Sensex closes 124 points higher, Nifty holds 9900 but Midcap underperforms

3:30 pm Market Check: Equity benchmarks closed higher after volatility seen in the second half of session.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 124.49 points at 32,028.89 and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 41.95 points at 9,915.25.

However, the market breadth closed negative as about 1,425 shares declined against 1,254 advancing shares on the BSE.

3:15 pm Air India in focus: Sources told CNBC-TV18 that the first meeting of group of ministers on Air India privatisation will be held at finance ministry today.

The group will focus on five terms of reference cleared by Cabinet recently, which included contours of bidding process for operations & assets.

InterGlobe Aviation has showed its interest to buy international operations of Air India.

3:05 pm Indian Bank in focus: While addressing press conference, Kishor Kharat, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer of Indian Bank said slippages declined to Rs 604 crore in June quarter against Rs 668 crore in March quarter.

It has total of 11 accounts under 5/25, with exposure of Rs 1,350 crore; 14 accounts under SDR, with exposure of Rs 1,316 crore and 4 accounts under S4A, with exposure of Rs 230 crore in June quarter, he said.

He further said the bank identified portfolio of Rs 535 crore, which will be sold to asset reconstruction companies in Q2FY18.

"We are targeting return on assets of 1 percent in the short term and targeting to bring down gross NPA below 5 percent," he said.

Standard restructured book at the end of June quarter stood at Rs 6,294 crore. Indian Bank has exposure worth Rs 2,800 crore to 8 of 12 accounts identified by RBI under Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.

2:55 pm Market Check: Benchmark indices witnessed a sharp surge in the final hour of trade, with the Nifty reclaiming 9900-mark.

The Sensex was up 119.40 points at 32023.80, while the Nifty was up 33.55 points at 9906.85. The market breadth was negative as 1209 shares advanced against a decline of 1392 shares, while 140 shares were unchanged.

Wipro and Reliance continued to gain, while Bharti Airtel and Lupin lost the most.

2:45 pm Floor price view by TRAI: Telecom regulator Trai today said the industry has reached a consensus that there is no need for a floor price for telecom services as of now.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Chairman R S Sharma said he met representatives of all service providers today and arrived at a consensus that fixing the floor price "is not a workable idea".

"The consensus is that as of now, we don't need to pursue the idea of a floor price. We had detailed discussions for over two hours today. There will be no further discussion or consultation on the issue," he added.

2:30 pm FPI registrations up: About 140 fresh foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) registered with Sebi in April, indicating that India remains an attractive destination, as per latest data with markets regulator.

This comes on the top of close to 3,500 new foreign FPIs registering with Sebi last fiscal year ended March 31. FPIs consider India as a preferred and stable market, given its macroeconomic stability, long-term growth prospects and ongoing economic reforms, experts said.

Furthermore, several measures taken by Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) added to its attractiveness, they added.

2:10 pm Market Check: After falling to the day's low points, benchmark indices were back in the green in the afternoon session.

The Sensex was up 15.21 points at 31919.61, while the Nifty was up 0.05 points at 9873.35. The market breadth was negative as 1113 shares advanced against a decline of 1436 shares, while 140 shares were unchanged.

Wipro and Reliance gained the most on both indices, while Bharti Airtel and Lupin were the top losers.

1:59 pm Earnings: Can Fin Homes recorded a whopping 43.2 percent growth at Rs 71.2 crore and 19.1 percent in revenue at Rs 369 crore in June quarter YoY.

1:41 pm Analyst's take telecom stocks post RIL AGM: Jimeet Modi, CEO, SAMCO Securities said the predatory strategy of Reliance Industries to capture telecom space is quite aggressive and highly disruptive.

Considering the size and scale of Reliance it will capture a lion's share of the market pie and therefore will disrupt many other ancillary businesses also. The bigger threat will be the dominance that the company will enjoy over many business processes which will be offered digitally will be a cause of concern from the country's point of view.

The bargaining power that the company will enjoy once the competition is marginalised would be immense which is good for the investors in their long term wealth creation journey but may not he appreciated by the government, but that will take some time to happen, till that time, it is a great opportunity for the Reliance investors to enjoy the telecom wave plus the added 1:1 bonus advantage in the short term.

