India : L&T, ICICI Bank drag Sensex marginally lower, Nifty below 8700

The market closed marginally lower amid consolidation on Monday after hitting a fresh one year high on the Nifty in morning following weak US Q2 GDP data, as investors waited for GST bill that is likely to be tabled for discussion in Parliament this week. Sell-off in L&T & ICICI Bank post Q1 earnings dampened the sentiment, though buying in technology and auto stocks limited the fall.The 50-share NSE Nifty failed to hold its fresh 52-week high of 8711.30 hit in morning trade, down 1.95 points to close at 8636.55. The 30-share BSE Sensex fell 48.74 points to 28003.12 while the broader markets outperformed benchmarks.

The BSE Midcap index gained 0.4 percent despite weak market breadth. About 1563 shares declined against 1186 advancing shares on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Positive events like Good and Services Tax (GST) and good monsoon, on which market had been rallying, have been completely discounted, Dipan Mehta, Member, NSE and BSE said.

He feels the market is ‘entering into a no-news kind of trade’ and that is what has caused market taking a break from its rally mode.

Country’s largest private sector lender ICICI Bank shed more than 5 percent after bad asset quality performance in June quarter. Slippages stood at Rs 8,249 crore (against Rs 7,003 crore in Q4FY16), which were far ahead of analysts’ estimates of around Rs 5,000 crore.

Larsen & Toubro lost more than 4 percent after the engineering and infrastructure major missed Q1 earnings expectations, though it has maintained FY17 guidance of fresh orders and revenue at 15 percent and 12-15 percent, respectively.

Majority of companies reported good auto sales growth in July. Maruti Suzuki got its momentum back by reporting better-than-expected 12.7 percent growth in July sales at 1.37 lakh units, led by highest ever monthly domestic sales. Eicher Motors’ Royal Enfield sustained improvement in sales for the fourth consecutive month by reporting 31 percent YoY growth. Mahindra & Mahindra’s sales grew by 14 percent led by passenger and utility vehicles while Ashok Leyland sales fell 5 percent on degrowth in MHCV segment.

Maruti Suzuki was up 2.4 percent followed by Mahindra & Mahindra with 0.55 percent while Ashok Leyland fell 4 percent. Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto and Hero Motocorp gained 0.5-1 percent ahead of sales data.

TCS, Infosys, Tata Steel, Wipro and Dr Reddy’s Labs climbed 1-3 percent while Lupin, Adani Ports and BHEL declined 1-3 percent.