Sensex ends 208 down, Nifty weak; autos & banks fall

3:30 pm Market closing: The market ended lowerer dragged by autos and banks. The Sensex was down 207.89 points or 0.8 percent at 25044.43 and the Nifty slipped 72.85 points or 0.9 percent at 7610.45. About 988 shares have advanced, 1661 shares declined, and 211 shares are unchanged.

Tata Steel, Cipla, Infosys, Hindalco and HUL are top gainers while ICICI Bank, Tata Motors, Axis Bank, SBI and L&T are losers.

3:15 pm Market Expert: Sanjay Dutt of Quantum Securities said that investors should go ahead and buy instead of selling their stocks.

"You're getting stocks 30-40 percent cheaper than before. You should invest in your high conviction ideas."

3:00 pm Market Update: Equity benchmarks recovered a bit from day's low. The Sensex fell 183.91 points or 0.73 percent to 25068.41 and the Nifty declined 62.95 points or 0.82 percent to 7620.35.

About 897 shares have advanced, 1700 shares declined, and 197 shares are unchanged on the BSE.

2:50 pm JLR's new plant: Luxury carmaker Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) confirmed on Friday it will build a car plant in Slovakia, beginning a 1 billion pound (USD 1.5 billion) project which will be one of the biggest ever foreign direct investments in the central European nation.

The company, which is rapidly expanding its model line-up and volumes, said in August it aimed to build a plant at the western Slovak town of Nitra with an annual output of up to 300,000 cars.

On Friday, JLR, owned by India's  Tata Motors Ltd, said it will begin constructing the site next year with around 2,800 jobs created as production ramps up.

It already has a plant in China and is nearly finished building a facility in Brazil as part of a global expansion.

2:40 pm Market Expert: "There is some amount of panic in the high-networth-individual (HNI) segment. There has also been steady FII selling even on days like yesterday [when the market rose]," said veteran stock broker Jagdish Malkani.

"It has much to do with the much-awaited Fed rate hike and some amount of frustration with our lack of reforms like [slow progress on] GST," he said.

He, however, added that the economy had been seeing some green shoots and the market fall was overdone. "I will be nibbling away," he said.

2:20 pm Europe Update: European markets traded lower as sentiment is damaged by yet more declines in oil prices. The pan-European STOXX 600 was down around 0.4 percent with all major indices in negative territory.

Global stock markets are on track to end the week deep in the red as the decline in oil prices continues with both Brent and WTI trading below 40 dollars a barrel.

Asian markets traded mixed, despite Wall Street's positive finish overnight, as record low oil prices weighed on energy, material and industry sectors.

Chinese shares traded in negative territory after another top executive was reported missing by local media. Trading in shares was halted in five of the companies held by Chinese investment firm Fosun International after the disappearance of the group's billionaire chairman.

2:00 pm Market Check
The market butchered in afternoon trade with the Sensex down 300.10 points or 1.19 percent to 24952.22 and the Nifty falling 99.95 points or 1.30 percent to 7583.35. The broader markets also declined 1 percent.

The market breadth was weak as about two shares declined for every share advancing on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Auto stocks, especially diesel vehicle makers saw selling pressure after a media report suggested that National Green Tribunal has directed centre & state governments not to buy any diesel vehicles for department use. Tata Motors fell 2 percent and Mahindra & Mahindra lost 1.7 percent. Ashok Leyland and Eicher Motors were down 3-4 percent.

1:45 pm Buzzing: Shares of Ashoka Buildcon gained more than 2 percent intraday  after one of its associates completed refinancing of debt with State Bank of India.

"Jaora-Nayagaon Toll Road Company (JTCL) has completed refinancing of its debt of Rs 552 crore with State Bank of India," says the road developer in its filing to exchanges.

After refinancing, interest cost has been reduced to 9.80 percent per annum, resulting in a saving of 1.50 percent per annum.

It further says that JTCL executed its project to carry on the business of design, construction, finance, strengthening, widening, operation and maintenance on BOT basis for four laning of Jaora-Nayagaon section of state highway - 31 in Madhya Pradesh.

