Nifty below 6100, Sensex firm; BHEL up 3%, ICICI & ITC fall

3:30 pm Opinion: In its second quarter monetary policy review, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had raised policy interest rate for the second time and warned that inflation was likely to remain elevated for the rest of the fiscal year. Chetan Ahya of Morgan Stanley says inflation risk is very much alive which will compel the apex bank to sound hawkish in its next policy announcement but rules out rate hikes in the near term.

A latest RBI survey indicates inflation expectation it is still rising. The RBI's inflation control measures in an economy beset by sluggish growth has left the capex cycle on a standstill. Ahya says the rupee, which has recovered from its record lows after RBI measures, may fall again.

The Indian market stays strong on expiry day. The Sensex is up 85.56 points at 20505.82, and the Nifty up is 26.55 points at 6083.65. About 1312 shares have advanced, 1049 shares declined, and 168 shares are unchanged.

Banks underperform but infrastructure, capital goods, energy and metal stocks fare well. Deteriorating asset quality brings United Bank of India under RBI's scanner. Deloitte begins a forensic audit, report due in 30 days. The stock falls over 1 percent.

The rupee weakens as the dollar rallies across most currencies. Asia gains as the Nikkei hits a 6-year high on a weaker yen. China closed a percent higher as did South Korea.

03:10pm Midcaps and smallcaps
In the midcap space, Voltas surged 11.76 percent. Bombay Dyeing , Coromandel International , Alstom T&D and Tata Communications rallied 5-7 percent. However, NFL , Torrent Power , TTK Prestige , eClerx Services and GMR Infra slipped 3-5 percent.

Among smallcaps, Minda Industries spiked 20 percent. JK Tyre & Industries, Educomp Solutions , Vaibhav Global and Bharat Bijlee are up 9-12 percent whereas Shree Ganesh, Global Capital Markets , Steel Exchange , Tara Jewels and Vascon Engineer lost 5-10 percent.

03:05pm Market Update
The market is volatile in last half an hour of trade on F&O expiry. The Nifty is up 18.95 points at 6,076.05 and the Sensex is up 64.03 points at 20,484.29, after erasing more than half of early trade gains.

03:00pm Most active shares
Infosys , Voltas, Adani Ports, United Spirits , ICICI Bank and Tata Motors are the most active shares on the exchanges.

02:51pm KEC International talks to CNBC-TV18

EPC player KEC International expects to see a substantial improvement in its margins from FY15 onwards, managing director Ramesh Chandak said in an interview to CNBC-TV18.

The company reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 22.1 crore in Q2FY14, up 34 percent, versus Rs 16.5 crore year-on-year (YoY). Total income stood at Rs 1,778 crore, up 6.6 percent, versus Rs 1,668 crore (YoY). Its EBITDA rose up 30.4 percent at Rs 112 crore compared to Rs 85.8 crore (YoY).

However, it is unlikely to see double digit margins , he added.

Chandak further highlighted that the second quarter is a seasonally weak quarter for infrastructure companies due to monsoon and the company is not facing any execution problems.

Meanwhile, KEC International hopes to clock 14-16 percent growth in sales for FY14.

02:41pm Nikkei sees highest closing level in six years

Japan's Nikkei share average soared 1.8 percent to its highest closing level in nearly six years on Thursday, as a slump in the yen pushed exporters higher on expectations of improved earnings.

The Nikkei closed 277.49 points higher at 15,727.12, the biggest daily gain in a week.

The benchmark is up 9.8 percent so far this month, and up 51 percent so far this year.

If the year-to-date gains were to hold for the rest of the year, it would be the Nikkei's best yearly performance since 1972, reports Reuters.

02:31pm The market remains in a positive territory in last hour of trade as the Sensex holds its 100 points gain, supported by oil & gas and capital goods stocks.

The Sensex is up 140.36 points at 20,560.62, and the Nifty is up 39.30 points at 6,096.40.

About 1370 shares have advanced, 969 shares declined, and 177 shares are unchanged.

Taher Badshah of Motilal Oswal Asset Management expects the market to hold on its current levels or mostly likely turn range-bound for the next 10 days or so. ''We will continue to see a lot of strength in many of the underlying constituents of the market,'' he told CNBC-TV18.

"The events, which are lined up for December, are pretty crucial. To that extent, movements in the very short-term either ways could be possible. Clearly, it will be a very interesting series and an important month as well from the point of view of general direction for the country as a whole," Badshah said.

Shares of Reliance Industries , L&T and Tata Power gained 2 percent each while BHEL and Hindalco Industries rallied 3 percent each.

However, Tata Motors, HDFC Bank , TCS and ICICI Bank are under pressure.

1:50 pm Market news: To curb the growing menace of insider trading activities in the stock market, regulator Sebi will come up with a new set of norms within next ten days, Chairman UK Sinha said today.

The capital markets watchdog had set up an expert panel in March this year to suggest new measures to regulate insider trading. The panel has submitted its recommendations to Sebi (Securities and Exchange Board of India), based on which a final report is being prepared.

1:40 pm Bond sale: Asian Development Bank and other multilateral entities are considering issuing rupee-denominated bonds in markets overseas, said Economic Affairs Secretary Arvind Mayaram, reports Reuters.

Any such issuance would come after International Finance Corp, a unit of World Bank, sold the first rupee-denominated bond from an international agency this month, raising Rs 1000 crore by pricing its 3-year rupee-denominated bonds at 7.75 percent.

"There are other entities like the Asian Development Bank which are also wanting to go the international market for rupee bonds and from within the country, IDFC is already ready to launch a rupee bond abroad," he added.

