Midcaps underperformed frontliners, with the Nifty Midcap index falling 1 percent.

The market continued to trade mildly lower amid volatility, with the Nifty struggling below 10,200 levels.

Midcaps underperformed frontliners, with the Nifty Midcap index falling 1 percent.

All sectoral indices turned negative, with PSU Bank, Metal and Realty indices falling more than 1 percent.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 56.90 points at 33,119.10 and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 25.70 points to 10,169.50.

About three shares declined for every share rising on the BSE.

10:28 am Order Win: IRB Infrastructure informed exchanges that the company has emerged as a preferred bidder for a Hybrid Annuity Project under NHDP Phase VI in the state of Gujarat.

With addition of these projects, the company’s construction orderbook stands to approximately Rs 12,000 crore to be executed in three years.

10:15 am Stake Buy: State-owned Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) may buy 26 percent stake each in gas utility GAIL India Ltd, paying the government over Rs 20,000 crore each to become integrated energy firms.

Following Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s February 2017 Budget announcement of creating integrated oil majors, IOC and BPCL had submitted separate proposals to buy the government’s 54.89 percent stake in India’s biggest gas marketing and transportation firm, GAIL.

A top source said since the government is not looking at actual merger of oil companies but only transfer of its ownership to a cash rich PSU, the best option would be to split the 54.89 percent holding in GAIL equally between IOC and BPCL.

At Friday’s closing price of Rs 440.85 a share for GAIL on BSE, the stake is worth close to Rs 41,000 crore.

10:00 am NBCC in Focus: Diversifying into road construction, state-owned NBCC (India) said, it has bagged a contract to build Rs 2,000 crore road project in Uttarakhand.

“NBCC (India) Ltd., the navratna CPSE under Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, added yet another aspect to its expanding business by diversifying into the Road construction space,” the company said in a statement.

It said a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between NBCC Executive Director (Engg) Yogesh JP Sharma and Ecotourism Development Corporation of Uttarakhand Ltd (EDCUL) Managing Director Anup Malik to construct an eco-tourism circuit along Kotdwar-Ramnagar Kandi road.

The 50-km four-lane highway road project– estimated to cost Rs 2,000 crore– will be developed under Green Infrastructure/Green Road Model.

9:50 am Rupee Update: The rupee depreciated by 9 paise against the US dollar to 65.03 against as the greenback firmed up ahead of US Federal Reserve’s policy meet this week.

source: moneycontrol.com