One man's gain is other's loss is the reality in the telecom space. The pricing and launch of smart phone at effective zero cost will certainly impact and erode long term profitability of companies in telecom and cable segment.

The stock prices of these companies which are impacted due to Jio, are likely to underperform in the near to medium term, better to avoid them and not to do bargain hunting till the time predatory strategies are alive.

1:33 pm CAG Audit of telecom cos: Comptroller and Auditor General audited 6 private telecom companies and found understatement of adjusted gross revenue of Rs 61,064 crore between FY11-15.

CAG audited Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance Communications, Idea Cellular and SSTL.

Short payment of Rs 7,698 crore revenue to government is due to adjusted gross revenue understatement. Interest due on short payment of revenue upto March 2016 is Rs 4,532 crore, CAG said.

1:27 pm Reliance Retail: Mukesh Ambani said this year, Reliance Retail crossed Rs 33,000 crore which is a significant milestone in journey, a growth of 60 percent year-on-year.

And turnover for the 4th quarter was in excess of Rs 10,000 crore – the first time any retailer in India has achieved this milestone.

371 new retail stores were opened last year.

Over the next 12 months, network of stores will scale up rapidly to penetrate into Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities of India.

1:25 pm Results: Atul's first quarter profit fell sharply by 57.3 percent to Rs 34.4 crore as EBITDA declined 35.4 percent to Rs 76.2 crore and margin plunged 690 basis points to 11.7 percent YoY.

However, revenue grew by 2.2 percent to Rs 690 crore from Rs 675.1 crore YoY.

1:19 pm CMD Mukesh Ambani said Reliance Industries at its 50th year will be amongst top 50 companies in the world.

Next 10 years of growth will surpass last 40 years of value creation. Energy and materials business will have Rs 1 lakh crore EBITDA while Jio is a jewel among many assets of Reliance Industries.

1:10 pm Earnings: DHFL shares fell 5 percent despite profit increased 29.3 percent year-on-year to Rs 260.5 crore and stable asset quality.

Gross non-performing assets increased moderately to 0.97 percent from 0.94 percent QoQ and net interest margin improved to 3.05 percent from 3.04 percent.

Disbursements grew by 32.5 percent to Rs 8,237 crore and asset under management increased 22.5 percent to Rs 88,236 crore YoY.

1:02 pm Market Check: Equity benchmarks erased morning gains, with the Sensex down 5.90 points at 31,898.50 and the Nifty down 7.40 points at 9,865.90.

Even the Nifty Midcap index declined 0.8 percent.

All sectoral indices barring IT were in red. Nifty Bank lost 0.4 percent.

12:55 pm Results: Indian Bank posted 18.1 percent growth in net interest income and 21.2 percent growth in profit YoY.

Asset quality improved during the quarter as gross non-performing assets declined to 7.21 percent from 7.47 percent and net NPAs declined to 4.05 percent from 7.39 percent.

12:46 pm Earnings: Ashok Leyland missed expectations on earnings front as profit came in at Rs 111.2 crore against a CNBC-TV18 poll estimates of Rs 162 crore.

Revenue during the quarter fell moderately by 0.4 percent to Rs 4,514.4 crore from Rs 4,531.3 crore in same quarter last year.

Operating profit was at Rs 306 crore and margin at 7.2 percent, which also missed expectations of Rs 364 crore and 9 percent, respectively.

The stock was down 2 percent.

12:40 pm IFCI up 4 percent: Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) audited 128 loans by IFCI and found deviation in eligibility criteria in 69 cases.

CAG said IFCI relaxed eligibility criteria w.r.t norms of profitability, net worth and credit rating of borrower.

CAG observes that in 11 cases, IFCI had to write-off loans leading to loss of Rs 1,236 crore and should strictly adhere to general lending practices.

IFCI should not take recourse to deviations, CAG said.

12:36 pm Refining and Marketing: Petcoke gasification project made significant progress, Ambani said.

12:35 pm Bonus: Mukesh Ambani announced bonus issue in the proportion of one share for every one share held, the largest in India.