1:30 pm Banks stocks fall: Bank stocks are reacting negatively to Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan's comments. The RBI has said that accounts under SDR (strategic debt restructuring) may attract early provisioning. RBI's annual financial inspection process ensures clean up of bank balance sheets by March 2017.  It seeks to stem discrepancy between banks in re-cognising bad loans.

The market has tumbled further, financials leading the fall with Bank Nifty down over 2 percent. The Sensex is down 231.60 points or 0.9 percent at 25020.72 and the Nifty slips 74.85 points or 0.9 percent at 7608.45. About 907 shares have advanced, 1596 shares declined, and 164 shares are unchanged.

ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, SBI, ONGC and L&T are major losers in the Sensex while Tata Steel, Infosys, HUL and TCS are top gainers.

Crude oil prices remained at levels not seen since early 2009 on Friday as output in the Middle East continued to rise despite an already huge global glut, with analysts saying the price outlook for the rest of the year and into 2016 remained weak.

Brent crude futures were down 29 cents at USD 39.44 a barrel at 0551 GMT, a touch above a near-seven-year low hit earlier in the session at USD 39.38 a barrel. The price rout is a result of a huge overhang in production that is fast filling onshore storage sites, which some analysts expect to run out in early 2016.

12:59 pm Market Update: Equity benchmarks extended losses with the Sensex down 261.75 points or 1.04 percent to 24990.57 and the Nifty falling 86.05 points or 1.12 percent to 7597.25.

ICICI Bank (-3 percent), Bank of Baroda (-3 percent), Yes Bank (-3 percent) and Axis Bank (-2 percent) were the big losers in the Nifty.

Other laggards in the index were ITC (-1 percent),BPCL (-1 percent),Tata Motors (-1 percent) and Power Grid Corp (-1 percent).

Gainers included Tata Steel (3 percent), ACC (1 percent), Infosys (1 percent) and HUL (1 percent).

In sectoral performance as reflected by the respective indices, capital goods (-1.4 percent), power (-1.3 percent), auto (-1.1 percent) and oil & gas (-0.8 percent) were under pressure, while IT (0.1 percent) and metals (0.1 percent) gained.    

The rupee was quoting at 66.77 to the dollar, down 6 paise over its previous close.

12:50 pm Buzzing: Shares of Ashoka Buildcon gained more than 2 percent intraday after one of its associates completed refinancing of debt with State Bank of India.

"Jaora-Nayagaon Toll Road Company (JTCL) has completed refinancing of its debt of Rs 552 crore with State Bank of India," says the road developer in its filing to exchanges.

After refinancing, interest cost has been reduced to 9.80 percent per annum, resulting in a saving of 1.50 percent per annum.

It further says that JTCL executed its project to carry on the business of design, construction, finance, strengthening, widening, operation and maintenance on BOT basis for four laning of Jaora-Nayagaon section of state highway - 31 in Madhya Pradesh.

12:40 pm Oil below $40/bbl: US crude prices remained near 2009 lows today as oil output in the Middle East continued to rise despite an existing global glut.

US crude futures were at USD 36.67 per barrel, down 9 cents from their last settlement, and only slightly above 2009 lows of USD 36.38 reached on Thursday. Prices have lost more than 13 percent since the beginning of the month.

The rout is a result of a huge overhang in production, which is seeing anywhere between half a million and 2 million barrels of crude oil being produced every day in excess of demand, and is fast filling onshore storage sites, which some analysts expect to run out in early 2016.

12:20 pm Nikkei Update: The Nikkei 225 ended in positive territory on the final trading day of the week, closing up 184 points, or 0.97 percent, at 19,230.

Export stocks mostly closed in the green.

Overall, Asian markets were mixed despite Wall Street's positive finish overnight, as record low oil prices weighed resources plays and China shares traded in negative territory as another top executive was reported missing by local media.

12:00 pm Market Check
The market extended losses in noon trade with the Nifty falling below 7650 level, weighed down by banking & financials, infra, auto and select FMCG stocks. Tata Steel continued to the leader among Sensex stocks, up nearly 4 percent.

