Sensex ends on positive note, Nifty manages to hold 9300; Lupin up 2%

3:30 pm Markets at Close: Equity benchmarks began the week on a positive note, driven by a rally in banks as well as cement stocks. The performance helped the Nifty hold on to its 9300-mark.

The Sensex was up 67.35 points at 29926.15, while the Nifty was up 25.40 points at 9310.70. The market breadth, however, was narrow as 1,634 shares advanced against a decline of 1,155 shares declined, while 178 shares were unchanged.

Ambuja Cements, Eicher Motors, Asian Paints and Lupin gained the most on both indices, while ITC, HDFC and BPCL lost the most.

Midcaps witnessed a stellar performance as the Nifty midcap index ended over half a percent higher, while the Bank Nifty was higher by nearly three-fourth of a percent.

3:25 pm FII View: In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Suresh Ganapathy, Banking Analyst at Macquarie Capital Securities and Rajnish Kumar, MD of State Bank of India (SBI) shared their views and readings of new banking regulation act and what impact it will have on NPAs.

Ganapathy believes there will be a big correction in many of these private sector banks -- which have rallied in the hope to see a massive reduction in NPLs over the course of next 12-18 months -- if headline NPL numbers don't come down and recovery does not happen as expected.

Public sector undertaking (PSU) bank capitalisation will be under stress over next 2-3 years, said Ganapathy.

3:10 Europe Check: European stocks and the euro pulled back on Monday from highs touched after Emmanuel Macron's emphatic but well-flagged victory in France's presidential election as investors' focus shifted from politics to monetary policy.

With the political risks that have dominated European markets in a year packed with elections seen receding, the European Central Bank is expected to have more room to tighten policy as the euro zone economic recovery gathers pace.

European equities dipped, with French shares, which hit 9 1/2-year highs on Friday, underperforming the wider market.

The euro dipped against the dollar, having risen in early Asian trade to just above $1.10 when opinion polls signaled the scale of Macron's victory over anti-euro nationalist Marine Le Pen.

2:40 pm SBI cut home loan rates: State Bank of India (SBI) has cut low cost home loan rate (under Rs 30 lakh) by 25 bps to 8.35 percent and above Rs 30 lakh by 10 bps.

It has cut interest rate by 10 bps to 8.5 percent for the home loans between Rs 30-75 lakh, while above Rs 75 lakh home loan the rate has maintained at 8.6 percent.

2:30 pm Welspun Corp earnings: Consolidated Q4 net profit rose 423 percent Rs 68.6 crore and other income was up 730 percent Rs 130 crore.

At 14:32 hrs Welspun Corp was quoting at Rs 86.70, up Rs 5.20, or 6.38 percent.

2:02 PM Market Check: Markets were trading higher in the afternoon trade on the back of realty stocks outperformance.

The Sensex is up 105.49 points at 29964.29, and the Nifty up 38.50 points at 9323.80. About 1621 shares have advanced, 1054 shares declined, and 171 shares are unchanged.

ICICI Bank, BHEL, Tata Motors, Lupin, ONGC, Ambuja Cements, Eicher Motors, ACC and UltraTech Cement were major gainers on the indices, while top losers include Adani Ports, Larsen and Toubro, HDFC, Bajaj Auto, BPCL, Hindalco, ITC and IOC.

1:46 pm New Listing: Following a successful IPO issue, S Chand and Company will be listing itself on the exchanges on Tuesday.

The IPO saw solid investor demand after it was oversubscribed 59.28 times at the close of its bidding hours.

The textbook publisher's issue received bids for 45,56,00,794 shares against the total issue size of 76,85,284 shares, data available with the NSE showed.

S Chand had raised nearly Rs 219 crore from anchor investors.

1:24 pm Shareholder nod sought: Drug firm Wockhardt is seeking shareholders' nod to raise up to Rs 1,000 crore via issue of securities.

It is seeking the approval via a postal ballot for raising additional capital by way of one or more public or private offerings including through a qualified institutions placement (QIP) for an amount not exceeding Rs 1,000 crore, Wockhardt said in a regulatory filing.

The shareholders can approve the resolution through e- voting or physical postal ballot form, it added. The voting period for the company's shareholders begins on May 10 and ends on June 8.

1:08 pm Market Check: Benchmark indices witnessed marginal selling pressure after rising over half a percent in the morning session.

