India : Sensex, Nifty marginally lower amid volatility; Midcap shines
MUMBAI : Equity benchmarks traded marginally lower on profit booking while the broader markets outperformed with the BSE Midcap rising 0.8 percent.
The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 74.70 points at 28133.92 and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 10.90 points to 8655.40. About 1054 shares advanced against 741 declining shares on the BSE.
ICICI Bank fell more than 2 percent ahead of Q1 earnings. A CNBC-TV18 poll expects the bank to report 28 percent decline in profit on yearly basis.
L&T too was down around a percent as investors will closely watch company’s FY17 guidance due later today.
HDFC Bank, HDFC, Infosys, Reliance Industries, Bharti Airtel and TCS were losers while ITC, Axis Bank, Bajaj Auto, Lupin, Sun Pharma and Tata Motors supported the market.
Despite severe competition from Chinese tyre imports, CEAT grew volumes 13 percent year-on-year. China tyre inflows have increased for truck radial and commercial vehicle segments and the company has requested the government for anti-dumping duty on tyres, said Anant Goenka, MD of the company.CEAT posted a revenue growth of 3.9 percent on the back of healthy original equipment manufacturer (OEM) sector performance, he told CNBC-TV18.
The company has passed on price cut of 8-9 percent to its consumers, and has increased ad expenditure 70 -80 percent year-on-year. This is what has impacted CEAT’s margins, Goenka added.
He believes rubber prices will cool down during October-December and benefits of product mix will be seen in future. However, if raw material prices increase, the company may look at hiking prices, Goenka said.
