Sensex, Nifty close in red; ITC, ICICI, HDFC twins drag

3:30 pm Market Closing: Benchmark indices ended lower for second consecutive session, with the Sensex down 69.56 points at 28743.32. The Nifty remained below 8900 level, down 17.10 points at 8879.60 ahead of GDP data due later today.

BHEL was biggest gainer among Sensex and Nifty stocks, up 6 percent followed by Bharti Airtel, Asian Paints, Adani Ports, M&M, Yes Bank and Hindalco while BPCL, Grasim, Coal India, Tech Mahindra, Bajaj Auto, NTPC, Hero Motocorp and ITC fell 1-5 percent.

2: 41 PM Buzzing Stock: Zee Entertainment Enterprises shares gained 2 percent intraday Tuesday after the company received USD 330 million in first phase of sale of sports broadcasting business to Sony Pictures.

“The first phase of transaction comprising of sale of entire equity stake of the company in Taj – India and transfer of major part of sports broadcasting business of Taj – Mauritius stands concluded today upon receipt of USD 330 million by the company and/or its subsidiaries,” Zee Entertainment said in its filing.

Following the completion of this phase of acquisition of TEN Sports Network from Zee, Sony Pictures’ cluster of nine sports channels will now include Sony Six & Sony Six HD, Sony ESPN & Sony ESPN HD, TEN 1, TEN 1 HD, TEN 2, TEN 3 and TEN Golf HD.

2:30 PM Tackling Jio’s pricing: After six months of unlimited free data and voice, Reliance Jio will start charging for its services post March 31.

Sunil Mittal, the Chairman of Bharti Airtel , said Jio’s new Rs 303 tariff plan is very aggressive, and telecom operators will have to respond with better plans. The telecom industry has been in consolidation mode, after Reliance Jio disrupted the sector by providing unlimited free voice and data.

While industry giants Vodafone India and Idea Cellular plan a merger, Bharti Airtel recently acquired Telenor’s India wing to become more competitive. “Once the merger is approved by the authorities, we will merge that network into our network and bolster our existing 4G network, said Mittal.

2:17 PM Lupin’s FDA nod: Lupin announced on Tuesday that the US Food and Drug Administration had granted it approval to market the generic version of Braintree Laboratories’ Suprep Bowel Prep Kit.

Suprep follows a split dose regime and Lupin has got approval for Sodium Sulfate, Potassium Sulfate and Magnesium Sulfate Oral Solution, all of which are taken to cleanse the colon before colonoscopy in adults.

Suprep Bowel Prep Kit has a market of USD 207 million in the USA.

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Volatility in the market continued in the post noon session after benchmark indices recovered from day’s lows.

The Sensex was down 9.98 points at 28802.90, while the Nifty was down 10.30 points at 8886.40. The market breadth was narrow with about 1,376 shares having advanced, 1,263 shares having declined. About 200 shares were unchanged.

Bharti Airtel continued to be among the top gainers on both the indices along with Hindalco and Asian Paints. Meanwhile, Coal India, TCS and BPCL were among the top losers.

The Street now awaits key GDP data that is set to be released later in the day.