The Sensex was up 87.41 points at 29946.21, while the Nifty was up 31.70 points at 9317. The market breadth was narrow as 1,556 shares advanced against a decline of 1,031 shares, while 153 shares were unchanged.

Ambuja Cements, ACC, ICICI Bank and ONGC continued to top the gainers chart, while Adani Ports, L&T, BPCL and Hindalco lost the most.

12:41 pm Stake dilution: The government will dilute its stake in state-run banks to 52 per cent once the health of the lenders improve and the money will be used to inject capital in them, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said today.

He hoped for a resolution to the burgeoning bad loan problem following the government empowering the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to order lenders initiate insolvency proceedings against defaulters and create committees to advise banks on recovering non-performing loans.

"We already have a programme under which we have been supporting recapitalisation of banks. Where more funds are required from the government, we will be quite willing to look at that.

12:22 Earnings poll: ABB India is set to to announce its Q1FY2017 (Jan-March) earnings today and its net profit is seen up 42 percent at Rs 100 crore against Rs 71 crore, according to a poll of analysts conducted by CNBC-TV18.

The company is likely to report 14 percent jump in its revenue to Rs 2,274 crore from Rs 2,000 crore.

Meanwhile, the operating profit (EBITDA) is seen up 31 percent at Rs 194 crore versus Rs 148 crore.

12:10 pm Market Check: Benchmark indices held on to their gains on the back of upbeat global cues. A rally in banking stocks boosted the indices, while midcap too outperformed.

The 30-share Sensex was up 109.09 points at 29967.89, while the Nifty was up 39.85 points at 9325.15. The market breadth was slightly narrow as 1,545 shares advanced, against a decline of 919 shares, while 131 shares were unchanged.

ICICI Bank, ONGC and cement stocks were the top gainers, while Adani Ports, Tata Steel, BPCL and Adani Ports lost the most.

11:53 am Upbeat on Eicher Motors: Shares of Eicher Motors gained over 4 percent intraday on Monday as investors bet on the stock post its Q4 results that were declared on Friday.

The Royal Enfield maker reported a 33.9 percent jump in its consolidated net profit at Rs 459.4 crore against Rs 343.1 crore during the same period last year. Meanwhile, its consolidated total income rose 23.3 percent at Rs 2,132.5 crore against Rs 1,729 crore during the corresponding quarter in the last year.

Brokerage houses too were upbeat on the stock on the back of its March quarter performance. They largely remain positive on Royal Enfield's volume growth after its third unit starts operations in August.

11:42 am Expert Speak: Udayan Mukherjee of CNBC-TV18 believes the market is stuck between valuations versus liquidity trading range. No doubt there is a lot of interest in the market because every time it corrects 100-150 points, the fall is bought into.

However, the market is not going past 9500 level, so that tells us that valuations are restrictive, he says.

11:20 am Cement majors gain: Cement makers ACC and Ambuja Cements surged 6-10 percent respectively intraday Monday on the back of possible merger of the companies.

ACC and Ambuja Cements in their respective board meeting have decided to commence an evaluation of a potential merger of both companies with a view to combine the strengths of both businesses so as to benefit all stakeholders.

A special committee of independent directors has been constituted to consider the matter further.

11:11 am Market Check: Benchmark indices extended their gains from the morning session, with the Sensex looking to reclaim 30,000-mark.

The Sensex was up 129.14 points at 29987.94, while the Nifty was up 46.20 points at 9331.50. The market breadth remained health as 1,530 shares advanced against a fall of 781 shares, while 129 shares were unchanged.

Cement stocks held on to their gains, while ICICI Bank and ONGC gained on the indices as well. Meanwhile, Adani Ports, ITC and Hindalco were among the top losers.

Midcaps continued their stellar rally and were trading up over 0.75 percent.

10:45 am 5 stocks that gave 100% returns: whose net profit has consistently shown good performance, during every quarter since June 2016 quarter. There are only nine companies among BSE listed companies, according to Capitaline data.

Interestingly, eight out of nine stocks have given good returns to investors between 31 percent and 208 percent in the last 13 months.

Stock prices of JM Financial, IIFL Holdings, Mastek and L&T Finance Holdings doubled on the back of continuously stunning performance.

10:30 Market Outlook: Signalling a caution on the rally in midcaps, Envision Capital has called for a careful approach in making investments.

''The midcap index is trading at historically high valuations…PE multiples [of this kind] are something that we have never seen before,'' Nilesh Shah, MD & CEO of Envision Capital told CNBC-TV18 in an interview. He also added that there could be value in some pockets and one could take contrarian calls as well.

