Markets in new zone as Sensex, Nifty end at all-time highs

3:30 pm Market at Close: Equity benchmarks ended the session on a stellar note, with indices closing at fresh all-time high marks. The rally was boosted on the back of better than forecast monsoon rains. The Nifty ended above 9400-mark.

The Sensex closed up 314.92 points at 30248.17, while the Nifty ended higher by 90.45 points at 9407.30. The market breadth was narrow as 1,619 shares advanced against a decline of 1,226 shares, while 180 shares were unchanged.

Among stocks, Bharti Airtel was the stock of the day as it gained 10 percent, which was followed by Hindustan Unilever, which made a big move. The FMCG major touched its all-time high mark.

3:25 pm Management Speak: In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Suresh Venkatachari, Chairman & CEO of 8K Miles Software Services spoke about the company's Q4 performance and the outlook going forward.

"e-Commerce and media contribute about 11-12 percent on revenue whereas predominant revenue comes from life sciences, healthcare and also from financial sector and manufacturing," said Venkatachari.

3:10 pm Market Check: Bullish momentum on the indices continued in the last trading hour as well, with the Nifty clocking an all-time high and a fresh milestone of 9400.

The Sensex was up 298.31 points at 30231.56, while the Nifty was up 86.80 points at 9403.65. The market breadth was narrow as 1,607 shares advanced against a decline of 1,188 shares, while 185 shares were unchanged.

Bharti Airtel continued the very strong momentum on the stock registering 8 percent gain, followed by HUL. Zee Entertainment too surged 5 percent. Meanwhile, Wipro, ICICI Bank and Tata Power lost the most.

3:03 pm Fresh milestone for Nifty: The broader index Nifty clocked 9400-mark in the afternoon trade, continuing its momentum from the morning session.

2:37 pm AMFI asks MF houses to freeze non-FATCA accounts: Mutual funds industry lobby Association of Mutual Funds in India has asked fund houses to freeze non-FATCA compliant accounts with immediate effect, which means non-FATCA compliant investors cannot execute fresh mutual fund transactions.

Mutual fund investors will not be able to operate their accounts, which were opened between July 1, 2014 and August 31, 2015, if they were not compliant with tax information sharing law FATCA (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act).

This move was taken after Ministry of Finance instructed financial institutions--mutual funds, banks and insurance firms--to block non-compliant accounts.

2:30 pm Management Speak: Blue Star posted a decent set of earnings in Q4 with no fireworks but positives outweighed the negatives. Margins were supported by a strong margin performance from the unitary cooling products segment.

In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Vir Advani, MD of Blue Star spoke about the results and his outlook for the company.

2:10 pm Market Check: Equity benchmark indices extended their gains from the morning session, with the Nifty nearing 9400-mark.

Midcaps gained nearly half a percent on the Nifty, while the FMCG index was up over 1.5 percent.

The Sensex was up 259.04 points at 30192.29, while the Nifty up 70.40 points or 0.76% at 9387.25. The market breadth was, however, narrow as 1,571 shares advanced against a decline of 1,152 shares, while 159 shares were unchanged.

Bharti Airtel and HUL continued to top the charts, while Wipro, TCS and UltraTech Cement lost the most.

1:55 pm IndiGo falls post Q4 results: Shares of InterGlobe Aviation fell over 3 percent intraday on Wednesday after investors turned wary post the airline's Q4 results.

The low cost carrier's earnings missed estimates, with a whopping 71 percent increase in fuel cost hitting the net profit.

The airline reported a 24.6 percent fall in the March quarter net profit at Rs 440.2 crore against Rs 583.7 crore posted during the same period last year.

1:40 pm Airtel pares losses: Shares of Bharti Airtel today pared early losses and rose by 4.5 percent even as the company reported its lowest quarterly profit in four years for the January-March period.

The stock opened the day on a weak note and fell by over 2 percent but later zoomed 4.39 percent to Rs 360.70 on BSE.

On the NSE, shares of the company jumped 4.53 per cent to Rs 360.90 despite opening on a weak note.

