Sensex, Nifty end flat; metals slip, SBI & ONGC gain 1%

3:30 pm Market closing: After a smart rally, which turned flat intraday, the market has ended on a flat note. The Sensex ended down 11.96 points at 25610.21, and the Nifty was up 1.20 points at 7789.30. About 1454 shares have advanced, 1204 shares declined, and 116 shares are unchanged.

SBI, ONGC, HDFC, Wipro and Infosys were top gainers while Tata Steel, Vedanta, Tata Motors, GAIL and BHEL were major losers.

3:10 pm Oil price: Oil prices fell after Goldman Sachs cut its crude forecasts, citing global over-supply and concerns over the health of the Chinese economy, and after Saudi Arabia dismissed the idea of an oil producer summit.

Joining a long list of banks cutting their price forecasts, Goldman Sachs on Friday reduced its 2015 US crude oil forecast to USD 48.10 a barrel, down from USD 52. The bank lowered its 2016 forecast for US crude to USD 45 from USD 57.

Goldman cut its 2015 Brent price forecast to USD 53.70 a barrel from USD 58.20, and said it saw 2016 Brent prices at USD 49.50, down from its earlier USD 62 forecast. Brent for October was down USD 1.00 at USD 47.89 a barrel by 0830 GMT. US crude, also known as West Texas Intermediate or WTI, was down USD 1.05 cents at USD 44.87 a barrel.

2:55 pm Market Update: The Sensex rose 56.29 points to 25678.46 and the Nifty rose 18.05 points to 7806.15. About 1552 shares have advanced, 1015 shares declined, and 112 shares are unchanged on the BSE.

2:40 pm Amtek Auto spikes: Shares of Amtek Auto rallied 60 percent today on capital infusion by promoters through preferential allotment. The automotive component manufacturer has received nearly Rs 75 crore from promoters.

"Allotment committee of board of directors, on September 10, has allotted 44,37,500 equity shares of face value of Rs 2 each at a premium of Rs167/-aggregating to Rs 74,99,37,500 to the promoters group companies by way of preferential allotment," said the company in its filing to exchanges.

The stock had been witnessing selling pressure, especially after it reported loss (of Rs 157 crore) for the first time ever and removal from F&O segment by National Stock Exchange.

2:20 pm Oil supply tightening: Oil markets are beginning to tighten after a dramatic collapse in prices over the last year, reducing production in many parts of the world and stimulating extra fuel consumption, the West's energy watchdog said today.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) said a move by the world's big oil exporters in OPEC, led by Saudi Arabia, to defend their market share "regardless of price" appeared to be working. The strategy was driving out costly, inefficient production from other parts of the world, it said.

"Oil's price collapse is closing down high-cost production from Eagle Ford in Texas to Russia and the North Sea," the IEA said in its monthly report.

The agency, which advises the world's biggest economies on energy policy, said the plunge in prices was expected to cut oil production from countries outside OPEC by nearly 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) next year, almost 300,000 bpd more than previously forecast.

US light, tight oil supply could fall by nearly 400,000 bpd next year, the agency said.

2:00 pm Market Check

The market continued to be in consolidation mode ahead of July industrial output data later today. The Sensex rose 40.78 points to 25662.95 and the Nifty gained 8.15 points at 7796.25.

The broader markets also came off day's high with the BSE Midcap rising 0.13 percent and Smallcap up 0.6 percent. About 1486 shares have advanced against 1016 shares declined on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Amtek Auto topped the buying list of BSE Midcap, up 18 percent followed by Sobha, IL&FS Transportation, SpiceJet and Atul with 5-8 percent. However, Cox & Kings, CCL International, Godrej Industries, Monsanto India and Shriram City lost 3-6 percent.

1:50 pm The 7th Pay Commission report is likely to come out after Bihar elections. the government is likely to take 3-4 months to decide on the Pay Commission report. The fiscal impact of the Pay Commission report will reflect in the FY17 Budget. The benefits of the Pay Commission will kick in from January 1,2016.

1:30 pm Outlook: The Indian market is attractively priced and a big push comes from commodity deflation, which impacts India favourably, says Manish Gunwani, senior fund manager at ICICI Prudential AMC. He says despite the volatility in the market over the past few weeks, retail participation, domestic inflows have been rather consistent, majorly because physical assets such as real estate are rather unattractive at the moment. He is, however, worried about the fall in the rupee against the dollar, though the rupee has appreciated against many Asian currencies.

