Nifty ends below 8,650 on first day of August F&O series

Benchmark share indices started the August F&O series on a subdued note with ICICI Bank leading the decline even as the government in consensus with the opposition stepped up its efforts to pass the crucial GST Bill.

The S&P BSE Sensex ended down 157 points at 28,052 and the Nifty50 slipped 28 points to settle at 8,639.

The broader markets outperformed the benchmarks, the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices ended up 0.2%-0.7% each.

Market breadth ended negative with 1446 losers and 1235 gainers on the BSE.

"Profit booking was seen after the recent rally in the markets was on hopes of the passage of the crucial GST Bill.

"Markets are likely to trend sideways till the GST Bill is cleared," said G Chokkalingam, Founder & managing director, Equinomics Research and Advisory.

Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan at its two-day policy meet which ended today announced a marginal expansion of its monetary easing programme and permitted higher purchases of exchange traded funds.

Foreign portfolio investors remained buyers in Indian equities with net purchases of Rs 1,767.06 crore on Thursday, as per provisional stock exchange data.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday allowed demat account-holders with depositories to bid for trades in the online anonymous bond trading platform of the central bank.

ICICI Bank ended nearly 4% lower ahead of its first quarter earnings. Larsen & Toubro ended down 1.3% while Coal India eased 0.7% ahead of their respective first quarter earnings.

Asian Paints ended down 1% amid profit taking after sharp gains in the previous sessions post robust earnings for the quarter ended June 2016.

India's largest insurer Life Insurance Corporation of India has signed an agreement with private sector lender Axis Bank as its bancassurance partner wherein the bank will distribute LIC's products to its customers.

Axis Bank ended with marginal gains.

Eicher Motors surged nearly 7% after the company reported 58.6% year on year (YoY) growth in net profit at Rs 376 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2016 (Q1FY17), on back of healthy revenue and strong operating margins.

UltraTech Cement ended up 1.1% after the cement maker announced that it won two coal linkages from Dipka Mines (SCDG) in Chhattisgarh in an auction.

Among other shares, Muthoot Finance gained 3% after the company reported 48% increase in net profit at Rs 270 crore for the quarter ended June 2016 (Q1FY17) compared with Rs 183 crore in the same quarter last year.

Gujarat Alkalies and Chemicals zoomed 13% after net profit for the quarter ended June 30, 2016 (Q1FY17) nearly doubled to Rs 86 crore on the back of higher sales turnover.

The company engaged in commodity chemicals business had registered a profit of Rs 44 crore in the year-ago quarter.

PG Electroplast rallied nearly 6% after rating agency ICRA assigned its long-term rating of ICRA BB to Rs 50 crore fund based and non-fund based bank facilities of the company with stable outlook.

Shriram Transport Finance rallied nearly 4% on the back of heavy volumes. In past three trading sessions the stock gained 9% from Rs 1,212, after the company reported 16.5% year on year (YoY) growth in net profit at Rs 374 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2016 (Q1FY17).

Image: The Bombay Stock Exchange. Photograph: Sahil Salvi/Rediff.com