12:32 pm Lupin down: Lupin fell 2.4 percent after sources told CNBC-TV18 that the US Food and Drug Administration will begin inspection of company's Pithampur unit 1 from Monday, July 24.

Company's unit 2 & 3 at Pithampur inspected by US FDA earlier this year. Company's unit 2 inspected by US FDA from May 8-19 and issued 6 observations while unit 3 inspected by US FDA from June 12-16 and issued 5 observations.

Sources said around 40-50 percent of pending ANDAs have been filed from Goa plant.

12:29 pm Interview: RBL Bank, reported a whopping 45 percent year-on-year increase in its June quarter net profit at Rs 141 crore against Rs 97.3 crore. The net profit beat the street estimates as analysts had pegged its net profit to be around Rs 130.9 crore.

However, reported an increase in net non-performing assets (NPAs) of 0.81 percent versus 0.64 percent reported in the earlier quarter. The gross NPAs were higher as well at 1.46 percent against 1.2 percent QoQ.
To discuss the outlook for the bank going forward Vishwavir Ahuja, MD & CEO, RBL Bank is confident of growing their loan book at 30-35 percent every year.

The bank, he said, is also keen on looking for both organic and inorganic growth but clarified that the news on Bharat Financial Inclusion is entirely speculative.

On the NPA front, he clarified that 28 basis points increase in GNPAs was due to microfinance business (development banking and financial inclusion business). However, net of that the number has actually improved from 1.2 to 1.18 percent.

12:20 pm RIL CMD Mukesh Ambani says:
>This year marks the 40th year of IPO of Reliance Industries
>RIL has grown to become one of the most admired companies in last 4 decades
>No Indian corporate & few global corporates have expanded like RIL
>Increase in net profit in the last 40 years is 10,000x
>Turnover has grown at 4,700x in last 4 decades
>Market cap has multiplied to over Rs 5 lakh crore in the last 4 decades
>Market cap has grown at a CAGR of 32 percent in last 40 years
>Our turnover has grown from Rs 70 crore to Rs 3.3 lakh crore in 40 years
>Market cap has expanded by 50,000x over 40 years
>Rs 1,000 invested in Reliance shares in 1977 is worth Rs 16.5 lakh today
>Investors' money has doubled every 2.5 years since 1977
>Had 3,500 employees in 1977; now we employ 2,50,000 people
>'Jio has broken 1 world record after another'
>Jio over-delivered on the 100 m target that i had set
>Jio added 7 customers/second every day on an average
>Jio adoptions even faster than Facebook, Whatsapp & Skype
>Jio today has over 125 million customers
>Jio users make over 250 cr minutes of voice & video calls every day
>Jio customers today consume 125 crore GB data every month
>India has overtaken the US & China w.r.t mobile data consumption
>Today Jio has more than 100 m paying Jio customers
>Most customers have availed recharge plans of Rs 309 or higher
>Jio Prime users will continue to get Jio 'Dhan Dhana Dhan' offers
>Many people can't afford the cheapest 4G LTE smartphone
>Jio in next 12 months will cover 99 percent of India's population
>Jio India's 4G coverage will be more than its 2G coverage
>Will integrate with all major e-commerce platforms
>Will have over 10,000 Jio offices across India by September
>Today, Jio will re-invent the conventional feature phone
>Later this year RIL will introduce, NFC technology to 'The JioPhone'
>Voice calling will always be free on 'The JioPhone'

12:12 pm Key takeaways: Reliance Jio Smartphone

>Jio launches India's intelligent smartphone 'The Jiophone'
>Jio will provide free voice, SMS, unlimited data at Rs 153 per month
>Unlimited 'Dhan Dhana Dhan' plan available on Jiophone at only Rs 153
>Have launched SPL, affordable cable that connects Jiophone to any TV
>Users can access the Jio 'Dhan Dhana Dhan' pack at Rs 309 per month
>Introducing two new plans: 2-day plan for Rs 24 & 1-week plan for Rs 54
>Launches the Jiophone at effective price of rupees zero for all Indians
>The Jiophone is effectively free for Jio customers
>From August 15, Jio users can access the most affordable unlimited data
>Jiophone to cost Rs 1,500 which is fully refundable after 3 years
>Jiophone available for user testing on August 15, pre-booking from August 24
>Target to have 5 million Jiophones available every week
>Jiophone the next big monetising opportunity for Jio

12:08 pm Market Update: Equity benchmarks were off day's high, with the Nifty falling below 9900 level towards the end of AGM.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 61.56 points at 31,965.96 and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 18.50 points at 9,891.80.