The 30-share BSE Sensex declined 149.67 points or 0.59 percent to 25102.65 and the 50-share NSE Nifty slipped 49.45 points or 0.64 percent to 7633.85.

Shares of ITC, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, L&T, Axis Bank, ONGC and Mahindra & Mahindra were down 1-2 percent.

11:55 am Macro-economy: The Reserve Bank of India is maintaining a database which is being shared among banks to avoid over-borrowing by large corporate houses, RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan said here. "Moderation is required and some debt is good and not too much. Avoid over-borrowing to avoid problems," Rajan said at the Presidency University here. Raghuram Rajan said RBI has a database of large borrowers whose status of borrowings is shared among banks. Acknowledging that Indian banks have the right kind of leveraging, he added that "those who said the banks have no capital requirements are not sensible".

11:45 am Interview: Sanjeev Vashishta, CEO, SRL Diagnostics, says the company has all the right elements like superior technology, wider geographic reach and a quality team required to tap the huge potential in the diagnostics industry in India. Vashishta believes that the diagnostics sector has a huge scope for growth with limited competition but there is immediate need to increase government spending on the sector to improve the efficiency and quality of service. The major roadblocks faced by smaller unorganised players and new entrants into the industry is widening their reach geographically and concerns over undercutting of prices by competitors at the cost of quality, Vashishta says.

11:30 am Market outlook: There are plenty of approaches which one can take trying to create wealth in the stock market. While some investors are the hands-off types, looking to invest in a well-diversified portfolio that will likely mirror the market's returns, others are more active, constantly evaluating the prospects of one stock versus the other. For the latter, Raamdeo Agrawal, co-founder of Motilal Oswal, has an advice: look for the Lollapalooza effect. The term, coined by Berkshire Hathaway vice chairman Charlie Munger, who describes it as a state in which several factors act at the same time in the same direction. In the investing context, it means investing in a company that has several factors going for it.

The market continues to remain under pressure. The Sensex is down 45.11 points at 25207.2. The Nifty is down 15.10 points  at 7668.20. About 1397 shares have advanced, 771 shares declined, and 135 shares are unchanged.

Tata Steel, Vedanta, Hindalco, Infosys and Reliance are top gainers while ITC, ONGC, NTPC and Axis Bank are losers.

US crude prices remained near 2009 lows in early Asian trading on Friday as oil output in the Middle East continued to rise despite an existing global glut.The rout is a result of a huge overhang in production, which is seeing anywhere between half a million and 2 million barrels of crude oil being produced every day in excess of demand, and is fast filling onshore storage sites, which some analysts expect to run out in early 2016.

Iraq's soaring output has been a large contributor to the glut, with production doubling over the past decade to around 4.3 million barrels per day, more than enough to meet all of India's demand.

10:50 am Buzzing: Shares of Sharon Bio Medicine rallied more than 16 percent intraday ahead of reponse from the US health regulator for one of its Maharashtra plant.

US Food and Drug Administration officials have inspected company's Taloja plant and the outcome of inspection is awaited, says the company in its filing to exchanges.

The company has received establishment inspection report from the USFDA for its Dehradun plant in Uttarakhand. The US health regulator conducted inspection of this formulation manufacturing plant in August.

Mohan Kala, CFO of Sharon, in an interview to CNBC-TV18 says the company so far has not supplied drugs to the US, adding he is looking for approval for a drug called Memantine.

Memantine is used in the treatment of alzheimer's disease. Total market size of this product is USD 150 million. Kala expects approval for this drug in a week's time.

"We will pay off USD 1.1 million dues to the USFDA within next week," he says.

10:40 am Interview: Sanjeev Vashishta, CEO, SRL Diagnostics, says the company has all the right elements like superior technology, wider geographic reach and a quality team required to tap the huge potential in the diagnostics industry in India.

Vashishta believes that the diagnostics sector has a huge scope for growth with limited competition but there is immediate need to increase government spending on the sector to improve the efficiency and quality of service.

The major roadblocks faced by smaller unorganised players and new entrants into the industry is widening their reach geographically and concerns over undercutting of prices by competitors at the cost of quality, Vashishta says.

