Nifty below 8550, Sensex skids 238pts; Sun Pharma dips 15%

Moneycontrol Bureau03:30pm Market closing: After a choppy day, the market ended with heavy losses. The Sensex was down 237.98 points or 0.8 percent at 28182.14, and the Nifty slipped 74 points or 0.9 percent at 8529.45. About 966 shares advanced, 1863 shares declined, and 138 shares were unchanged.

Infosys was star of the day with 11 percent gains at end. Bharti, Wipro, Bajaj Auto and Hero MotoCorp are top gainers. Sun Pharma tanks 15 percent while Lupin, Vedanta, ONGC and Tata Steel were among major laggards.03:00 pm Market Update: The Sensex fell 254.60 points or 0.90 percent to 28165.52 and the Nifty dropped 72.70 points or 0.85 percent to 8530.75. About 908 shares have advanced, 1857 shares declined, and 139 shares are unchanged on the BSE.02:30 pm Earnings: FMCG major Hindustan Unilever (HUL) disappointed street on Tuesday with the June quarter net profit growing 0.2 percent year-on-year to Rs 1,059 crore. The growth was impacted by one-time profit on sale of investments in the base quarter, higher tax rate and lower other income.

Total income from operations grew by 5 percent to Rs 8,105 crore in the quarter ended June compared to Rs 7,716.34 crore in the same quarter last year. Other income nearly halved to Rs 108.61 crore from Rs 202.11 crore during the same period.

The bottomline and topline was lower than analyst estimates, volume growth was in line and operational performance beat expectations. According to a CNBC-TV18 poll, profit was estimated at Rs 1,110 crore on revenue of Rs 8,323 crore for the quarter.

"The growth in the quarter was impacted by the phasing out of excise duty incentives and price de-growth, as the benefit of lower commodity costs was passed on to consumers," said the company in its filing.

During the quarter, the domestic consumer business grew 5 percent, with 6 percent underlying volume growth (against forecast of 5-7 percent range and 5 percent reported in the year-ago period).

Operating profit grew by 14.35 percent year-on-year to Rs 1,506 crore and margin expanded by 150 basis points to 18.6 percent in first quarter of FY16, which were ahead of estimates of Rs 1,495 crore and 17.9 percent, respectively.

Harish Manwani, Chairman said in a subdued market environment, the business delivered another quarter of healthy volume led growth and strong improvement in operating margin.02:00 pm Market Check

The market is sinking in red after HUL posted disappointing April-June quarter results. The FMCG’s net profit grew 0.2 percent year-on-year to Rs 1,059 crore with 6 percent underlying volume growth. The stock is down 2 percent.

The Sensex is down 66.10 points at 28354.02 and the Nifty is down 23.25 points at 8580.20. About 1064 shares have advanced, 1654 shares declined, and 141 shares are unchanged.

Infosys, Bharti, Wipro, BHEL and Bajaj Auto are top gainers while Sun Pharma, Lupin, Vedanta, Tata Steel and Cipla.

Gold stabilised holding just above a five-year low, but with investors still clinging to views of further price falls a day after the metal lost 4 percent.

Reflecting losing interest in gold, holdings in top gold fund SPDR Gold Trust fell to the lowest since 2008. Bullion, after falling on Monday by the most since September 2013, is trading just above the critical USD 1,100 an ounce support level, another breach of which could lead to another selloff, traders and analysts say.