Sensex, Nifty end on a flat note; midcaps and IT stocks gain

3:30 pm Market at Close: Benchmark indices closed the session on a flat note, with the Nifty managing to hold on to its 9300-mark.

The Sensex closed up 7.10 points at 29933.25, while the Nifty ended up 2.80 points at 9316.85. The market breadth was narrow as 1,481 shares advanced against a fall of 1,356 shares, while 166 shares were unchanged.

Larsen & Toubro, Adani Ports and IOC were top gainers on both the indices, while Hero MotoCorp, Lupin and Indiabulls Housing Finance lost the most.

Metals space continued its gain along with information technology (IT) as well as midcaps. The indices gained 0.77 percent, 0.69 percent and 0.51 percent, respectively.

3:20 pm Brokerages retain buy on Aurobindo: Shares of Aurobindo Pharma were under pressure on Tuesday as it lost over 2 percent intraday due to regulatory issues.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) made some observations for the company's Hyderabad unit and issued a Form 483 for the same

Brokerages, however, retained their buy call on the stock amid a few concerns from these observations.

2:50 pm SBI invites bid for cap raising plan: State Bank of India has invited bids from investment bankers (or book running lead managers) for its proposed Rs 15,000 crore capital raising plan.

The country's largest lender received Board approval to raise the amount for the fiscal year ending March 2018, which may be mopped up through a QIP, FPO (qualified institutional placement, follow-on public offer) or a rights issue.

If completed, this issue will be the first such sale by SBI since 2008 when it had raised Rs 16,740 crore by selling shares via a rights sale.

2:29 pm FII and Indian market: Analysis done by Deutsche Bank Markets Research shows that between January 2004 and April 2014 (prior to Narendra Modi government was sworn in), FIIs sold equities over 34 months and the MSCI India Index declined 30 times as the index declined over 88 percent.

However, since May 2014, FIIs have sold Indian equities for 13 months, but the MSCI India Index declined only 9 times and the decline in the MSCI Index was 68 percent. MSCI India's median monthly return after May 2014 is -0.6 percent compared to -6.7 percent in the 2004-2014 period when FIIs were selling.

2:05 pm Market Check: Benchmark indices continued to be nearly flat in a day that has not seen much of movements.

The Sensex was up 31.12 points at 29957.27, while the Nifty was up 11.15 points at 9325.20. The market breadth was narrow as 1,485 shares advanced against a decline of 1,203 shares, while 169 shares were unchanged.

L&T, IOC and Adani Ports continued to lead the charts, while Hero MotoCorp, Lupin and Indiabulls Housing Finance lost the most.

1:40 pm Buzzing stock: Shares of Lupin lost over a percent intraday on Tuesday as investors turned wary of the US drug regulator's observations at its Aurangabad facility.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued eight observations for its Aurangabad unit, which was inspected between April 17 and 26.

Following are the list of observations made by the regulator, according to a CNBC-TV18 report:

•   Market complaints & adverse drug experiences not investigated
•   Firm does not have written procedure to review stored data
•   Lack of adequate exhaust systems to control contamination
•   Drug containers not tested for microbial contamination
•   Clothing of personnel engaged is not appropriate
•   Surfaces that come in contact with drugs are not sanitized
•   No reliability of temperature, humidity data
•   Effectiveness testing of finished drugs not performed

1:05 pm Market Check: Benchmark indices traded in the positive terrain during the noon session, with the Nifty holding 9300-mark.

The Sensex was up 44.29 points at 29970.44, while the Nifty was up 13.35 points at 9327.40. The market breadth continued to be narrow as 1,460 shares advanced against a decline of 1,134 shares, while 166 shares were unchanged.

Midcaps continued to gain, while metals and IT stocks were trading in the green, about a percent higher.

Adani Ports, Axis Bank and IOC were top gainers on both the indices, while Hero MotoCorp, Bharti Airtel, and Indiabulls Housing lost the most.

12:50 pm HUDCO IPO fully subscribed: State-owned HUDCO's initial public offering (IPO) was oversubscribed 1.08 times on the second day after the issue was opened for investors.

Out of a total issue size of 20,40,58,747 shares, the issue received bids worth 22,07,41,600 shares, data available from the NSE revealed. These numbers are as of 12:30 pm and will be updated accordingly.

12:34 pm Restricted trade: Leading exchanges BSE and NSE will move about 23 firms to the restricted trading segment from Thursday as a safeguard for investors.

While BSE will move all 23 firms to trade-to-trade segment, rival NSE will shift only seven firms, as per the data available with the exchanges.

The seven firms to be moved to the trade-to-trade segment on both the bourses are Manaksia Industries, Petron Engineering Construction, Pritish Nandy Communications, Sastasundar Ventures, Transwarranty Finance, Williamson Magor & Company and Zenith
Exports.

12:07 pm Market Check: Benchmark indices continued to remain rangebound, with the Nifty trading absolutely flat.

The Sensex was up 20.62 points at 29946.77, while the Nifty was up 8.65 points at 9322.70. The market breadth was narrow as 1,424 shares advanced against a decline of 1,084 shares, while 139 shares were unchanged.

Midcaps continued their upmove, with the index soaring over half a percent, while metals too gained over a percent.

Tata Steel, Adani Ports, IOC and Tech Mahindra were the top gainers, while Hero MotoCorp, Bharti Airtel and Indiabulls Housing Finance lost the most.

11:49 am Expert Speak: With several developments happening in the banking space with respect to the bad loans problem, HDFC Securities sees it as a late, but welcome awakening.

''I remain a little sceptical on whether bad assets can be turned around,'' Dipen Sheth, Head- Institutional Research, HDFC Securities told CNBC-TV18 in an interview. Having said that he added the move sent a message that reforms were taking place to address issues plaguing the sector. You can catch the whole conversation here.

