices posted their biggest rebound in 2-1/2 years.