Sensex, Nifty end in green; ICICI Bank drops 2%

On Monday, Sensex closed at 27,117.34, up 82.84 points or 0.31%, while, Nifty ended at 8,391.50, up 42.15 points or 0.50%. 

Shares of Bharti Infratel dipped nearly 2% ahead of its financial results announcement for the quarter ended on December 31.

At 1431 hours the shares of the company were trading at Rs 347.50 per piece, down 1.61% or Rs 5.70 on BSE. 

Shares of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries dropped after the exchange sought clarification from the company with respect to news article appearing on CNBC TV 18 on January 23, 2017 titled "Sun Pharma to sell OHM labs site at New Jersey at $100M."

At 1420 hours the shares of the company were trading at Rs 633 per piece, down 1.23% or Rs 7.90 on BSE. 

Shares of Oriental Hotels surged as much as 14% after the company reported a net profit of Rs 3.75 crore during the quarter ended on December 31 as against a net loss of Rs 1.99 crore during the same period last year. 

At 1402 hours the shares of the company were trading at Rs 25.75 per piece, up 14.44% or Rs 3.25 on BSE. 

At 1223 hours the shares of Lupin were trading at Rs 1483.40 per piece, up 1.48% or Rs 21.60 on BSE after the company received final approval for Paroxetin Extended Release Tablets USP, 12.5 mg, 25 mg and 37.5 mg from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to market a generic version of Apotex Technologies, Inc’s Paxil CR Tablets, 12.5 mg, 25 mg and 37.5 mg.

Bharti Airtel shares dropped marginally on the media reports which said that the company is considering mergers or stake sales at some of its Africa operations in order to cut debt. As per a Bloomberg report, the company is in talks with Millicom Internation Cellular for a merger in Ghana. 

At 1052 hours the shares of the company were trading at Rs 318.30 per piece, down 0.75% or Rs 2.40 on BSE. 

Shares of United Spirits gain as much as 5% on Monday after the company reported 296.7% rise in net profit during the quarter ended on December 31 on year-on-year basis. The company's Q3FY17 net profit stood at Rs 147.70 crore as against Rs 37.23 crore in Q3FY16. 

At 1033 hours the shares of the company were trading at Rs 2,175 per piece, up 4.67% or Rs 97 on BSE. 

Shares of UltraTech Cement gained  nearly 3% after the company reported 4.76% rise in net profit during the quarter ended on December 30. The consolidated net profit of the company stood at Rs 594 crore for the third quarter of 2016-17 compared to Rs 567 crore a year ago.

At 1023 hours the shares of the company were trading at Rs 3,563 per piece, up 2.67% or Rs 92.80 on BSE. 

At 1015 hours the shares of Idea Cellular were trading at Rs 71.10 per piece, down 0.42% or Rs 0.30. The company is set to announce its financial results for the quarter ended on December 31. In the previous quarter the company had reported 58.5% drop in consolidated net profit sequentially to Rs 91.4 crore. 

At 1006 hours, the shares of Hindustan Uniliver were trading at Rs 857.40 per piece, down 0.43% or Rs 3.70 ahead of its financial results for the quarter ended on December 30. In the quarter ended on September 30, the company had reported 11.5% rise in net profit to Rs 1,096 crore.  

On 30-share benchmark, at 0958 hours, among top gainers were ONGC (1.67%), Tata Motors (1.60%), Tata Steel (1.33%), Gail (1.29%) and Adani Ports (1.27%). Among top losers were ICICI Bank (-2.05%), Axis Bank (-1.01%), Larsen & Toubro (-0.83%), Bharti Airtel (-0.72%) and Hindustan Unilever (-0.30%). 

After opening marginally down, domestic markets soon inched up. At 0939 hours Sensex was trading at 27,129.72, up 76.75 points, or 0.28%, while, Nifty was at 8,385.55, up 36.20 points or 0.43%.

Rupee recovered by 17 paise to 68.01 against the US dollar in early trade today on increased selling of the American currency by exporters.

Besides, the dollar's weakness against some currencies overseas supported the rupee but a lower opening of the domestic equity market capped its gains, forex dealers said, a PTI report said. 

At 0919 hours Sensex was trading at 27,020.04, down 14.46 points or 0.05%, while, Niftty was at 8,346.60, down 2.75 points or 0.03%.  

Domestic markets trade down during the pre-open market session. Sensex was trading at 26,983.11, down 51.39 points or 0.19%, while, Nifty was at 8326.30, down 23.05 points or 0.28%.