11:25 am Buzzing stock: Share price of ABB India touched 52-week high of Rs 1,578, surges 12.5 percent intraday Tuesday post March quarter (Q1) numbers.

The company's Q1 net profit was up 3.2 percent at Rs 88.2 crore against Rs 85.5 crore, in the same quarter last year.

Total income of the company increased 9.2 percent at Rs 2,318.8 crore versus Rs 2,123.6 crore.

11:10 am Market Check: Benchmark indices were trading steady with marginal gains, with the Nifty holding on to its 9300-mark.

The 30-share Sensex was up 48.60 points at 29974.75, while the Nifty was up 13.30 points at 9327.35. The market breadth, however, was narrowing as 1,397 shares advanced against a decline of 973 shares, while 109 shares were unchanged.

Tata Steel, Bajaj Auto and Hindalco were top gainers on both the indices, while Hero MotoCorp, ICICI Bank and Indiabulls Housing Finance lost the most.

10:55 am Polaris Consulting to delist? US-based Virtusa is seeking to delist Polaris Consulting & Services from the Indian stock exchanges, sources privy to the information told CNBC-TV18. Virtusa has already appointed bankers for this, to finalise the delisting road map.

Before delisting, Virtusa, which holds around 75 percent stake in Polaris, plans to acquire 15 percent additional stake in the consulting firm. However, it will go ahead with the delisting only after first assessing the market conditions.

The global IT services major intends to rebrand Polaris under the umbrella 'Virtusa', post listing.

10:40 am Tepid listing: Shares of S Chand & Co listed at Rs 689 on Tuesday, a 3 percent gain on the issue price of Rs 670.

The listing was tepid as compared to the demand it had seen from investors. It was oversubscribed 59.28 times, and had raised Rs 219 crore from anchor investors.

10:30 am Buzzing stocks: Share price of Mangalam Drugs and NOCIL gained 3-4 percent intraday Tuesday on strong Q4 numbers.

Mangalam Drugs has posted 20 percent jump in its Q4 (Jan-March) net profit at Rs 6.6 crore against Rs 5.5 crore, in the same quarter last fiscal.

Total Income of the company was up 18.9 percent at Rs 87.6 crore versus Rs 73.7 crore.

10:05 am Markets Update: Markets were trading flat after it opened on positive note. The Sensex was up 21.08 points at 29947.23, and the Nifty was up 1.10 points at 9315.15. About 1241 shares have advanced, 811 shares declined, and 98 shares are unchanged.

Tata Steel, BHEL, ITC, Tata Motors, Axis Bank, Bharti Infratel, IOC and HCL Tech are the top gainers on the indices, while top losers includes ICICI Bank, Cipla, Hero Motocorp, Bharti Airtel, Sun Pharma, Indiabulls Housing, Aurobindo Pharma, Bank of Baroda and Ambuja Cements.

9:50 am Buzzing Stock: Shares of Tata Sponge Iron rose as much as 2.4 percent intraday Tuesday as it has received government approval to increase the production capacity.

The company has received environment clearance from Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Government of India, for enhancement of DRI production by 35000 TPA i.e. from 3,90,000 TPA to 4,25,000 TPA in the existing facility located at Bileipada, district Keonjhat, Odisha.

For the quarter ended March 2017, the company had posted net profit of Rs 21.20 crore against Rs 13.08 crore in the same quarter last fiscal.

9:30 am Rupee Update: The rupee on Tuesday opened at 64.42 against the dollar, 12 paise lower than its previous close, on strong demand for the greenback from nationalised banks and importers.

On Monday, the rupee had closed 7 paise higher from its Friday close, after having seen higher gains earlier in the session. However, towards the end of trade, demand for the dollar returned and many nationalised banks were seen buying dollars.

"USD-INR pair has been trading in a range-bound manner, affected by global developments. Expect 64.20-64.40/dollar range to prevail," said Bhaskar Panda of HDFC Bank. "On 10-year benchmark front, expect the yield to hover between 6.92-6.95 percent today," he added.

9:15 am Market Opens: Benchmark indices opened in the green on Tuesday, with indices posting marginal gains and holding on to key milestones.

The 30-share Sensex was up 35.66 points at 29961.81, while the Nifty was up 11.50 points at 9325.55. The market breadth was healthy as 593 shares advanced against a decline of 179 shares, while 31 shares were unchanged.

Asian Paints, Hero MotoCorp, HDFC and Indian Oil were top gainers on both the indices, while Adani Ports, Bharti twins and Ambuja Cements lost the most.

On the global front, the S&P 500 ended flat on Monday after briefly touching a record high, while Wall Street's "fear gauge" dropped to its lowest in over two decades following centrist Emmanuel Macron's victory in the French presidential election.

The CBOE Volatility index dropped 7.6 percent to 9.77, its lowest since 1993 as investors took comfort from Macron's victory, as well as from strong quarterly reports in recent weeks.

A declining VIX typically indicates a bullish outlook for stocks, but the extreme lows the index has touched are sounding caution for some stock investors.

Asian equities were mostly muted after soaring in the previous trading session with investors focused on key regional events unfolding in the day, including a presidential election in South Korea and the release of the Australian federal budget.

Gold inched up early on Tuesday as Asian stocks eased, but was sitting near a seven-week low hit in the previous session as Emmanuel Macron's victory in French elections dampened the safe-haven appeal of the metal.

Meanwhile, following a successful IPO issue, S Chand and Company will be listing itself on the exchanges later in the day.

The IPO saw solid investor demand after it was oversubscribed 59.28 times at the close of its bidding hours.

The textbook publisher's issue received bids for 45,56,00,794 shares against the total issue size of 76,85,284 shares, data available with the NSE showed.