Nifty ends above 8400; BHEL, Tata Steel, HUL top gainers

Moneycontrol Bureau3:30 pm Market close: The market ended in green with the Nifty above 8400. The 50-share is up 19.00 points or 0.2 percent at 8417 and the Sensex is up 21.98 points at 27257.64.About 1484 shares have advanced, 1253 shares declined, and 308 shares are unchanged.

BHEL, Tata Steel, HUL, ONGC and M&M were top gainers while NTPC, GAIL, Hero MotoCorp,, Bharti Airtel and Adani Ports were losers in the Sensex.

3:00 pm Market Update: Benchmark indices remained flat with a positive bias. The Sensex was up 22.21 points at 27257.87 and the Nifty up 14.75 points at 8412.75.About 1456 shares advanced against 1232 declining shares on the BSE.2:47 pm Divestment: The Cabinet has approved the listing of public sector general insurance companies through fresh equity, or through offer of sale or a combination of both. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, addressing the media, said work towards listing will start right away and the government plans to reduce its stake in these companies to 75 percent from 100 percent.Listing of five general insurance companies, namely, New India Insurance, United India Insurance, Oriental Insurance, National Insurance Company and General Insurance have been cleared, he said.Jaitley said, "Since it is a major decision, which covers the five PSU GIC companies, under the listing requirements, one of the conditions is that government holding has to come down from 100 percent to 75 percent."2:36 pm Earnings: Hindustan Media Ventures (HMVL) today reported a 7.45 percent fall in its consolidated net profit at Rs 43.82 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2016.

The company had posted a net profit of Rs 47.35 crore in the corresponding three months a year ago.

HMVL's total income from operations for the quarter ended December 31, 2016, also decreased by 4.18 percent to Rs 230.28 crore, as against Rs 240.35 crore in the same period of the previous year, it said in a filing to the BSE.

The company publishes Hindi daily 'Hindustan' and magazines like Nandan and Kadambini.

2:25 pm Interview: Havells India, CMD, Anil Rai Gupta, says the impact of demonetisation may not be seen in the fourth quarter. The electrical equipment manufacturer reported increased profit at 27.5 percent year-on-year in the quarter ended 2016. Speaking to CNBCTV-18, he said the company is seeing a strong demand in cables and wires segment and it is also seeing market share gains in most of the categories. The note ban impact was seen in many businesses and the electrical trade too got caught in the net. According to Rai, some impact was seen in the market place due to demonetisation, but it is a one-time impact. The trade schemes introduced in November and December impacted the margins by 1.5-2 percent, said Gupta. He said the impact seen on margin in the third quarter is a one-off and going forward he expects the margin to return to normal. Also read - 10 money moves you should make before Budget2:00 pm Market Check

Benchmark indices as well as broader markets turned volatile after wiping out morning gains. HDFC Group, infra and Tata Group stocks continued to support the market whereas oil and select banks stocks weighed.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 16.04 points at 27219.62 and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 1.65 points at 8399.65.

The market breadth was positive as about 1412 shares advanced against 1171 declining shares on the BSE.

ICICI Prudential Life gained 2 percent after cabinet has approved listing of 4 PSU general insurance companies.

Shares of HUL, Tata Steel and BHEL gained 3-4 percent while Reliance Industries, ITC, NTPC, Bajaj Auto, GAIL and Bharti Airtel were under pressure.European bourses were higher after UK Prime Minister Theresa May provided further clarity on her aims for the upcoming Brexit talks and investors received a number of corporate reports.