Volatile Nifty closes lower ahead of Oct expiry; BPCL up 2%

Indian shares declined amid a choppy trade on Tuesday ahead of expiry of futures & options contracts for October series on Thursday. The 50-share NSE Nifty fell 25.75 points to close at 5,691.40, weighed down by somewhat profit booking and weakness in global markets.

So far the October series has seen a consolidation with the market gaining just 0.8 percent after a rally of 6 percent in September owning to strong inflow of foreign money, stimulus packages by Federal Reserve & European Central Bank and reforms by the Indian government.

Overall the Nifty has been in a range of 5630-5730 since last two weeks due to lack of major global and local cues. Investors also awaited the move from Reserve Bank of India on October 30.

The 30-share BSE Sensex slipped 83.42 points to 18,710.02. The Indian rupee depreciated 24 paise to 53.71 against the US dollar today.

Country’s largest two-wheeler maker Hero Motocorp fell 1.9 percent ahead of results announcement that came in after market hours. The company said its net profit dropped 27 percent year-on-year to Rs 440.5 crore in the second quarter of FY13 as against analysts’ forecast of Rs 440 crore.

Shares of engineering and construction major Larsen & Toubro gained another 2 percent owning to higher-than-expected numbers announced yesterday.

Top private sector lender ICICI Bank continued its upmove, rising 0.5 percent ahead of second quarter earnings on Friday. Its rival HDFC Bank fell 0.91 percent.

Cigarette major ITC slipped 1.3 percent for the second consecutive session on profit booking after better-than-expected numbers in July-September quarter.

Oil & gas producers Reliance Industries and ONGC were down 0.6-0.9 percent while oil retailer BPCL gained 2 percent.

India’s largest software services exporters TCS and Infosys declined 0.5 percent and 1.4 percent, respectively.

Among metals stocks, Jindal Steel tumbled 2.4 percent and Hindalco Industries was down 1.6 percent. Tata Steel went down 0.8 percent.

Shares of Sterlite Industries were down 0.76 percent ahead of results that came in after market hours. Net profit grew higher-than-expected by 75 percent year-on-year to Rs 1,743 crore in Q2FY13, helped by forex gain of Rs 219 crore and increase in power sales.

Kotak Mahindra Bank was down 2 percent ahead of earnings on Thursday.

Lupin fell 1.25 percent after results. Yes Bank and Bank of Maharashtra gained 3 percent after strong earnings in Q2.

Peninsula Land was locked at 20 percent upper circuit following strong numbers in July-September quarter, which had gained 18 percent yesterday.

Rain Commodities plunged 4.5% owning to big acquisition. Initially the stock had rallied 7 percent. The company bought Belgian based Rutgers for 702 million euro (Rs 4900 crore) that is over three times of its current market capitalisation.

Indian markets will be shut on Dusserha holiday on Wednesday.

On the global front, European markets were down 0.6-1 percent while Dow Jones futures declined 0.9 percent.