Nifty ends below 9800, Sensex marginally higher; ITC, ICICI drag

3:30 pm Market Closing: Equity benchmarks erased gains due to profit booking in late trade but still managed to end at fresh record closing highs.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 31.45 points at 31,747.09 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 15 points to 9,786.05.

The broader markets underperformed benchmarks, with the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices down 0.8 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively. About 1,561 shares declined against 1,164 advancing shares on the exchange.

3:10 pm IT rallies: Technology stocks continued to run on short covering for second consecutive session, especially after SEBI imposed restriction on foreign portfolio investors from issuing participatory notes.

In two sessions, the Nifty IT index surged over 5 percent as it was one of the sectors that used foreign investors for short covering.

"Sectors likely to see sharpest bouts of short covering are likely to be IT, PSU banks & pharma. Stocks that might see a surge due to short covering include names like TCS, Just Dial, Lupin, Bank of India, and Union Bank among others," Kunal Saraogi, CEO at Equityrush.com said. PSU banks already rallied 5-8 percent.

TCS gained 6.5 percent, followed by Infosys (up 4.5 percent), Wipro and HCL Technologies (3 percent each).

The other reason for this rally could be ahead of June quarter earnings that will be announced by TCS on July 13 and Infosys on July 14.

2:49 pm Market Check: Equity benchmarks erased some gains in afternoon trade due to profit booking after hitting record highs.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 80.70 points at 31,796.34 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 27.40 points to 9,798.45 despite negative breadth.

About 1,437 shares declined against 1,213 advancing shares on the BSE.

2:45 pm Buzzing: Talwalkars Better Value Fitness shares touched fresh 52-week high of Rs 331.10, up 3.5 percent intraday after it announced plans to expand into several countries across Asia.

As part of this exercise, the South Asia's largest gym chain plans to set up initial operations in Singapore through a wholly owned subsidiary it will establish for this purpose.

Talwalkars also announced a tie up with Snap Fitness, one of the largest gym chains in the world with over 2500 locations open and under construction in 24 countries.

"Through Singapore subsidiary, Talwalkars will be the exclusive master franchise for Snap Fitness in Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. This is in line with the multi brand strategy Talwalkars has adopted over the past few years," the company said in its filing.

2:30 pm Funding unorganised sector: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley exhorted financial institutions, including Nabard, and banks to focus on funding the unfunded so that employment in the unorganised sector goes up.

"It is a fact that people in the unorganised sector are much higher than the organised sector, but the former gets credit with a lot of difficulty," he said at an event organised by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) here.

"If the resources of banks and financial institutions through various schemes are diverted towards this (unorganised) sector, it will help create more employment," he stressed.

2:15 pm Market Check: Benchmark indices traded steady on a day that has largely seen strong movements, with the Nifty being firmly above 9800.

The Sensex was up 136.21 points at 31851.85, while the Nifty was up 49.20 points at 9820.25. The market breadth was negative as 1296 shares advanced against a decline of 1334 shares, while 140 shares were unchanged.

Cipla, Coal India and Bank of Baroda lost the most on both indices, while Tata Motors, BHEL and Hindalco were the top gainers.

2:00 pm Market Valuation: Total market valuation of all listed companies on BSE touched a record high of Rs 130 lakh crore helped by strong gains in the broader market today.

The BSE 30-share Sensex was trading 153.91 points higher and touched a lifetime high of 31,885.11 in the afternoon.

Led by gains in the stock market, market capitalisation (m-cap) of BSE listed companies rose to Rs 1,30,13,277 crore (over USD 2 trillion). There are over 5,200 companies listed on BSE, of which over 2,666 are traded actively.

The 50-share NSE Nifty gained 54.30 points to 9,825.35.

1:45 pm Illicit deposit schemes: The finance ministry will soon seek Cabinet approval for a legislation to ban illicit deposit schemes and table it in the Parliament's forthcoming Monsoon session, a senior government official said today.

"We will take it to the Cabinet very soon," the government official said.

