Indian shares inched higher on Wednesday, snapping a two-day losing streak, as investors held back big bets ahead of the Union Budget presentation at 11:00am.
The S&P BSE Sensex climbed 0.1 percent to 27,695 while the NSE Nifty gained 0.2 percent to 8,578. The market breadth was skewed in favour of the buyers. About 893 stocks advanced, 543 advanced and 449 remained unchanged.
Here are the stocks moving the market today:
ICICI Bank: Profit Disappoints
Shares of the country's largest private sector bank fell 2 percent to Rs 263.55 after reporting a 19.1 percent fall in December-quarter profit.
Net profit fell to Rs 2,442 crore from Rs 3,018 crore in the same quarter last year. But it was better than the consensus estimate of analysts tracked by Bloomberg at Rs 2,200 crore.
Chief Executive Officer Chanda Kochhar said the fall in net profit was on account of an exceptional gain of Rs 1,243 crore in the corresponding quarter last year on account of the sale of stake in the bank's life insurance subsidy, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance.
ONGC: Quarterly Profit Triples
Shares of the state-owned firm gained nearly 1 percent to Rs 204 after country's biggest energy explorer posted a near three-fold increase in quarterly net profit.
Net profit in the December quarter jumped 197 percent to Rs 4,352 crore from Rs 1,466 crore a year ago while gross revenue rose 9 percent to Rs 20,014 crore.
ONGC declared an interim dividend of Rs 2.25 per share.
InterGlobe Aviation: Misses Estimates
Shares of the operator of no-frills airline IndiGo fell 3.8 percent to Rs 866.50 after reporting a 25.9 percent fall in third-quarter profit.
Net profit fell to Rs 487.3 crore from Rs 657.3 crore in the same quarter last year, missing street estimates by more than 35 percent on the back of rising fuel costs.
IndiGo continued to lead with a 41.6 percent market share of passengers carried by domestic airlines, for the October to December quarter, according to the data released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation earlier.
Rail Stocks: Lose Track
Shares of Texmaco Rail & Engineering, Titagarh Wagons, Kalindee Rail Nirman shed between 2-3 percent as investors turned cautious ahead of presentation of the first Rail Budget subsumed in the Union Budget.
Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu is likely to increase capital outlay for the railways and spur investment in technologies and infrastructure, according to the analysts.
Increased capital outlay could improve network connective for the sector and improve safety standards.
Also Read: Railway Budget To Focus On Safety, Infrastructure Development
Mphasis: Buyback Nod
Shares of the technology firm company gained 2 percent to Rs 571 after its board approved buyback of 8.26 percent of equity at Rs 635 apiece aggregating to Rs 1,103 crore.
Mphasis on Tuesday posted a 21.10 percent rise in consolidated net profit for the third quarter.
Income from operations rose 1.3 percent to Rs 1,536.1 crore in the December quarter.
Sensex, Nifty Top Gainers/Losers
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