1:30 pm IRDA nod to DHFL Gen insurance: Sources tell CNBC-TV18 that DHFL General Insurance, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of the mortgage firm DHFL is expected to receive final approval for its general insurance venture from Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) in the next 7-10 days.

On receiving the IRDA approval, the company will start its business operations in the next 2-3 months, which could be by September 2017, with an initial capital of Rs 190 crore.

1:15 pm Market Check: Benchmark indices continued its strong performance, with the Sensex clocking the day's high points.

The 30-share Sensex was up 258.88 points at 30192.13, while the Nifty was up 68.20 points at 9385.05. The market breadth was narrow as 1,582 shares advanced against a decline of 1,077 shares, while 149 shares were unchanged.

Hindustan Unilever and Bharti Airtel were the top gainers, while Wipro, TCS and UltraTech Cement lost the most.

12:35 pm Stocks which moved higher: The S&P BSE Sensex rallied over 200 points in trade to reclaim mount 30K on Wednesday and hit a fresh record high of 30,207.13. The momentum was strong enough and took as much as 47 stocks to lifetime higher and over 150 stocks hit fresh 52-week highs.

Stocks which rose to fresh lifetime highs include names like Eicher Motors, P&G Hygiene , UltraTech Cement, Britannia, Dalmia Bharat, Yuken, OCL India, CESC, Quess Corp, JK Cements, Aarti Industries etc. among others.

Stocks which rose to fresh 52-week highs include names like Gillette, Siemens, Century Textiles, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Reliance Capital, Escorts, Havells India, Voltas, Coromandel, Chennai Petro, EID Parry, KEI Industries etc. among others.

12:12 pm Market Check: Benchmark indices held on to their gains, with indices trading around their fresh high marks.

The Sensex was up 239.20 points at 30172.45, while the Nifty was up 63.15 points at 9380.00. The market breadth was narrowing as 1,510 shares advanced against a decline of 1,026 shares, while 139 shares were unchanged.

Midcaps, banks, and metals gained over half a percent on the Nifty, while the IT index was down by half a percent.

Hindustan Unilever, Bharti Airtel and Aurobindo Pharma were the top gainers, while Wipro, TCS, and UltraTech Cement lost the most.

11:30 am Buzzing Stock: Shares of Petronet LNG rose 4.6 percent intraday Wednesday on strong Q4 numbers and bonus declaration. The company's standalone Q4FY17 (Jan-March) net profit was up 18.4 percent at Rs 470.8 crore against Rs 397.5 crore, in the previous quarter.

The company at its meeting held on May 09, has recommended dividend at 50 percent (Rs 5 per share) for the year ended March 31, 2017.

It has also declared issue of bonus share in the ratio of 1:1 and has also approved increase of authorised share capital of the company from Rs 1200 crore to Rs 3000 crore subject to the approval of shareholders of the company.

11:11 am Market Check: Benchmark indices continued strong uptrend, with the Nifty nearing a crucial 9400-mark.

The Sensex was up 266.94 points at 30200.19, while the Nifty was up 71.70 points at 9388.55. The market breadth was positive as 1,551 shares advanced against a fall of 789 shares, while 127 shares were unchanged.

Hindustan Unilever, Bharti Airtel and Aurobindo Pharma gained the most on both indices, while TCS, Wipro and UltraTech Cement were the top losers.

Midcaps gained almost a percent, while metals and banks gained around half percent. IT stocks were under pressure though.

10:35 am Earnings poll: Two-wheeler manufacturer, Hero MotoCorp is likely to post a fall of 12 percent year on year in its net profit for the March quarter at Rs 733 crore against Rs 834.7 crore, according to CNBC-TV18 estimates.

Revenues for the firm may fall over 6 percent at Rs 7,050 crore against Rs 7,512 crore, while the earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) could be down 13 percent at Rs 1,034 crore against Rs 1,191 crore during the same period last year.

10:22 am MF flows into balanced funds: The new fiscal year has started with strong inflows into domestic equity mutual funds which are now driving the direction of India equity markets. Mutual funds' Equity and ELSS (Equity Link Savings Scheme) schemes saw aggregate net inflows of Rs 9,400 crore (US$ 1.5 billion) in April 2017, Deutsche Bank said in a report.