Shah observed that the market could be looking to factor in a recovery in earnings, but is wary about the turnaround not being substantial enough.

Among the sectors, he believes auto ancillaries and logistics could see better earnings as compared to the overall results scenario. It still makes sense to look into these pockets and be invested in them, he said. Meanwhile, two-wheelers, technology and pharmaceuticals could be positive contrarian bets.

10:15 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks were trading steady, with indices holding on to key milestones.

The Sensex was up 88.84 points at 29947.64, while the Nifty was up 32.35 points or 0.35% at 9317.65. The market breadth was healthy as 1,388 shares advanced against a decline of 678 shares, while 91 shares were unchanged.

Banking stocks ICICI Bank and SBI as well as cement bunch ACC and Ambuja Cements gained the most on both the indices, while Adani Ports, Tata Steel and Hindalco lost the most.

The Bank Nifty, meanwhile, gained nearly a percent following a rally in the banking majors.

9:55 am Buzzing Stocks: Shares of Shoppers Stop and Dalmia Bharat Sugar plunged 5.6 percent and 10.8 percent respectively intraday Monday post poor Q4 numbers.

Shoppers Stop has posted net loss of Rs 36.1 crore in the quarter ended March 2017 (Q4), which includes exceptional loss of Rs 47.8 crore, against profit of Rs 10.1 crore, reported in the same quarter last year.

Total income of the company was up 3.2 percent at Rs 910.3 crore versus Rs 882.5 crore.

The operating profit (EBITDA) rose 5.2 percent at Rs 52.5 crore and EBITDA margin was at 5.8 percent.

9:42 am Barbeque Nation to float IPO: Barbeque Nation Hospitality - the company behind the well-known chain of casual dining restaurants that go by the name Barbeque Nation - is set to float an initial public offering (IPO) this year, according to market sources.

The IPO may or may not involve fresh issue of shares but part stake sale by majority shareholder CX Partners is certain, a person familiar with the IPO process said. The company is being valued at Rs 2,000 crore.

Barbeque Nation is an associate company of Sayaji Housekeeping Services, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Indore-headquartered and BSE-listed Sayaji Hotels. Sayaji Housekeeping owns 47.4 percent in Barbeque Nation while Delhi-based private equity firm CX Partners owns majority stake.

9:30 am Buzzing Stock: Bedmutha Industries touched 52-week high of Rs 49, as it rose more than 11 percent intraday on Monday after it received letter of award worth Rs 198 crore.

The company received letter of award (LOA) from MP Poorve Keshtra Vidyut Vitaran worth of Rs 198 crore.

9:15 am Market Check: Benchmark indices opened in the green, tracking positive global cues, with the Street seeing a quarter percent uptick.

The 30-share Sensex was up 79.41 points at 29938.21, while the Nifty was up 25.65 points at 9310.95. The market breadth was healthy as 733 shares advanced against a decline of 255 shares, while 40 shares were unchanged.

ICICI Bank, Asian Paints and cement stocks Ambuja Cements and ACC gained the most on both indices, while HDFC and Wipro lost the most.

Ambuja Cements and ACC gained between 5 and 7.5 percent on the back of merger talks between the companies, while Eicher Motors gained over 2.5 percent post its Q4 results. Avenue Supermarts, the operator of D-Mart, witnessed some profit-taking.

The Indian rupee gained in the early trade on Monday. It has opened higher by 10 paise at 64.27 per dollar versus Friday's close 64.37.

Pramit Brahmbhatt of Veracity said, "Consolidation near 64.20/USD, resulted into positive divergence on daily chart for USD. A technical pull-back may get extended till 64.50."

"Bias would remain positive for USD and USD-INR pair will trade in a range of 64.20 to 64.50," he added.

Meanwhile, Asian shares traded mostly higher on Monday following the landslide victory of Emmanuel Macron in the French polls on Sunday, with the Nikkei share average hitting its highest level since December 2015.

Macron defeated far-right candidate Marine Le Pen in the French presidential election, with the French interior ministry stating that the former had secured 65.1 percent of the vote. Macron, who is 39 years old, will become France's youngest president.

Market reaction was muted following the results of the French presidential vote, said National Australia Bank Head of FX Strategy Ray Attrill in a Monday morning note, although the euro/dollar bounced significantly.