Sensex, Nifty rangebound; Sep WPI inflation at -4.54%

Moneycontrol Bureau12:58 pm Market Update: Benchmark indices were little changed over the last half an hour of trade. The Sensex fell 50.15 points to 26796.38 and the Nifty declined 17.80 points to 8113.90.

TCS (-4 percent), Cairn India (-2 percent), Zee Entertain (-2 percent) and Tech Mahindra (-2 percent) were the big losers in the Nifty. Other laggards in the index were PNB (-1 percent), BHEL (-1 percent), HUL (-1 percent) and Dr Reddy's Labs (-1 percent).

Gainers included Hindalco (4 percent), Vedanta (2 percent), Tata Steel (2 percent) and ACC (1 percent).

DCB Bank (-20 percent), JSW Energy (-3 percent), Shree Cements (-3 percent), Power Finance (-3 percent) and Emami (-3 percent) were the big losers in midcap space. Other notable laggards included Glenmark (-2 percent), IDBI Bank (-2 percent), Union Bank (-2 percent), Havells India (-2 percent) and Divis Labs (-2 percent).

The rupee was quoting at 65.07 to the dollar, up 11 paise over its previous close.

12:50 pm Earnings: TTK Prestige, the kitchen appliances manufacturer, has beat analysts' expectations on Wednesday with second quarter profit rising 21.4 percent to Rs 34 crore from Rs 28 crore in the year-ago period. In corresponding quarter, profit was boosted by exceptional gains of Rs 1.85 crore.

Revenue increased 10.2 percent to Rs 421 crore during July-September quarter compared to Rs 382 crore in same period last year.

Profit was estimated at Rs 30 crore on revenue of Rs 407 crore for the quarter, according to a CNBC-TV18 poll.

During the same period, other income doubled to Rs 2.17 crore from Rs 1.11 crore while finance cost declined to Rs 0.7 crore from Rs 1.05 crore.

12:45 pm Lupin's tie up: Drug majors Lupin and Boehringer Ingelheim announced a strategic alliance to co-market anti-diabetes drug linagliptin in India."According to the agreement, Lupin will market and sell linagliptin under a separate brand name Ondero (monotherapy) and Ondero Met (fixed-dose combination with metformin) which will be promoted by Lupin's 400 strong dedicated Diabetes speciality field force," Lupin said in a BSE filing. Linagliptin, is a novel Dipeptidylpeptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitor.

Boehringer Ingelheim will continue to sell its linagliptin under the brand names Trajenta (monotherapy) and TrajentaDuo (fixed-dose combination with metformin) through their existing sales force and network.12:40 pm Europe opens: European equities opened lower, following a jittery lead set in Asia overnight and Wall Street on Tuesday as concerns over the Chinese economy continue to weigh on markets.

All major indices were in negative territory.

12:30 pm Buzzing: Shares of Intellect Design Arena climbed 4.6 percent to hit a record high of Rs 211.70 intraday after ace investor Rakesh Radheshyam Jhunjhunwala raised stake in the company.

Jhunjhunwala has purchased 2.24 percent equity stake in the company during July-September quarter. It was in addition to 3.73 percent stake already held in his wife's name Rekha Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, as per latest shareholding data available on exchanges. He also upped his stake in Polaris Consulting, a parent company of Intellect, to 4.99 percent from 4.74 percent during the quarter.

ICICI Prudential Balanced Advantage Fund also picked up 1.18 percent stake in the software company while LSV Emerging Market Equity Fund LP exited by selling 1.22 percent equity stake.

Reliance Capital through its three funds has 7.58 percent shareholding as of September 2015.

Promoter and promoter group have increased their shareholding marginally to 32.20 percent in Q3CY15 from 32.02 percent in Q2CY15.

12:15 pm Movers and Shakers: TCS topped the selling list on Sensex, down 4 percent post lower-than-expected revenue in Q2.ICICI Bank, Tata Motors and Coal India were down more than 1 percent while Hindalco, Tata Steel and Vedanta surged 2.5-4 percent followed by Infosys and Lupin with 1 percent upside.Also read - Underweight on IT, banks remain near-term worry: Kotak MF12:00 pm Market Check

The market remained lacklustre in noon trade. Metals, select banks and pharma stocks supported market while auto and FMCG stocks lost ground.

The 30-share BSE Sensex declined 13.04 points to 26833.49 and the 50-share NSE Nifty slipped 10.30 points to 8121.40. The BSE Midcap also fell 0.2 percent but Smallcap outperformed with half a percent gain.

The market breadth continued to be positive as about 1477 shares have advanced against 891 declining shares on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The wholesale price index (WPI) came in at -4.54 percent, improving somewhat from -4.95 percent in August, government data released today showed. A CNBC-TV18 poll of economists had forecast WPI to come in at -4.4 percent. The September contraction was led by continuing weakness in prices of fuel and power (down 17.7 percent vessus 16.5 percent last month) as well as vegetable (down 9.45 percent versus 21.21 percent).