Sensex down 249pts, Nifty below 8000; Bihar exit polls key

Sensex down 249pts, Nifty below 8000; Bihar exit polls key

Investors seem to be nervous ahead of exit polls that will be announced today evening after the end of last phase of Bihar elections. Elections results will be announced on November 8.

Equity benchmarks as well as broader markets extended sell-off in last hour of trade on Thursday, especially ahead of Bihar exit polls and big earnings. Banking & financials, healthcare, technology and metals stocks dragged market.

The 30-share BSE Sensex fell 248.72 points or 0.94 percent to 26304.20. The 50-share NSE Nifty closed below 8000-mark (for the first time since October 1), down 84.75 points or 1.05 percent to 7955.45.

Investors seem to be nervous ahead of exit polls that will be announced today evening after the end of last phase of Bihar elections. Elections results will be announced on November 8.

Big companies will announce their earnings on Friday, which include SBI, ONGC, Tata Motors, Bank of Baroda, PNB, Union Bank, Reliance Communications, BHEL, M&M among others.

About 35 of 50 Nifty companies have reported results so far representing 75 percent of market cap. Headline sales are down 5 percent and profit after tax is up 3 percent and hence the weakness continues, but adjusted for sectors seeing acute deflation like metals and oil, sales/profit after tax grew 9 percent and 8 percent year-on-year, in line with Q1 trends, says Neelkanth Mishra, Credit Suisse.

He further says they have cut FY16/17 Nifty EPS estimates by 0.6-2 percent, adding cuts were broad-based, only energy and telecom have seen upgrades.

The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices were down around 1.5 percent today. The market breadth was also negative as two shares declined for every share advancing on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Steel stocks topped selling list on Sensex. Vedanta was down 4.66 percent. Tata Steel fell 4.3 percent ahead of earnings today evening.

Sun Pharma was top contributor to Sensex's fall, down 4.3 percent. The pharma major will announce its Q2 earnings on Saturday.

Infosys, Reliance Industries, TCS, ICICI Bank, HDFC, SBI, Axis Bank and Bharti Airtel were down 1-3 percent. Cipla too was down 1.9 percent ahead of results later today.

Coal India bucked the trend, up 2 percent followed by Mahindra & Mahindra with half a percent gains. Both companies will declare earnings on Friday.

In broader space, Jubilant Foodworks plunged 5 percent after disappointing results. Profit fell 17.6 percent year-on-year to Rs 23.9 crore against CNBC-TV18 poll estimates of Rs 35 crore. Same-store-sales growth was at 3.2 percent against estimates of 5.5-6 percent.

Arvind gained 5 percent after profit beat estimates, coming in at Rs 91 crore (down 2 percent year-on-year) against forecast of Rs 86.3 crore in Q2.

 Happy Investing

Source:Moneycontrol.com