About 1,294 shares advanced against 1,078 declining shares on the BSE.

12:06 pm On 40th anniversary, Dhirubhai Ambani's vision and values guided magnificence journey of Reliance.

12:04 pm Jio Impact: Den Networks was down 1 percent and Hathway Cable tanked 4 percent.

12:03 pm Idea Cellular extended losses to 6 percent and Bharti Airtel fell more than 3 percent after Jio plans.

12:01 pm Jio will test the intelligent phone on August 15 and pre-booking for the same will be done by 24th August.

Delivery will start from September 1.

11:59 am India's 70th anniversary, Reliance Jio will democratise digital culture.

11:55 am Jio phone will cost Rs zero to all Indians against entry level smatphone price of Rs 3500.

To avoid potential misuse, Jio will collect 100 percent refundable security deposit of Rs 1500 that will be refunded after three years.

11:53 am Dish TV fell 6 percent.

11:52 am Ambani said I am putting an end to unaffordable data for all Indians.

With all unlimited Dhan Dhana Dhan will be available at Jio phone at Rs 153.

Many Jio phone users may like to see their favourite content, live TV, movies, educational programs and mirror them from the phone to TV screen.

This is especially true in many remote parts of india where cable and internet have not reached.

A special and affordable Jio phone TV cable that connects with any TV, not just a smart TV, but old CRT TVs as well.

11:51 am Jio peers: Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular fell up to 3 percent.

11:49 am Jio plan: Today, every young Indian should have information access at his finger tips. That is what the Jio phone enables.

Starting August 15, I am declaring digital freedom for all feature phone users. Jio will give them access to unlimited data.

These phone users were to consume similar quantity of data on any other operator's network, they would spend over 4-5000 a month at prevailing 2G data rates. Jio will give it at Rs 153 a month.

11:47 am Voice calls on Jio phone will always be free, says Ambani.

11:44 am All sectoral indices barring Pharma traded in green, with the IT leading the charge with 2 percent gains due to Wipro that surged 7 percent.

11:43 am Reliance Industries traded at Rs 1575 on the NSE, up 3.05 percent  and with 8.69 million shares.

11:39 am Most active shares: HDFC, Godrej Consumer, Reliance Industries, Sterlite Technologies, Vesuvius India, Wipro, Jaiprakash Associates and
Balaji Telefilms were most active shares on bourses.

11:37 am Reliance launches intelligent smartphone under Jio brand.

11:35 am Today Jio will reinvent conventional feature phone with revolutionary device and Indian innovation made in India for all Indians

Let me introduce, India ka intelligent smartphone, presenting Jio phone.

11:34 am  Data affordability: 50 crore Indians pay more for voice calls and SMS than those who pay for smartphones.

They end up spending a lot of telecom budget for voice calls.

Even today, these people have to pay Rs 4000-8000 for ever GB of data.

Device affordability: Even in entry level smartphone costs between Rs 3000-4500 making it unaffordable for feature phone users to upgrade for a smartphone.

I had challenged young engineers to find disruptive Indian solution.

11:32 am Reliance will have over 10000 Jio offices by September.

11:30 am Ambani said vast users are starved of data. This unfairness must end. Jio commits to end it today.

We shall achieve this in three ways: connectivity, data affordability and device affordability.

First, connectivity. Jio is a data strong network built for the internet from ground up with the highest speeds and best coverage. This is a significant advantage we have over all other indian operators. For the past five mnths, TRA speed test porta, which monitors quality of networks in India, has ranked Jio as 4G network leader.

Our network continues to expand across the country. Jio will cover in 12 months, 99 percent of India's population

Due to Jio, india's 4G coverage will be more than its 2G coverage.

It took 25 years for our rivals to buiold 2G network. Jio will have created larger 4G network in just three years.

