Sensex in bear grip, Nifty breaks 8150; Oct WPI eases to 3.39%

Moneycontrol Bureau12:55 pm Market Update: The Sensex was down 404.23 points or 1.51 percent at 26414.59 and the Nifty down 157 points or 1.89 percent at 8139.30.About 2238 shares declined against 279 advancing shares on the BSE.12:45 pm Earnings: Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) disappointed analysts on its quarterly earnings front as profit fell sharply by 66.6 percent quarter-on-quarter to Rs 701.3 crore due to weak operational performance.

Revenue during the quarter declined 7.4 percent to Rs 47,822.5 crore compared with Rs 51,661 crore in previous quarter.

Profit was estimated at Rs 1,036 crore on revenue of Rs 46,174 crore and EBITDA was expected at Rs 2,107 crore with margin at 4.6 percent for the quarter, according to average of estimates of analysts polled by CNBC-TV18.

EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) plunged 65.2 percent sequentially to Rs 1,261 crore and margin contracted by 442 basis points to 2.6 percent in the quarter ended September 2016.12:35 pm Interview: Speaking to CNBC-TV18 Satpal Arora, MD of Tourism Finance Corp said they have made provisions for Rs 20 crore. Their net non performing assets constitute 6.5 percent. Disbursements are lower, but will pick up, he said, expressing hope. In the first six months of this fiscal year, they made disbursements of Rs 185 crore.

Net interest margin is lower at 3.09 percent as two of their accounts turned NPAs. 12:25 pm Write-off: Religare Enterprises said its subsidiary will write-off a total of Rs 793.67 crore on account of non-receipt of dues.

"The board of directors of Religare Finvest Ltd (RFL), a material subsidiary company...has considered and approved one-time write-off of entire amount of Rs 519.92 crore in the profit and loss account pursuant to non-receipt of dues towards assignment of certain loan accounts by RFL," Religare Enterprises said in a BSE filing.

It further said: "In addition to the above, the board of directors of RFL have further approved write-off of an entire amount of Rs 273.75 crore standing overdue in other accounts related to the same transaction."12:16 pm Asia weak: Asia markets were mostly lower, as investors eyed the dollar for guidance amid growing expectations of a Federal Reserve rate hike in December.

Australia's ASX 200 closed down 0.37 percent, or 19.53 points, at 5,326.2, dragged by its materials sub-index, which was down 1.05 percent, and its healthcare sub-index, which was down 1.53 percent.

The Nikkei 225 finished near flat, down 0.03 percent, or 4.47 points, at 17,668.15, likely taking its lead from the yen's direction.Also read - HDFC plunges 5%, insurance merger plan hits IRDAI hurdle12:00 pm Market Check: Bears kept tight control over Dalal Street as heavy selling pressure continued for the second consecutive session. All sectoral indices except IT and PSU Bank remained under pressure.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 404.96 points or 1.51 percent at 26413.86 and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 146.95 points or 1.77 percent to 8149.35 while the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices were down 4-5 percent on weak breadth.

About 9 shares declined for every share rising on the exchange.

WPI inflation fell to 3.39 percent in October against 3.57 percent in previous month.Infosys, TCS, SBI, Wipro and Dr Reddy's Labs bucked the trend, rising 1-2 percent whereas Tata Motors, HDFC, Asian Paints, ICICI Bank, Maruti, Adani Ports and Tata Steel were leading contributors to Sensex's fall, down 2.5-8 percent.