9:25 a.m. Markets extend losses. Sensex down nearly 100 points while Nifty hovers near 8500.
9:20 a.m.: Asian Paints top Nifty gainer, rising nearly 2 per cent. The stock fell over 4 per cent on Tuesday after announcement of Q1 results. Devang Mehta, senior vice president at Anand Rathi Securities, says though earnings were in line with the estimates, cautious commentary of the management led to some selling pressure. Since valuations are very high, "I see limited upside for the stock in next 3-6 months. Buy over a 1-year perspective, any dips is a good buying opportunity, he added.
9:16 a.m. Sensex down 58 points at 28,124 while Nifty falls below 8,500.
9:11 a.m. Devang Mehta, senior vice president at Anand Rathi Securities, said there are few triggers to take markets substantially higher. He expects Nifty to consolidate between 8400-8600.
09.00 a.m. Rupee opens lower at 63.58 per dollar against Tuesday's close of 63.54.
08.45 a.m. Market analyst Rajat Bose says 8,516 is the most critical support for Nifty today.
08.30 a.m. Analysts say earnings and the monsoon session of Parliament will be the key triggers for domestic stocks for the next few days. On Tuesday, Infosys reported stellar numbers for the June quarter, but HDFC Bank, Asian Paints and HUL all disappointed with weaker-than-expected earnings. Infosys, which has the third largest weightage in the Nifty, rose over 11 per cent and supported markets. Had it not been for Infosys, markets would have slumped even more, analysts say.
Bharti Infratel, Alstom India, Bajaj Finserv, Ceat, JSW Energy, Muthoot Finance, PVR, Tata Metaliks and United Breweries are some of the companies that will report earnings today.
08.25 a.m. The SGX Nifty, or the Nifty futures trading on the Singapore Exchange, traded 36.50 points or 0.43 per cent lower suggesting a weak start for stock markets. Spot Nifty had closed 74 points or 0.86 per cent down at 8,529 yesterday, while the BSE Sensex had ended 238 points lower at 28,182.
The BSE Sensex and the broader Nifty are likely to open lower on Tuesday tracking weakness in global markets and disappointing earnings growth by a large number of domestic companies. Nearly all markets in Asia traded with deep cuts after earnings dragged down US equities. Japan's Nikkei stock index was down 1.25 per cent, pulling away from Tuesday's nearly four-week closing high.
Overnight, Wall Street skidded on weak earnings from bellwethers IBM and United Technologies while Apple slumped in late trading after posting its results.