11:29 am Gainers and losers: Wipro, Reliance Industries, Coal India, TCS,
Asian Paints, HCL Tech and Zee Entertainment gained up to 7 percent.

Bharti Airtel, Lupin, Cipla, Power Grid Corp, Tata Steel, M&M and
BHEL were losers, down up to 3 percent.

11:27 am Ambani said there are 78 crore mobile phones in India. However, let us not forget, that in this figure, there are more than 50 crore feature phone users left out of digital revolution,

They cannot avail benefits of a smartphone, much less of the benefits of 4G LTE smartphone.

At last year's AGM, Ambani had said that data is the oxygen of digital life and no Indian should suffer due to data scarcity and unaffordability.
Reliance AGM LIVE

11:25 am Jio has more than 100 million paying customers today, most of them go for Rs 309 plan and higher.

11:23 am In mobile data consumption, India is number 1 followed by US and China.

11:21 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks continued to trade higher, with the Sensex up 136.63 points at 32,041.03 and the 50-share NSE Nifty up 37 points at 9,910.30.

11:19 am Reliance Jio has 125 million customers today.

11:18 am Reliance Jio achieved more than 100 million customers target in less than 170 days.

On an average, Jio added 7 customers per second in every single day.

11:17 am Reliance Jio broke many records in last 10 months since launch in September.

11:16 am All through in 40 years, investors' money has been doubled in every 2.5 years since 1977.

"Rs 1000 invested in 1977 became worth Rs 16.5 lakh today," Ambani said while addressing shareholders.

11:11 am Net profit grew by 10000 times from Rs 3 crore to Rs 30000 crore in last 40 years.

Market Cap increased from Rs 10 crore to Rs 5 lakh crore in 40 years.

11:10 am Reliance's total turnover grow from Rs 70 crore in 1977 to Rs 3.30 lakh crore today, a growth of 4700 times.

11:07 am Mukesh Ambani is addressing shareholders at 40th Reliance Industries' AGM.

11:05 am Telecom stocks under pressure: Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications and Idea Cellular fell up to 2.2 percent ahead of RIL's AGM.

11:04 am Reliance Jio's launch of affordable handsets and future game plan will be key factors to watch out for.

11:02 am Reliance Industries, CMD, Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani will begin company's 40th Annual General Meeting shortly.

11:00 am USFDA nod: Dr Reddy's Labs said US FDA completed its API plant audit in Mexico with zero observations.

10:50 am Market Outlook: There are just a little over 100 points left for the Nifty to clock 10,000 and IL&FS recommends exercising caution once it hits the milestone.

''It will be a happy event (to reach 10,000), but I think it is a level from where you need to be careful. The market has gone up a lot. From this point, valuations are very expensive when the earnings are tepid,'' Vibhav Kapoor of IL&FS told CNBC-TV18 in an interview. At the most, there could be a gain of 10-12 percent, but that is the maximum gain, he added.

Explaining the surge, he said the market surged on the back of benign global equity conditions and strong macros on the domestic front. But there are negative cues such as bad loan issue, stretched private sector balance sheets, and lack of earnings growth.

Kapoor said, at this point, the resolution of bad loans are way off.

10:40 am Wipro in focus: Wipro shares surged more than 8 percent intraday after higher-than-expected worth of share buyback and good June quarter earnings despite subdued Q2 dollar revenue guidance and analysts' negative stance.

The India's third largest IT firm Wipro on Thursday announced a mega buyback offer of Rs 11,000 crore, joining the growing roaster of IT firms that are returning surplus cash to their shareholders.

The company will purchase up to 343.75 million equity shares of Rs 2 each (representing 7.06 percent of total equity capital) and the buyback price will be Rs 320 per equity share for up to Rs 11,000 crore (USD 1.7 billion).

Wipro had cash and cash equivalents of Rs 5,432 crore and investments of Rs 31,772 crore totalling Rs 37,204 crore at the end of June 2017.

Wipro's IT services revenue (in rupee terms), which generally analysts keep focus on, fell 2.8 percent sequentially but dollar revenue increased 0.9 percent at USD 1,971.7 million against a CNBC-TV18 poll estimates of 0.3 percent degrowth.