In terms of further earnings downgrade on the back of disturbing global news, Gunwani believes there may be some downgrades of 1-2 percent here and there at the margins. Going ahead, he believes there may be more interest rate cuts and there will be increased government spending at the state as well as the Central government level in the second half of FY16.

The market has flattened out as metals dragged and IT rallied. The Sensex is up 32.74 point at 25654.91 and the Nifty is up 7.30 point at 7795.40. About 1481 shares have advanced, 955 shares declined, and 108 shares are unchanged.

Infosys, ONGC, HDFC, Wipro and Hindalco are top gainers while Tata Steel, BHEL, GAIL, Axis Bank and Relinace are laggards in the Sensex.

Asian stocks were volatile, as investors eyed increased uncertainty heading into the Federal Reserve's crucial meeting on interest rates next week.

The Fed is widely expected to raise its near-zero interest rate as early as next week amid improving economic fundamentals in the US. But an abrupt devaluation of the yuan by Chinese authorities in August and renewed turmoil in global markets has had some market watchers paring back their forecasts.

13:15 pm European Update: European markets turned lower after opening slightly higher today, as traders' focus returns once more to next week's meeting of the US Federal Reserve.

London's benchmark FTSE 100 index was down around 0.2 percent, Germany's DAX moved 0.5 percent lower, while France's CAC was off by 0.3 percent.

12:59 pm Market Update: Equity benchmarks erased early gains following weak cues from European markets, dragged by capital goods, banks and Reliance Industries. The Sensex gained 16.73 points at 25638.90 and the Nifty rose 2 points to 7790.10. About 1490 shares have advanced, 911 shares declined, and 117 shares are unchanged on the BSE.

12:50 pm Buzzing: Shares of Brooks Laboratories are locked at 10 percent lower circuit at Rs 58.30 today after the capital market regulator barred company and its directors from accessing securities market.

SEBI on Thursday barred Brooks Laboratories and its top executives from the securities markets for five years for siphoning off funds and concealing of material information in its IPO documents.

Apart from Brooks, prohibitory order has been passed against its chairman Atul Ranchal, Managing Director Rajesh Mahajan, chief executive Durga Shankar Maity, chief financial officer Ketan Shah and company secretary Parvinder Kaur.

In a 42-page order, Sebi said they have been "prohibited from raising any further capital from the securities market, in any manner whatsoever, for a period of five years."

12:40 pm Tata Motors global sales: Tata Motors today reported a 1.51 percent increase in its global sales, including that of Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) vehicles, to 74,639 units last month.

The company had sold 73,524 units in August last year, Tata Motors said in a statement.

In the passenger vehicles category, global sales last month stood at 44,956 units as against 42,988 units in August 2014, up 4.57 percent.

Sales of luxury brand Jaguar Land Rover rose by 4.59 percent to 33,103 units in August compared with 31,650 units in the same month last year.

The company's sales of commercial vehicles in August declined by 2.79 percent to 29,683 units from 30,536 units a year ago.

12:20 pm Market Expert: The market has already priced in a 25 basis point-hike in interest rates by the US Fed next week, says Amit Khurana, Co- head Equities & Head of Research, Dolat Capital Market.

The best case for the Indian market would be the Fed not hiking rates and sounding dovish in its outlook, which in turn could prompt the RBI to cut interest rates by as much as 50 basis points, Khurana tells CNBC-TV18.

However, the possibility of that is slim, he says.

While the market has shown signs of recovery in the last few sessions, Khurana expects it to be volatile near term.

12:00 pm Market Check
Equity benchmarks were marginally higher in noon trade. The Sensex rose 62.74 points to 25684.91 and the Nifty advanced 19.90 points to 7808. Capital goods and select auto stocks were under pressure while technology, FMCG, healthcare and select banking & financials stocks gained.

The broader markets marginally outperformed benchmarks. The BSE Midcap and Smallcap gained 0.4 percent and 0.8 percent, respectively. About 1508 shares have advanced against 779 shares declined on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

HDFC, State Bank of India, ONGC, Wipro and Hindalco Industries topped the buying list on Sensex. Infosys rose 0.9 percent; in an analyst meet, COO UB Pravin said that margins will be under pressure for sometime especially in large deals.