This is more than twice the April 2016 inflow and 61 percent higher-than-past 12-month average. The trend is also interesting in the context of relatively lean seasonality for the April to June quarter.

The inflow momentum is even stronger in balanced funds. ''The aggregate net subscription of US$1.1 bn is at a historic high and the first billion-dollar-plus monthly inflow into balanced funds,'' said the note.

10:05 am Market Check: Benchmark indices posted a huge surge after the opening bell, with the Sensex and Nifty clocking fresh all-time highs. The better than normal prediction of monsoon could have boosted sentiment on the Street.

The Nifty surpassed its all-time high mark of 9,377.1 at 9:55 am, followed by the Sensex, which breached its all-time high mark of 30,181.

The Sensex is now up 238.94 points at 30172.19, while the Nifty is up 65.75 points at 9382.60. The market breadth was healthy as 1,390 shares advanced against a decline of 597 shares, while 90 shares were unchanged.

Hindustan Unilever, M&M and Aurbindo Pharma were the top gainers, while TCS, Wipro and UltraTech Cement lost the most.

9:55 am Record high: Nifty is now at a new all-time record high. The index clocked 9,378-mark, a gain over over half a percent.

9:45 am Brokerages on Bharti Airtel: Global brokerage firms such as CLSA, Morgan Stanley maintain their cautious stance on Bharti Airtel after the telecom major registered a sharp 72 per cent decline in consolidated net income at Rs 373.4 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 2017.

CLSA maintains an underperform rating on Bharti Airtel but reduced its target price to Rs 365 from Rs 380 earlier. Indian mobile revenue declined on retaliatory tariffs, but a sharp pickup in data traffic is encouraging, said the note.

Morgan Stanley maintains an underweight rating on Bharti Airtel with a 12-month target price of Rs 280. The domestic wireless volume growth was robust, but severe pricing pressure led to revenue and EBITDA declines for the second consecutive quarter.

9:32 pm Buzzing Stock: Shares of Biocon were under pressure as it fell over 5 percent intraday after investors turned wary of the US FDA's observations at its Bengaluru unit.

The US drug regulator issued eight observations to the unit, which was inspected from March 27 to April 7, 2017, according to a CNBC-TV18 report.

9:15 am Market Check: Benchmark indices opened on a positive note, with indices achieving key milestones in the opening trade. The Sensex clocked 30,000 before coming lower. The Bank Nifty and midcap index were up around half a percent.

The Sensex was up 62.04 points at 29995.29, while the Nifty up 25.65 points at 9342.50. The market breadth was very healthy as 399 shares advanced against a decline of 97 shares, while 35 shares were unchanged.

ONGC, Cipla, Aurobindo Pharma and Grasim were top gainers on both the indices, while Bharti Airtel, Hero MotoCorp, and Bharti Infratel lost the most.

GMDC was up around 11 percent after its results, while Blue Star was also higher around 1 percent due to better earnings performance.

The currency markets are shut today on account of Buddh Purnima.

The S&P 500 fell on Tuesday after edging up to an intra-day record high for the second straight session, while Apple became the first US company to close with a market capitalization above USD 800 billion.

Better-than-expected quarterly earnings from US companies and Emmanuel Macron's victory in the French presidential election on Sunday have given investors confidence, but valuations for US stocks are already higher than average.

The hope that US President Donald Trump will cut corporate and personal taxes remained in focus for investors.

Equities in Asia were in the green on Wednesday as investors digest the dramatic dismissal of FBI Director James Comey in the US and follow the inauguration of liberal candidate Moon Jae-in after his win in the South Korean presidential election.

Official results reflected that Moon, a candidate from the Democratic Party of Korea, had won 41.1 percent of the vote, according to Reuters. Moon will take on the presidency after the ouster of former South Korean President Park Geun-hye was removed from office on corruption charges.

Political developments in the U.S. are also likely to weigh. FBI Director James Comey was fired by U.S. President Donald Trump on the recommendation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. The reason for the dismissal cited was to mend "public trust and confidence" in the FBI.