BSE Sensex down 50 pts; JM Financials gains 15.1%

Live Commentary 
Moneycontrol Bureau

12:50 pm Bad news: State-owned Dutch bank ABN AMRO will cut 400 jobs, about 2 percent of its workforce, as it prepares for an eventual sale. 12.46 pm Market update: The Sensex is down 50.54 points or 0.25% at 20196.79, and the Nifty slipped 13.90 points at 6156.00. About 972 shares have advanced, 1141 shares declined, and 161 shares are unchanged. 12:45 pm Cement update: The Competition Appellate Tribunal today directed cement companies to pay 10 percent of a Rs 6307-crore penalty imposed on them by fair trade regulator CCI for forming cartel in the sector. The tribunal also clarified that if the cement firms fail to deposit the amount within a 30 days time-frame, their petition would be dismissed.
The matter would now come up for final hearing in August. COMPAT had reserved its order over a batch of petitions filed by various cement producers and CMA on March 18 this year after hearing them on interim plea. 12:42 pm Global market: European markets opened on a weak note.  FTSE 100 was down 0.1 percent, CAC 40 slipped 0.2 percent, DAX was down 0.2 percent. Expert's take: Mkt fundamentals not better than before; bet on OMCs, says HSBC 12:40 pm Cogencis reports quoting TRAI source:
Each company may get 10-15 MHz per circle in 700 MHz auction
Total 60 MHz/circle available for auction in 700 MHz band
TRAI had favoured auction of 700 MHz band in 2014-15 Light read Vikram Pandit: A banker's journey from Nagpur to New York 12:22 pm Star of the day: JM Financial was quoting at Rs 26.95, up Rs 3.40, or 14.44 percent. 12: 17 pm On bond markets Vivek Rajpal of Nomura India says:
Expect 15-20 basis points premium on new 10-year bond yield
Expect 7.15-7.20% on new 10-year bond yield
See RBI cutting rates in july credit policy
Recommend clients to be strategic in their approach 12:10 Midcap check: Apollo Hospital (up 3.1 percent), Indiabulls Power (up 4 percent), Manappuram Finance (up 3 percent), Opto Circuit (up 3.4 percent) were  major gainers among the midcaps. 12:07 pm Key gainers: NTPC, ICICI Bank, ONGC, TCS and Jindal Steel were big gainers in the Sensex.
The market seems to be in weekend mood already with the trading session going at a slow pace. At 11.56 hrs IST, the Sensex was down 42.90 points at 20204.43, and the Nifty fell 14.25 points to 6155.65.
Consumer durables and pharma continued to lose further while banking stocks too were giving up gains.
Dr Reddys Labs, Wipro, Bharti Airtel, Sterlite Ind and HDFC Bank remained major losers in the Sensex.
Globally, it was a positive session for the Japanese and Chinese markets. In currencies, the euro is trading weak around 1.28. In commodities, brent crude was inching towards USD 104 per barrel, but gold remained weak below USD 1400.