However, Tata Motors lost 1.4 percent on profit booking after it rising 2.7 percent in previous session. Reliance Industries, L&T, ICICI Bank, BHEL, Tata Steel and GAIL declined 0.5-1.8 percent.

11:50 am Buzzing:  Shares of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries gained more than 1 percent intraday after the company decided to sell its Ireland facility.

The drug major said following successful completion of Ranbaxy merger, there is an opportunity to optimise overall manufacturing network. "As a result, decisions are being made by the company or subsidiary companies to either close or divest some of manufacturing facilities," it said in a statement to exchanges.

According to Sun Pharma, such proposed divestment would have no material impact on company's performance, operations or revenues.

It looks like divestment of plant may be a part of company's consolidation initiatives (globally) started post Ranbaxy acquisition.

11:30 am Drought hits gold: Anantha Padmanabhan is offering deep discounts and giving freebies to attract customers to his gold bangle festival in southern India, but he is still struggling to sell in a region where monsoon rains were up to a third below normal.

Two straight years of drought in India - for only the fourth time in over a century - have hit gold demand in the world's No.2 consumer and could cut imports by up to 10 percent in 2015, said Padmanabhan, head of a regional gold federation.

Nearly two-thirds of India's gold demand comes from rural areas where jewellery is a traditional store of wealth for millions who have no access to the formal banking system.

The market is gaining some steam on the last day of the trading week. The Nifty is above 7800 with the midcaps marginally outperforming. The 50-share index is up 41.45 points or 0.5 percent at 7829.55.

The Sensex is up 128.56 points or 0.5 percent at 25750.73. About 1497 shares have advanced, 561 shares declined, and 78 shares are unchanged.

Infosys, SBI, Wipro, Axis Bank and Hindalco are top gainers while GAIL, Tata Motors, Tata Steel and BHEL are major losers in the Sensex.

Gold clung to small overnight gains near USD 1,110 an ounce, but the metal was headed for a third consecutive weekly fall as investors continued to fret over the timing of a looming US interest rate hike.

10:55 am Market Update: The Sensex gained 118.54 points at 25740.71 and the Nifty rose 38.50 points to 7826.60.

About 1476 shares have advanced, 556 shares declined, and 79 shares are unchanged on the BSE.

10:50 am Sun Pharma's divestment: Company said following Sun Pharma's successful completion of Ranbaxy merger, there is an opportunity to optimise overall manufacturing network. As a result, decisions are being made by the company / the company' subsidiary companies to either close or divest some of the company's/subsidiaries' manufacturing facilities respectively.

Currently, the Ireland facility has been identified for divestment, it added.

It said such proposed divestment has no/would have no material impact on company's performance, operations or revenues.

10:40 am Buzzing: Shares of Elder Pharmaceuticals rallied nearly 19 percent intraday on a media report that the healthcare company may sell assets to reduce debt.

"Debt-riden Elder Pharma may sell its factories in Maharashtra and Uttarakhand, as well as some real estate, to raise money and repay creditors," a media report said quoting unnamed sources.

Elder has six manufacturing (API and formulations) plants in India (Patalganga (active pharmaceutical ingredients) & Nerul plants in Maharashtra, Paonta Sahib & Langha Road plants in Himachal Pradesh and Selaqui in Uttaranchal) and one in Nepal.

The drug maker is presently facing severe financial crunch, it said on September 5.

In view thereof, many of senior employees including junior and subordinate staff have resigned and due to this severe shortage of employees to handle the work of accounts, audit for the June quarter has not completed within time, it added.

The company, on August 31, said its chief financial officer Bimal Desai has resigned w.e.f. August 31, 2015.

10:20 am Market Expert: Harendra Kumar of Elara Capital believes the market will see a bottoming out in the next one month and one can buy a lot of select stocks in the current market.

He believes the foreign institutional inflows are expected to be positive in the days to come.  He suggests buying select midcap stocks in the oil and gas and telecom space form a long-term point of view.

10:00 am Market Check
The market is holding early gains as the Sensex is up 154.10 points or 0.6 percent at 25776.27. The Nifty gains 45.60 points or 0.6 percent at 7833.70. About 1272 shares have advanced, 360 shares declined, and 50 shares are unchanged.

SBI, Vedanta, Axis Bank, Wipro and ONGC are top gainers whule BHEL, HUL, Tata Motors, GAIL and ICICI Bank are among laggards in the Sensex.

Harendra Kumar of Elara Capital believes the market will see a bottoming out in the next one month and one can buy a lot of select stocks in the current market.

He believes the foreign institutional inflows are expected to be positive in the days to come.  He suggests buying select midcap stocks in the oil and gas and telecom space form a long-term point of view.

Crude oil prices dipped after news top oil exporter Saudi Arabia sees no need for a summit of producing countries' heads of state to defend prices, partly offsetting the previous session's strong rally on bullish gasoline demand.

9:55 am Interview: FMCG firm Godrej Consumer Products Ltd (GCPL) has acquired the remaining 40 percent in Cosmetica Nacional, a Chilean hair colour cosmetics company. 
In January 2012, Godrej had acquired 60 percent stake in Cosmetica.

Speaking to CNBC-TV18, Vivek Gambir, MD Godrej Consumers says Cosmetica forms a major chunk in its Rs 650 crore worth cosmetics business in Latin America. This deal will provide an opportunity for the company to grow the hair colour business into other markets as well.

Cosmetica deals 50 percent into hair colouring category, 25 percent into colour cosmetics and rest in hair removing category and is among the leader companies, he adds.

9:45 am IIP Poll:  The July index of industrial production (IIP) is expected to come in at 3.41 percent versus 3.8 percent month-on-month. The range again is rather wide - from 3 to 4.2 percent. It may be worth mentioning that June IIP come in at a four month high. Though, core sector data for the month of July was quite uninspiring and came in only at 1.1 percent versus 3 percent month-on-month. This 1.1 percent also equals to 38 percent of the IIP. In terms of expectations though, the core sector is expected to be weak. One of its key constituents is electricity and it should possibly grow this time around in the IIP. The core sector data came in at a growth of 3.5 percent versus 0.2 percent month-on-month. However, there will be a favourable base effect that will play out in terms of the IIP data as well as the consumer price index (CPI) data.

9:35 am FII View: Bhuvnesh Singh, Barclays feels while India is not immune to a potential slowdown in China, it is least exposed among most of the emerging markets.

According to him, indeed, India's issues are largely domestic and cyclical in nature as both monetary and fiscal policies have been restrictive in recent years. Going forward, he is optimistic on earnings recovery in H2FY16.

The market rebounded in early trade with the Sensex rising 194.75 points to 25816.92 and the Nifty climbing 56.75 points to 7844.85. Technology, healthcare, oil and select banking & financials stocks drove the market higher.

SBI, Axis Bank, ONGC, Vedanta, M&M and YES Bank topped the buying list, rising 1-2 percent. However, GAIL, ICICI Bank, Tata Motors, Bosch and BHEL were marginally in red.

The Indian rupee gained in early trade today. It has opened higher by 9 paise at 66.34 per dollar against 66.43 yesterday.

Pramit Brahmbhatt of Veracity said, "Local equity market is likely to trade sideways today and will take cues from global markets for further direction. Strength in USD will keep rupee under pressure."

"Investors are expected to trade cautiously and square off their positions ahead of the weekend. We see the range for the rupee between 66-67/dollar today," he added.

The dollar fell after economic data in US sent contrary signals on whether the US Fed would raise interest rates next week.

Globally, Asian markets traded lower in early trade as investors eye increased uncertainty heading into the US Federal Reserve's meeting next week.

The Fed is widely expected to raise its near-zero interest rate as early as next week amid improving economic fundamentals in the US. But an abrupt devaluation of the yuan by Chinese authorities in August and renewed turmoil in global markets has had some market watchers paring back their forecasts.

Overnight, Wall Street ended higher, led by recovery in oil prices and major stocks such as Apple. The Nasdaq Composite led gains with a 0.8 percent rise. The Dow Jones  and the S&P 500 closed up 0.5 percent each.

Crude prices gained overnight on strong US demand for gasoline , but news of increased US inventories of crude keeps prices under check. Brent Crude was trading above USD 48 per barrel.