Nifty below 8550, Sensex firm; Maruti, SBI gain 2%

Moneycontrol Bureau1:45 pm International markets: Ahead of the Bank of England policy meeting to be held later during the day, Hartmut Issel of UBS says the central bank is in a predicament whether or not to cut interest rate.

"Pound has fallen. The central bank may cut rate by 25 bps today and another 25 bps by the end of this year to save the economy from running  into recession," he said.

However, no quantitative easing will take place in this meeting.

He added that cues from the US earnings season will also factor in shaping the European indices, going forward.

1:30 pm FII view: Even as global markets have rallied since the Brexit vote and no longer appear cheap, Andrew Holland of Ambit Investment Advisors is less worried about the Indian market. In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Holland said that though people are hoping for growth recovery on back of strong monsoon and 7th Pay Commission, earnings recovery will likely be patchy. Ambit has been adding pharmaceutical to its portfolio thanks to low valuations on back of regulatory issues. Private banks, cement and non-banking finance companies too have high valuations, lessening the previous excitement, he said. "However, once the economy starts growing in second half, private banks will be the first to benefit."Don't miss: TCS Q1 profit seen down 4.7%, dollar revenue growth may be 3.8%: Poll

The Sensex is up 62.19 points at 27877.37, and the Nifty up 20.80 points at 8540.30. About 1509 shares have advanced, 969 shares declined, and 162 shares are unchanged.

Maruti, SBI, ICICI Bank, GAIL and Tata Motors are top gainers while ONGC, M&M, Sun Pharma, Infosys and Cipla are losers in the Sensex.

Amid a weakening global trend and profit-booking, gold futures fell Rs 232 to Rs 31,531 per 10 gm today as participants trimmed their positions. Market analysts said the fall in gold futures was mostly in tune with a weak trend overseas as investors await stimulus from policy makers and profit-booking by speculators.