Midcap outperforms Sensex, Nifty amid consolidation; Tata Motors, Tata Power zoom

Equity benchmarks saw consolidation on Tuesday after a rally in the previous session, but the broader markets outperformed despite negative breadth.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 14.04 points at 31,297.53 and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 4.05 points to 9,653.50 while the BSE Midcap and smallcap indices gained nearly 0.2 percent each.

Experts expect the consolidation to continue as investors remained cautious ahead of GST rollout that is expected from July 1.

“The fear on near term disruptions on account of GST rollout is making investors to stay cautious. The true impact will be known only when the new procedure starts, it could have some hiccups in the supply chain, changes in inventory/revenue and inflationary impact,” Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services said.

The market breadth was negative as about 1,431 shares declined against 1,227 advancing shares on the BSE.

Banks failed to continue yesterday’s gains, with the Nifty Bank index losing 0.2 percent. Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and HDFC Bank were down 0.2-1.6 percent while SBI and ICICI Bank gained around half a percent.

Tata Motors rose 3 percent on buzz of initial public offering of Jaguar Land Rover while Tata Power rallied more than 5 percent as the company is expected to dilute its stake in India Energy Exchange through initial public offering.

Infosys shares gained 1.5 percent as sources told CNBC-TV18 that the country’s second largest IT services provider will give out 5-7 percent hike for offshore employees across segments and average hike of 2-4 percent for onshore employees. High performing employees may receive double-digit increments.

Companies under Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code continued to move higher as Bhushan Steel gained 9 percent. Monnet Ispat surged 20 percent as sources told CNBC-TV18 that joint lenders forum will be meeting to discuss the future of the company. Lenders are likely to give an in-principle nod to send the case to National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).

Government official told CNBC-TV18 that the government plans to start insolvency, bankruptcy procedure in 15-20 days on 12 accounts that referred under Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code by RBI. Bhushan Steel, Bhushan Power and Essar Steel accounts will be dealt with on a priority basis.

ONGC, Cipla and Tata Motors DVR gained more than 1 percent whereas HDFC, ITC, Lupin, Hero Motocorp and NTPC fell 0.5-1.6 percent.
On the global front, European bourses edged higher as investors turned their attention to individual stock news and data. France’s CAC, Germany’s DAX and Britain’s FTSE were up 0.1-0.3 percent at the time of writing this article. However, Asian markets ended mostly lower.