Nifty ends below 8700, Sensex in red; HUL, TCS, HDFC Bank gain

Moneycontrol Bureau3:30 pm Market closing: The market has ended lower. The Sensex was down 52.75 points or 0.2 percent at 28077.09, and the Nifty slipped 8 points at 8691.40. About 1450 shares have advanced, 1326 shares declined, and 248 shares are unchanged.

Dr Reddy's, HUL, TCS, HDFC Bank and GAIL were top gainers while Axis Bank, Reliance , Cipla, HDFC and Asian Paints were losers in the Sensex.

2:59 pm Market Update: Equity benchmarks continued to consolidate with the Sensex falling 67.25 points to 28062.59 and the Nifty down 11.25 points at 8688.15.2:50 pm Steel output: India's steel production rose by almost 6 percent to 71.09 million tonnes (MT) in the first nine months of this year, even as the global output contracted by 0.5 percent to about 1.19 billion tonne.

According to the latest data by World Steel Association (World Steel), Asia was the only region where production of the metal registered an upward trend.

"In the first nine months of 2016, Asia produced 825.9 MT of crude steel, an increase of 0.6 percent over the first three quarters of 2015," it said in a statement.

The EU produced 121.3 MT of crude steel during the first nine months of 2016, down by 4.8 percent year-on-year, while output in North America's stood at 83.9 MT, a decrease of 1.4 percent over the same period.2:35 pm Essar Ports performance: Essar Ports (EPL) today said its cargo handling grew by 35 percent to 18.27 million tonnes (MT) in the July-September quarter this fiscal from 13.55 MT in the year-ago period.

"Third-party cargo handling has risen by 106 percent to 1.03 MT in July-September compared to 0.5 MT in the same period a year-ago. Over the quarter, the various terminals of the company handled 209 ships as against 179 ships in the corresponding period last year," EPL said in a statement.

The robust performance in the quarter under review has been driven by significant operational improvements and better cargo support from anchor customers, it added.

2:20 pm Earnings: SBBJ has posted a loss of Rs 210 crore in July-September quarter against profit of Rs 180 crore in year-ago period. Higher provisions and lower net interest income impacted profitability but other income and tax write-back limited losses.

Net interest income during the quarter declined 5.1 percent to Rs 776.6 crore while treasury gains lifted non-interest income (other income) 37 percent to Rs 287.7 crore YoY. Operating profit grew by 2.5 percent to Rs 523.4 crore on yearly basis.

Asset quality deteriorated further in Q2 with gross non-performing assets (NPA) as as percentage of gross advances climbing 430 basis points QoQ to 10.5 percent and net NPA rising 352 bps to 7.17 percent.

In absolute terms, gross NPA shot up 67 percent to Rs 7,669.2 crore and net NPA 91.6 percent to Rs 5,032.8 crore compared with preceding quarter.Also read - Analysts bullish on Yes Bank post strong loan growth in Q22:00 pm Market Check

Equity benchmark indices remained rangebound with the Sensex hovering around 28000 level. Oil & gas, banks and infra stocks were under pressure but HDFC Bank, ITC and Infosys limited losses.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 123.59 points at 28006.25 and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 27.90 points to 8671.50.

Force Motors, SpiceJet, Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, Endurance Technologies, NCC, HCL Technologies and Biocon were the most active shares on exchanges.

IDBI Bank was the biggest midcap gainer, up 3.12 percent followed by Tata Communications, SJVN, Biocon and Divis Labs whereas Torrent Pharma, Titan Company, MphasiS, LIC Housing Finance and Oriental Bank fell 2 percent each.