Nifty, Sensex close in red, Tata Mtrs go down 2.6%

Earnings-hit market had very little to look forward to on Thursday, although January inflation numbers raised hopes that WPI inflation will go down in fiscal 2013.

The list of disappointment include State Bank of India, Dr Reddy's, IVRCL, Educomp, Shipping Corporation of India and IFCI, all of which failed the street with their quarterly numbers. The sell-off that followed forced the 50-stock Nifty to close near the low point of the day.

Tata Motors, which declared its third quarter numbers after the trades were closed for the day, came in below expectations. The stock had closed down 2.6 percent in anticipation of bad results. Maruti Suzuki was the other auto stock which lost in trades. The stock closed down over 3 percent, followed by Hero MotoCorp which closed down 1.5 percent.

The BSE benchmark Sensex closed down 139.94 points at 19468.14, and the Nifty shut shop 36 points down at 5896.95.

Index heavyweight Hindustan Lever was the yop gainer on the indices, rising over 2 percent. Infosys, TCS, HDFC Bank and Coal India were other notable gainers. On the losing side, Bharti Airtel suffred the most with 4 percent cut, followed by Larsen, Seimens, Wipro, Power Grid and BPCL. Each lost between 3-4 percentfrom its previous closing figure.

Indian InfoTech was the biggest winner on the Midcap index, swelling 7 percent. DB Realty, Page Industries, Suzlon and Kirloskar Oil also moved up between 3-4 percent.

The Nifty's struggle to stay above 5900 intensified after most of Europe opened in the red. At 13.38 PM, the Sensex was down 38.99 points at 19569.09, and the Nifty fell 20.20 points to 5912.75. Pressure on Nifty came in from capital goods, metal and telecom stocks which were trading with substantial cuts. HUL, HDFC Bank, ONGC, GAIL and technology stocks were lending support to the NSE benchmark.

The country's largest lender SBI fell sharply after it posted a net profit of only 4 percent, but the shares recouped some of losses after the company revealed its provisions had come down year-on-year. The low profit figure was the result of lower net interest income, which analysts say, is  not much of a concern. The stock was trading down 0.8 percent.

Pharma major Dr Reddy's also fell 1.34% after it posted disappointing quarterly numbers.

Educomp fell nearly 2 percent after posting very poor quarterly numbers. Its net sales fell 18 percent quarter-on-quarter. Orchid fell 4 percent after its loss shot up to over Rs 70 crore in the third quarter.

Realty midcap stocks Unitech and DB Realty picked up 4 percent each after being battered for the last two sessions.

At 11.13 AM, the Sensex fell 9.73 points at 19598.35, and the Nifty slipped 9.95 points at 5923.00. The benchmarks saw some support from oil and gas, banks and FMCG stocks. Top gainers at the moment are ONGC, GAIL, NTPC, HUL, HDFC Bank and Infosys.

Tata Motors remained under pressure ahead of its results. The company's overseas operations were a disappointment and analysts expect muted set of numbers in domestic operations as well. The stock fell 2.17% in the late. morning trade. At the consolidated level, Tata Motors is expected to report a net profit of Rs 2,250 crore, down 34 percent year-on-year, while revenue is seen up 4.4 percent at Rs 47,277 crore, according to a CNBC-TV18 poll.

State Bank of India (SBI) which will also announce its quarterly numbers was quoting at Rs 2,225.00, down 1.33%. Realty major DLF was trading marginally down though the company is expected to post a good set of numbers.

Most of the midcaps have been trading in the red. Stocks that are doing well include Unitech and Alok Industries. Speaking to CNBC-TV18, technical analyst Anil Manghnani said Unitech might pull back to Rs 31-32 and then restart its journey to retest lows somewhere between Rs 26-27.

After two days of small upticks, benchmark indices opened flat with Coal India, DLF and HCL Tech, Infosys, BPCL and NTPC holding in green. At 09.17 AM, the Sensex was up 12.06 points at 19620.14, and the Nifty rose 4.55 points to 5937.50.

Tech stocks continue to perform with HCL Tech rising almost 1 percent followed by Infosys and TCS. Wipro was, however, down 1.5 percent. The stock will move out of Nifty W.E.F April 1.

Maruti Suzuki was a star performer in the auto pack for the past few sessions and appears to be in a correction mode, coming off more than 2 percent in the morning trade on profit booking. Tata Steel too was slammed after its poor third quarter numbers. Other stocks weighing on the bourses include  SBI and Bharti Airtel.

The midcap segment was trading flat with negative bias. Cholamandalam was the top runner with 2.8 percent gains followed by Biocon which rose on news that the company had forged a tie up with Mylan.

Meanwhile, in a late Wednesday night development, SEBI cracked down on Sahara group , freezing more than 100 bank accounts of two of its companies. Sources said that the immovable assets of the two companies were also frozen.