10:20 am RIL AGM expectations: Reliance Industries shares rallied nearly 4 percent in morning trade to hit fresh 9-year high of Rs 1,587.7 ahead of its much awaited 40th Annual General Meeting that is scheduled to begin at 11 am.

While maintaining positive stance on the stock and expecting it to rise up to 17 percent, majority of brokerage houses expect the key focus in the Reliance's AGM will be Jio followed by petrochemical and refining businesses.

Goldman Sachs

According to the research house, key focus points for the AGM would be segment wise capex expenditure in Q1FY18 and guidance for FY18.

Update on the timelines of new projects on core refining and petchem segment will also key to watch out for.

JP Morgan

The financial firm expects more clarity in AGM on new plans in telecom including launch of feature phones and new projects if any in Fiber to Home.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch

The stock rallied 12 percent month-to-date in anticipation of launch of low-cost VOLTE feature phone in AGM and gradual increase in implied tariffs.

According the research house, the focus would be on Jio and pdates on chemical projects.

10:00 am Buzzing: Share price of Gravita India jumped 5 percent intraday as it has started recycling and commercial production of PET Flakes at its Jamaica plant.

The company's step down subsidiary Gravita Jamaica has started recycling and commercial production of PET Flakes (Polyethylene Terephthalate) by installing an ultra-modern PET Hot Wash Line with an annual capacity of 4800 MTPA.

Gravita Group has made an investment of Rs 6.5 crore for procuring and commissioning of this new ultra-modern recycling plant which is funded from the internal accruals of the company.

The plant is expected to generate revenues of approximately Rs 10 crore coupled with a gross margins of 37 percent in its initial year.

9:52 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks extended gains in morning trade, with the Sensex up 122.97 points at 32,027.37 and the Nifty up 38.50 points at 9,911.80.

Reliance Industries rose 3 percent ahead of company's 40th Annual General Meeting at 11 am.

About 1,155 shares advanced against 584 declining shares on the BSE.

9:45 am Target ups on Wipro: Wipro's Q1FY18 IT services revenue, at USD 1,972 million (up 0.9 percent QoQ), surpassed Street's 1.7 percent decline estimate, while adjusted EBIT margin at 16 percent was bang in line.

Q2FY18 revenue growth guidance of -0.5-1.5 percent was muted. Key quarter highlights: 1) positive commentary on BFSI and energy & utilities verticals; 2) management has addressed internal issues impacting growth and expects industry-level growth from Q4FY18; and 3) announced buyback of 7.1 percent of total equity at Rs 320 per share amounting to Rs 11,000 crore.

Edelweiss believes, strong cash balance, healthy cash generation and undemanding valuations limit downside. The research house has maintained a buy call with revised target price at Rs 290 (from Rs 277 earlier).

9:35 am Correction likely?: Christopher Wood of CLSA said if Greed & Fear had to guess on the timing of a global stock market correction, it would be in the September and October period when markets finally take heed of continuing Fed hawkish talk.

But the question is, is the Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen really going to continue to talk that hawkishly?, he feels.

9:15 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks rebounded with moderate gains in opening on Friday, backed by Reliance Industries (up 1.8 percent) and Wipro (up 5 percent) after solid earnings performance.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 51.64 points at 31,956.04 and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 11.80 points at 9,885.10.

Balaji Telefilms was up 5 percent as Reliance Industries picked up 24.9 percent stake in the company.

Jaiprakash Associates gained 6 percent after Rakesh Jhunjhunwala bought over a percent stake in the company in June quarter. Jaypee Infratech also surged 6 percent.

Bharti Airtel, Lupin, Cipla, Hindalco, Sun Pharma and Asian Paints fell up to 2 percent.

Nifty Midcap was up 0.3 percent as about two shares advanced for every share falling on the BSE.

Aditya Birla Money, Mahindra CIE, Jubilant Life, Bata and Just Dial gained up to 5 percent.

Sintex Industries, Idea Cellular, GMR Infrastructure, RBL Bank, Ashok Leyland, Godfrey Phillips, InterGlobe Aviation and Jet Airways fell up to 4 percent.

Disclosure: Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd.