Sensex up 147 points, Nifty ends above 8150; ITC gains 4%

3:30 pm Market close: The market ended with handsome gains. The Sensex is up 147.33 points or 0.5 percent at 26932.88 and the Nifty is up 33.60 points or 0.4 percent at 8152.90. About 1585 shares have advanced, 1148 shares declined, and 114 shares are unchanged.

Tata Motors, ITC, Coal India, GAIL and Cipla are top gainers while BHEL, Infosys, NTPC, Maruti and Axis Bank are major laggards.

2:55 pm Market Update: The market remained strong in late trade with the Sensex inching towards 27000-mark.

The index rose 167.36 points or 0.62 percent to 26952.91 and the Nifty advanced 41.15 points or 0.51 percent to 8160.45. About 1551 shares have advanced, 1083 shares declined, and 118 shares are unchanged on the BSE.

2:40 pm JLR UK sales: JLR in UK has sold 14,669 vehicles in September, higher by 4.1 percent compared to 14,088 vehicles sold in the year-ago period, led by Jaguar.

Jaguar sales grew by 53.2 percent to 4,860 units while Land Rover sales dropped 10.1 percent to 9,809 units during the same period.

Tata Motors surged 5.5 percent as Antique Stock Broking reiterated its buy rating on the stock with a target price of Rs 509 (cut from Rs 583 earlier).

2:20 pm Adani's project delays: A giant coal project under development in Australia by India's Adani Enterprises is facing further delays over environmental permitting, Australia's environment minister said today.

Australia had yet to receive assurances that endangered species would be protected if Adani is reissued with an environmental permit to construct its Carmichael coal mine, the minister, Greg Hunt, said.

"The government is now waiting on the company, and I'll make a final assessment on its merits when that comes," Hunt told reporters on the sidelines of a climate investment conference.

A court on August 5 temporarily blocked progress on the USD 7 billion project in the inland Galilee Basin following a claim Adani failed to take into account the welfare of the yakka skink and an ornamental snake.

The Environment Department at the time said Hunt would reconsider his approval in six to eight weeks pending new submissions by Adani.

2:00 pm Market Check
The market gained strength in afternoon trade after a consolidation. The Sensex rallied 174.63 points to 26960.18 and the Nifty jumped 41.55 points to 8160.85, led by FMCG, oil & gas, healthcare, metals and select auto stocks.

ITC was the leading contributor to Sensex's gains, up 3.5 percent. Varun Lohchab, Head of India Research, CIMB Equities feels the worst of volume decline is over for ITC's cigarettes business. According to him, it will trade at 20 times the valuations in second half and will witness earnings growth in FY17. HUL gained more than 2 percent.

1:55 pm Indo-Germany ties: With Germany leading the manufacturing world, India can partner and participate in the manufacturing revolution, given its IT prowess, says Infosys COO Pravin Rao. This comes on the back of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and PM Narendra Modi's visit to Bengaluru, where they are also going to attend a NASSCOM event. This visit is expected to highlight efforts by the two countries to open new business vistas in the IT sector. The two leaders also visited Bosch Factory in the city.

1:45 pm NPA woes: R Koteeswaran, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) says the prompt corrective action taken by the Reserve Bank is to tackle the issue of non-performing assets (NPAs) and it has not put any restrictions on giving loans. Speaking to CNBC-TV18, he says he is hopeful of reducing stressed assets in the coming quarters and has created a separate department to deal with the same.

1:30 pm Gas price: An 18 percent cut in natural gas prices will discourage further investments in exploring and developing new gas reserves, Moody's said in its credit outlook report today.

It said the move is credit negative for producers like Oil and Natural Gas Corp ( ONGC  ) and Oil India  Ltd (OIL) as it will lower their revenues and cash flows.

From October 1, gas prices have been reduced to USD 3.82 per million British thermal unit (mmBtu) from USD 4.66 previously on a gross calorific value basis.

The market is going steady but technology and bank stocks are dragging. The Sensex is up 36.63 points or 0.1 percent at 26822.18 and the Nifty is down 3.05 points at 8116.25. About 1394 shares have advanced, 1078 shares declined, and 138 shares are unchanged.

Tata Motors, Cipla, GAIL, ONGC and Coal India are top gainers while BHEL, Infosys, Maruti, HDFC Bank and Bajaj Auto are among laggards in the Sensex.

Continuing its upward march, gold rose by another 0.15 percent to Rs 26,607 per 10 grammes in futures trade on Tuesday as speculators widened positions, taking positive cues from global markets.

Market analysts said persistent rise in the precious metal in global markets where it traded at one-week high after bets shrank for a US rate rise this year, boosting the outlook for the metal which does not pay interest or give returns like other assets such as bonds and equities.

12:59 pm Market Update: Equity benchmarks remained volatile with the Sensex rising 20.03 points to 26805.58 and the Nifty falling 5.35 points to 8113.95.

BHEL (-3 percent), Infosys (-3 percent), Bank of Baroda (-2 percent) and UltraTech Cement (-2 percent) were the big losers in the Nifty. Other laggards in the index were Adani Ports (-1 percent), PNB (-1 percent), Bajaj Auto (-1 percent) and Maruti Suzuki (-1 percent).

Gainers included Tata Motors (5 percent), Cipla (3 percent), Idea Cellular (3 percent) and GAIL (2 percent).

Investors showed better appetite for midcap and small cap shares, with the respective indices on the BSE up 0.02 percent and 0.4 percent respectively.    

Rajesh Exports (7 percent), CESC (5 percent), IRB Infra (3 percent), United Brewerie (3 percent) and Suzlon Energy (3 percent) were the big winners in the midcap space. Other notable gainers included Petronet LNG (1 percent), HPCL (2 percent), Tata Chemicals (2 percent), Voltas (3 percent) and Wockhardt (3 percent).    

The rupee was quoting at 65.35 to the dollar, down 6 paise over its previous close.

12:50 pm GST to be on top priority: Outlining the roadmap of the BJP-led government for the coming months, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) will be a "top priority" and he hopes to take the Bankruptcy Code to Parliament in the Winter session.

"Our roadmap for the coming months (is that) GST will be a top priority. My bankruptcy code is almost ready, hopefully I?ll take it to Parliament in the winter session," he said addressing students and faculty at Columbia University here.

He said there are a large number of other legislative reforms which are required and he does not see much of a problem in their passage.

"A lot of decisions have to be taken at the executive level," he said yesterday.

12:45 pm Moody's on gas price cut: An 18 percent cut in natural gas prices will discourage further investments in exploring and developing new gas reserves, Moody's said in its credit outlook report today.

It said the move is credit negative for producers like Oil and Natural Gas Corp ( ONGC ) and Oil India Ltd (OIL) as it will lower their revenues and cash flows.

From October 1, gas prices have been reduced to USD 3.82 per million British thermal unit (mmBtu) from USD 4.66 previously on a gross calorific value basis.

The gas price reduction will have its greatest effect, in absolute terms, on ONGC, the country's largest producer of natural gas.

"At present sale volumes, we expect ONGC's revenue to decline by about USD 300 million (approximately Rs 2,000 or 1.2 percent of total revenues for fiscal 2015, which ended 31 March 2015) for the six months between October 1 and March 31," the global credit rating firm said.

OIL revenues, it said, would decline by about USD 33 million (approximately Rs 220 crore or 2.3 percent of total revenues for fiscal 2015) for the same six month period.

12:40 pm Europe opens flat: European stocks opened flat today after a stellar day yesterday, failing to follow a rally in US and Asian shares as investors tread cautiously after poor factory data out of Germany.

London's FTSE 100 index, the German DAX and the French CAC were all hovering around the flatline.

Meanwhile in Asia, equities extended gains into a second session today following the upbeat US session, while investors kept an eye on the region's central banks.

12:20 pm Market Expert: India's 50-share index, Nifty, is likely to see levels of 8350 in the short-term move, says Shubham Agarwal of Motilal Oswal Securities.

Speaking to CNBC-TV18, Agarwal says Bank Nifty's momentum is fading out post the monetary policy announcement and its relative performance compared to Nifty is not as great. He does not recommend buy in the banking space and believes public sector banks may continue to underperform.

The market continued to consolidate in noon trade after 565-point rally on the Sensex in previous session. The Sensex gained 27.91 points at 26813.46 while the Nifty fell 1.95 points to 8117.35.

The broader markets outperformed benchmarks with the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices rising 0.2 percent and 0.55 percent, respectively. The market breadth continued to be in favour of advances with ratio of 1349:1009 on the BSE.

Tata Motors was the biggest gainer on Sensex, up more than 4 percent as Antique Stock Broking reiterated its buy rating on the stock with a target price of Rs 509 (cut from Rs 583 earlier).

Sun Pharma gained 1.7 percent on settlement agreement between Ranbaxy Labs (along with Cipher & Galephar) and Actavis for generic version of Absorica.

ONGC, Dr Reddy's Labs, Cipla, Coal India and GAIL were other prominent gainers, up 2-3 percent.

In the broader space, Pratibha Industries rallied 8 percent on Rs 1,000 crore water supply contract in Telengana.

11:55 am New funds: Vyas of the Centre for Monitoring The Indian Economy (CMIE). Nothing on the ground seems to suggest a holistic pickup. "A large part of the new investment comes from one big investment show in Tamil Nadu and when that happens there is a blip. If one were to take it out, the picture does not look too good," he told CNBC-TV18. Vyas says about 1/3rd of the new investment is in Tamil Nadu, while the rest is in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. In the July-September quarter, less than 500 projects were announced, he adds.

11:45 am  Market outlook: Sanjay Dutt of Quantum Securities is convinced about PSU bank stocks and sees them benefitting from the measures announced by the government recently. In an interview with CNBC-TV18, he says the market will be focussing more on local events in the short term, unless emerging markets as a whole go into a tailspin. Dutt feels India is the best placed among emerging markets, and this, along with more reforms by the government will lift the market to new highs in the next three months. Dutt says he is a selective buyer in this market, and is bullish on sectors like consumer durables and automobiles. He advises investors to avoid overowned stocks and recommends sticking with sector leaders.

11:30 am Merger: Nestle is in "advanced discussions" to merge its international ice cream business with R&R Ice Cream, in its latest effort to refocus on other, higher-performing brands. The world's largest packaged food company announced the talks on Monday, after agency reported that R&R, maker of Cadbury Flake Cones, Rowntree's Fruit Pastille lollies and Kelly's Cornish ice cream, was in talks with Nestle to form a 50/50 joint venture in a 3 billion euro (USD 3.4 billion) deal.

The market has cooled off after early morning rally. The Sensex is up 86.42 points or 0.3 percent at 26871.97 and the Nifty is up 17.55 points or 0.2 percent at 8136.85. About 1384 shares have advanced, 746 shares declined, and 88 shares are unchanged.

Tata Motors, GAIL, Coal India, Cipla and Dr Reddy's Labs are top gainers in the Sensex. Among the losers are BHEL, Infosys, HDFC twins and Bajaj Auto.

Oil prices held above USD 46 a barrel in Asia today ahead of a report on US commercial crude inventories, a closely watched indicator of demand in the world's top consumer.

A decline in US drilling activity has supported prices recently, fuelling hopes a fall in production would help ease the global crude supply glut.

Crippling economic sanctions imposed by the west on Iran have restricted the country's oil exports, but its compliance to the terms of a landmark agreement reached in July could see the sanctions lifted.

10:45 am Services PMI: Growth of services activity across India softened in September, reflecting a slower rise in new business. Subsequently, companies held workforces broadly unchanged during the month. Furthermore, confidence subsided and was the weakest since data collection began in December 2005. On the price front, survey data highlighted a lack of inflationary pressures as both input costs and output charges fell, Nikkei-Markit report says.

Down from 51.8 in August to 51.3 in September, the seasonally adjusted Nikkei Business Activity Index, pointed to a slight and softer expansion of services output across the country.

10:30 am FII View: Anand Kumar, Bank of America Merrill Lynch says despite the recent downgrades, aggregate Sensex earnings expectations for FY16 continue to remain high.

Consensus Sensex EPS growth for FY16 is nearly 17 percent on a bottom-up basis. He expects this to get downgraded to 8-10 percent.

"In-line with his view, sharp downgrades on the back of disappointing result season would likely keep the market performance subdued in the near term," Kumar says.

10:15 am Buzzing: Investors have queued up for buying shares of Gujarat NRE Coke on Tuesday after the company decided to sell its windmill business. The stock is locked at 20 percent upper circuit at Rs 3.76 on the Bombay Stock Exchange and there were pending buy orders of 340,271 shares, with no sellers available (at 9:36 hours IST).

"Gujarat NRE has received approval from its shareholders for sale of its 62 wind mills in Gujarat of total wind power energy production capacity of 87.5 MW," the met coke producer says in its filing to exchange.

The company has entered into agreements for sale of wind mill business for Rs 218.75 crore, which is subject to complete due diligence by buyer and approval from all relevant authorities & lenders of company.

These sale proceeds will help in improving cash flows thereby helping in faster revival of company's operations, Arun Kumar Jagatramka, CMD, Gujarat NRE Coke says.

10:00 am Market Check
The market erased some early gains, weighed by index heavyweights like HDFC, HDFC Bank, Infosys and Larsen & Toubro. The broader markets marginally outperformed benchmarks with the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices rising 0.3 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively.

The Sensex gained 57.61 points at 26843.16 and the Nifty rose 6.05 points to 8125.35. The market breadth was positive as about 1246 shares have advanced against 556 shares declined on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Tata Motors and Dr Reddy's Labs topped the buying list on Sensex, up 2-2.5 percent followed by ITC, Sun Pharma, ONGC, Cipla, Coal India and GAIL with 1-1.5 percent upside.

However, Infosys, HDFC Bank, HDFC, Larsen & Toubro, Maruti Suzuki, Bajaj Auto, Tata Steel and Hindalco Industries saw profit booking, down 0.5-0.9 percent. BHEL lost 1.7 percent.

9:50 am Indo-Germany ties: The European Union's ban on Indian generic drugs is "unwarranted" and an obstacle to moving trade talks forward, India's foreign secretary said on Monday.

Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said EU restrictions on more than 700 generic drugs were unfair.

"It's our hope that this matter would be looked at fairly and sensibly and would hopefully not be an impediment to the free trade deal," he told journalists after German Chancellor Angela Merkel met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a visit to New Delhi. India and Germany pledged to revive efforts to reach an Indo-European free trade pact after talks fell apart this year.

9:40 am Buzzing: Shares of Suzlon Energy gained 3.7 percent intraday on getting repeat order from Orange Renewable.

"Suzlon Group has won a repeat turnkey order from Orange Renewable for 100.8 MW to be installed in Beluguppa, Andhra Pradesh," said the country's largest turbine maker.

Suzlon will offer operation and maintenance service for an initial period of 12 years through an integrated services package, it adds. The project will be commissioned from FY16-17. Orange Renewable is a subsidiary of AT Holdings, Singapore.

9:30 am FII view: Despite the bounce back in global equities seen, Micheal Every of Rabobank continues to remain cautious on stocks. Most investors are simply happy because it appears as though a US Federal Reserve rate hike is being pushed back, without realising that if indeed a rate increase is pushed back it is because all is not well, he told CNBC-TV18.

He advises investors to sell into the rally. He does not think this cheer can last long. Soon the reality of the situation will catch up - be it in the form of poor earnings growth or the Fed not hiking rates because of the economic situation, he says. Rabobank, however, expects to see a rate hike in December.

The market starts with a bang on Tuesday, continuing its uptrend from yesterday. The Sensex is up 207.00 points or 0.8 percent at 26992.55 and the Nifty is up 61.15 points or 0.7 percent at 8180.45. About 516 shares have advanced, 70 shares declined, and 23 shares are unchanged.

Tata Motors, NTPC, ICICI Bank, Tata Steel and Dr Reddy's Labs are top gainers.

The Indian rupee has opened with a marginal gain of 4 paise at 65.25 per dollar on Tuesday against previous day's closing value of 65.29 a dollar.

Ashutosh Raina of HDFC Bank said, "The positive sentiment is back after disappointing jobs data, with markets expecting that a 2015 Fed hike is off the table for now. This has resulted in EM currencies, equities and bonds rallying."

The US dollar gained against a basket of major currencies on renewed risk appetite in the wake of a disappointing US jobs report.

Asian equities extended gains into a second session on Tuesday following another US rally, while investors also kept an eye on the region's central banks. Markets in China remain closed until Wednesday for National Day holidays. Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan begins a two-day policy meeting, with an outcome due Wednesday.

On Wall Street, the Nasdaq closed up 1.5 percent while the S&P 500 and Dow both spiked nearly 2 percent, fueled by expectations that the Federal Reserve will refrain from tightening monetary policy this year after last week's poor jobs report.

Brent Crude climbed higher, bolstered by a rally in US gasoline and Russia's willingness to meet other major oil producers to discuss the market. Precious metal gold's prices remained largely unchanged at USD 1135 an ounce.