The finance ministry has finalised a draft ''Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes and Protection of Depositors' Interests Bill'' (''the Banning Bill''), in its fight against illicit deposit taking or Ponzi schemes.

1:30 pm 130 stocks hit 52-week high: Benchmark indices continued to trade strong for the second straight session this week, driven by a rally in information technology (IT) stocks.

As of 1 pm, the Sensex was up 156.06 points at 31871.70, while the Nifty was up 54.05 points at 9825.10. The market breadth was narrow as 1387 shares advanced against a decline of 1161 shares, while 136 shares were unchanged.

Tata Motors, BHEL, and Infosys gained the most, while Cipla and Wipro were the top losers.

Among these times, more than 130 stocks clocked fresh 52-week high mark. Avanti Feeds, Balaji Telefilms, Avenue Supermarts, Eris Lifesciences, GTPL Hathway, NIIT Technologies, NPR Finance, Sashwat Technologies, Tata Global Beverages, Tata Elxsi, and Tejas Networks, among others are a part of that list.

1:11 pm Market Check: Equity benchmark indices continued to trade strong, with the Nifty firmly placed above 9800-mark.

The Sensex was up 156.06 points at 31871.70, while the Nifty was up 54.05 points at 9825.10. The market breadth was narrow as 1387 shares advanced against a decline of 1161 shares, while 136 shares were unchanged.

Tata Motors, BHEL, and Infosys gained the most, while Cipla and Wipro were the top losers.

Midcaps continued to gain, while majority of gains were seen coming from the information technology (IT) sector.

1:00 pm Earnings: IndusInd Bank started off the year on a strong note by reporting better-than-expected earnings in June quarter but asset quality deterioration continued for the second consecutive quarter.

Profit during the quarter grew by 26.5 percent year-on-year to Rs 836.55 crore despite higher provisions and weak asset quality. The growth was driven by other income, net interest income and operating income.

Net interest income, the difference between interest earned and interest expended, increased 30.8 percent to Rs 1,774.06 crore compared with Rs 1,356.42 crore in same quarter last year.

12:43 pm Europe opening: European bourses opened higher, following a trend of gains across the US and Asia, as investors keep a close on eye on oil prices and look ahead to a new earnings season.

12.33 pm Market Check: Equity benchmarks extended gains in afternoon trade, with the Sensex rising more than 100 points, driven by consistent rally in technology stocks.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 131.64 points at 31,847.28 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 50.30 points to 9,821.35 but the broader markets continued to underperform.

The BSE Midcap index gained 0.07 percent and Smallcap was up 0.44 percent as about 1,368 shares advanced against 1,141 declining shares on the BSE.

TCS (up 1.4 percent) and Infosys (2.28 percent) continued to rally ahead of June quarter earnings on July 13 and July 14, respectively.

12:15 pm FII View: Indian market rose to fresh record highs on both Sensex and Nifty50 for the second consecutive day in a row on Tuesday led by a gush of liquidity, largely led by short covering for foreign institutional investors after SEBI restricted the use of P-notes to hedging.

In the case where the underlying derivatives position are not for purpose of hedging the equity shares, the issuing FPI has to liquidate such ODIs latest by the date of maturity or by December 31, 2020, whichever is earlier.

Well, the large part of the rally seen in Indian market could be driven by covering of positions by foreign investors but there are other positive factors as well, says Adrian Mowat, MD & Chief EM Strategist, JP Morgan in an interview with CNBC-TV18.

11:45 am Stake sale: Donear Industries share price rallied more than 7 percent intraday after its group company bought polyester-viscose fabric maker from Grasim.

Grasim Industries informed exchanges that it has entered into a definitive agreement for divesting its total investment in Grasim Bhiwani Textiles (GBTL) to Rajendra Synthetics Private Limited, Mumbai (part of Donear Group).

GBTL is primarily engaged in the business of manufacturing and marketing of polyester-viscose fabric.

"Given the size of Grasim's total operations, GBTL's divestment will have negligible impact on company's financials," Grasim said in its filing.

11:15 am Buzzing: State Bank of India shares gained more than 1 percent intraday after the central board of directors approved dilution of bank's stake in its life insurance subsidiary.