10:20 am FII View: Mahesh Nandurkar, CLSA says inflows into the domestic equity mutual fund continue to show a remarkable resilience despite the market turbulence.

According to him, base case is that this flow is sticky but a potential slowdown in flows could hurt midcaps.

"Within FIIs, country-dedicated funds see inflows but multi-country funds have been pulling out monies and our interaction with emerging market fund managers reveals that India weightings have been taken down materially," says Nandurkar.

10:00 am Market Check
Sluggish continues for another day as the Sensex is down 37.30 points at 25215.02. The Nifty is down 13.65 points at 7669.65. About 1069 shares have advanced, 673 shares declined, and 101 shares are unchanged.

Tata Steel, Lupin, Hindalco, Sun Pharma and Infosys are top gainers while ITC, L&T, NTPC, Axis Bank and BHEL are major laggards.

Gold looks set for another muted trading session but was headed for the seventh weekly drop in eight weeks as investors positioned for a looming US rate hike. Fed Chair Janet Yellen next week has to decide not only whether to raise rates for the first time in a decade, but also how to assure markets on the likely path of future rate hikes. Traders currently expect the Fed to raise rates two or three times next year.A robust dollar was limiting interest in gold. The greenback rebounded from a one-month low on Thursday, boosted by rate hike expectations.

Weakness in oil was also hurting bullion. A slide in oil could trigger fears of deflation, a bearish factor for gold, which is often used as a hedge against oil-led inflation.

9:55 am Rail projects: Two rail projects to facilitate faster movement of coal are expected to be completed in June and another rail link may get ready by 2017, Parliament was informed today. The three rail infrastructure projects are Tori-Shivpur Kathotia of CCL (Central Coalfields Ltd) in Jharkhand, East West & East Corridor of South Eastern Coalfields Limited (SECL) in Chhattisgarh and Jharsuguda Barpali of Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL) in Odisha, the minister said.

9:45 am Buzzing: Shares of Infosys gained 0.8 percent intraday on getting five-year contract for application transformation programme from Norway company.

"Infosys has won a contract to transform the application landscape of DNB Bank of Norway," says the country's second largest software services provider.

While explaining the work, it further says applying AiKiDo framework, it will leverage knowledge-based non-disruptive renewal strategies to evolve DNB Bank's entire data cluster, including business intelligence, analytics, data warehousing services, regulatory reporting and enterprise resource planning functions.

9:30 am Market Expert: The Indian equity market will see an upward tick only if five to six stocks like Reliance Industries , Tata Motors , Larsen and Toubro , SBI etc., participate, says Deven Choksey of KR Choksey Investment Managers in an interview to CNBC-TV18, adding that fundamentally these are stocks with good business prospects, are available at lucrative valuations but they haven't seen any inflows into them.

Moreover, other Nifty constituents like the metals, pharma, IT, telecoms too are not moving up because of headwinds in their respective sectors. So the onus of taking the market remains on the above mentioned stocks, says Choksey.

He expects the Nifty to move sideways and trade in a range of 7500-8000.

9:15 am Market Check
The market has opened volatile on last day of the week following mixed global cues. The Sensex fell 18.68 points to 25233.64 and the Nifty declined 10.05 points to 7673.25.

Tata Steel, Infosys, ICICI Bank, Hindalco, GAIL, Hindalco and Cairn India were early gainers while ITC, M&M, Wipro, Coal India, NTPC, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Reliance Industries were under pressure.

The Indian rupee has opened lower by 8 paise at 66.79 per dollar today against previous 66.71 Thursday.

Pramit Brahmbhatt of Veracity said, "Performance of equities has supported the rupee and weakness in the dollar against global currencies has helped rupee to close below the 66.80/dollar level yesterday."

He further added, "Rupee is expected to be range bound today between 66.50-66.90/dollar."

The dollar rose from one-month lows against the euro and yen as markets refocused on an expected interest rate increase from the Federal Reserve.

Asian markets were trading mixed. Nikkei gained 1 percent while Shanghai and Hang Seng were down over 0.6 percent.

US markets closed marginally higher, snapping three-day losing streak despite oil slide.