The country's largest lender is going to dilute stake in life insurance business through an initial public offer.

Once it lists on exchanges, SBI Life Insurance would become the second insurer after ICICI Prudential Life to go public.

"The executive committee of the central board of the bank at a meeting held on Monday, accorded the final approval for divestment of SBI's stake in SBI Life through an IPO," SBI said in an exchange filing.

10.49 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks continued to trade near record highs but the Nifty Bank was under pressure due to correction in private banks.

The 30-share BSE Sensex rose 90.56 points to 31,806.20 and the 50-share NSE Nifty was up 31.10 points at 9,802.15.

The market breadth continued to be positive as about six shares advanced for every five shares falling on the BSE.

State Bank of India gained a percent but private banks - ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank were moderately under pressure on profit booking.

10:25 am Earnings estimates: Private sector lender IndusInd Bank is all set to announce its earnings for the quarter ended June 2017. According to analysts polled by CNBC-TV18, profit is likely to increase 25.3 percent to Rs 828.7 crore compared with year-ago period.

Net interest income, the difference between interest earned and interest expended, may grow 27.4 percent to Rs 1,728.2 crore from Rs 1,667.5 crore in corresponding quarter of last fiscal.

Loan growth is expected at 25 percent during the quarter against 28 percent in Q4FY17.

Analysts say if net interest margin comes above 3.8 percent (which was 4 percent in Q4FY17), gross non-performing assets below 1 percent (0.93 percent) and credit cost below 20bps (23bps) then that will be considered positive.

10:00 am Buzzing: Cadila Healthcare shares gained over a percent in morning trade Tuesday on tentative approval from the US health regulator for Lurasidone Hydrochloride tablets.

Lurasidone is a generic version of Latuda that is used to treat schizophrenia.

9.43 am Market Update: Equity benchmarks continued to trade at record highs, with the Nifty hitting 9800 level for the first time today, especially ahead of earnings.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 78.55 points at 31,794.19 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 29.40 points to 9,800.45.

About 1,129 shares advanced against 633 declining shares on the BSE.

9:41 am Earnings expectations: Gautam Duggad of Motilal Oswal said positive macro factors notwithstanding, the quarter would be faced with several sector-specific headwinds and GST-related de-stocking in some B2C sectors.

Hence, he expects Q1FY18 to be a lacklustre quarter from earnings growth perspective.

9:29 am Buzzing: Torrent Pharmaceuticals fell over 3.5 percent intraday as investors turned cautious after CNBC-TV18 report of US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issuing five observations for its Dahej plant.

The Dahej plant of the company was inspected by the US drug regulator between June 26 and 30. The unit is a relatively new one for the US business of the company, the channel reported.

The five observations listed by the FDA are as follows:

1. Failure to review any unexplained discrepancy on batch distribution

2. Responsibilities, procedures applicable to quality unit not fully followed

3. Acceptance criteria for sampling & testing by quality control not adequate

4. Equipment, utensils not cleaned & maintained at proper levels

5. Written procedures not established for cleaning & maintenance of equipment

9:15 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks extended yesterday's gains in the opening on Tuesday, hitting fresh record highs.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 86.39 points at 31,802.03 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 25.55 points to 9,796.60. About three shares advanced for every share falling on the BSE.

Lupin, Tata Power, SBI, BPCL, Bajaj Auto, Aurobindo Pharma and Sun Pharma were early gainers while Bharti Airtel lost 0.8 percent after yesterday's 5 percent rally.

NSE Midcap 100 and BSE Smallcap gained 0.4 percent each.

Sugar stocks like Rana Sugar, Bajaj Hindusthan, Balrampur Chini surged 3-8 percent. Donear Industries was up 5 percent.

CDSL rallied 4 percent, taking total gains to 150 percent from issue price. Brigade Enterprises, Jet Airways and Divis Labs gained over a percent but Torrent Pharma and SpiceJet were under pressure.

Most Asian indexes made gains despite the Dow Jones industrial average ending its Monday session slightly down.