1:30 pm Buzzer: Shares of Suzlon Energy are getting buyers' attention on securing a windfarm contract in Australia. The company's subsidiary REpower Systems SE has entered into an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract with Mitsui and Co. (Australia) to deliver 52 wind turbines with a total rated output of 106.6 megawatts (MW) for the Bald Hills windfarm in Victoria, Australia. The stock jumped 10 percent in intraday trade on Thursday.

The contract is tentatively valued at Rs 600 crore. "As a rule of thumb, a wind turbine costs Rs 6 crore per MW which would make this contract worth over Rs 600 crore," the company said in a statement.

The market consolidates after a gap up opening on positive global cues. The Sensex is up 115.36 points or at 20535.62, and the Nifty is up 36.00 points at 6093.10.

About 1246 shares have advanced, 853 shares declined, and 159 shares are unchanged.

Bond prices slip after Economic Affairs Secretary Arvind Mayaram says there is no hurry to get Indian bonds included in global indices.

The Karnataka government swings into action after a cane farmer commits suicide. It has granted a direct cash subsidy of Rs 150 per tonne. Farmers will now get Rs 2,650 per tonne of cane, but it's still lower than last year's Rs 3,050 per tonne. Sugar stocks like Balrampur Chini , Bajaj Hindusthan are rallying.

BHEL , Hindalco , Reliance , L&T and Sesa Sterlite are top gainers in the Sensex. Loss in Maruti Suzuki, ITC and TCS is adding pressure to the indices.

01:00pm Market Update
The market is still trading in a positive territory with the Sensex gaining over 100 points, though it sees some profit booking. The Sensex is up 116.09 points at 20,536.35, and the Nifty is up 36.70 points at 6,093.80.

12:52pm United Bank of India weak
RBI has initiated forensic audit of United Bank of India due to deteriorating asset quality, reports CNBC-TV18 quoting sources.

It is learnt that forensic audit, which is being conducted by Deloitte, will look at hidden non-performing assets of the bank.

Sources say RBI inspectors are also looking at large value credit. Audit report is expected to be submitted in 30 days.

Shares of United Bank of India fell 0.7 percent to Rs 33.45 on the BSE.

12:42pm KEC International sees buying interest

Shares of KEC International has been seeing buying interest, rising 2 percent today on top of a 8.5 percent rally in earlier session.

Ramesh Chandak, MD of KEC expects substantial improvement in margins FY15 onwards. For the current financial year 2013-14, he expects 14-16 percent growth in sales.

He says the company is not facing any execution problems.

Brokerage houses Religare and Antique Stock Broking maintained hold rating on the stock.

12:32pm Sugar stocks in focus
Karnataka government has granted farmers direct cash subsidy worth Rs 150 per tonne. Earlier, Karnataka cane pricing was agreed at Rs 2,500 per tonne.

Now Karnataka farmers will get Rs 2,650 per tonne as against Rs 3,050 per tonne in previous year.

12:22pm L&T Finance keen on banking license

Even though high profile corporate houses are opting out of the race for a banking licence- -latest being the Tatas -- L&T Finance Holdings remains positive on the sector. Speaking to CNBC-TV18, president & whole time director N Sivaraman said if there is an opportunity, and the Reserve Bank is favourably disposed, then they will definitely look at acquiring a bank licence.

However, he also adds that there are multiple options available with the NBFC.

12:12pm Morgan Stanley sees RBI not raising policy rates in December

In its second quarter monetary policy review, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had raised policy interest rate for the second time and warned that inflation was likely to remain elevated for the rest of the fiscal year. Chetan Ahya of Morgan Stanley says inflation risk is very much alive which will compel the apex bank to sound hawkish in its next policy announcement but rules out rate hikes in the near term.

A latest RBI survey indicates inflation expectation it is still rising.

The RBI's inflation control measures in an economy beset by sluggish growth has left the capex cycle on a standstill. Ahya says the rupee, which has recovered from its record lows after RBI measures, may fall again.

12:02pm The market maintained early momentum in noon trade, but the Bank Nifty erases its morning gains amid volatility on F&O expiry.

The Sensex soared 141.37 points or 0.69 percent to 20,561.63, and the Nifty rose 42.35 points or 0.70 percent to 6,099.45. Advancing shares outpaced declining ones by a ratio of 1182 to 731 on the BSE.

Ambareesh Baliga of Edelweiss Financial Services sees Nifty going back to 6,300-6,350 levels and expects December 8 to be a deciding factor for the market.

He says FII flows are slowly drying up, but the market still has momentum and this is due to retail or local participation. He expects the smallcap and midcap names to rally more than the largecaps as local investors are more interested in them.

Country's largest lenders State Bank of India, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank , which were leaders in early trade today, trimmed gains to 0.5 percent from 1-2 percent.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries continued to support the market with 2 percent gains and state-run oil & gas explorer ONGC rose 1.3 percent.

Capital goods stocks, too, are on buyers' radar as L&T gained 1.7 percent and BHEL rallied nearly 3 percent.

However, TCS and Infosys remained under pressure, falling over 0.2 percent.

12:00 pm Macro: Brokerages and economists don't expect the RBI to ease up on its hawkish tone. Morgan Stanley says inflationary risks have not diminished but adds there are hopes RBI may pause rate hike cycle to give growth a chance.

GDP data, due out on November 29, is expected to show that Asia's third largest economy grew 4.6 percent on year, according to a Reuters poll, following 4.4 percent growth in the previous three months. "The appointment of a new central bank governor in September has helped to stabilize the currency and financial markets, although this is unlikely to have had much of an impact on real economic activity," wrote economists at Moody's Analytics - who forecast growth of 4.5 percent.

11:50 am Update: The inclusion of Indian bonds into global debt indices is not an urgent concern, the country's economic affairs secretary Arvind Mayaram said, reports Reuters.

He also said that the government's Rs 40000 crore programme for the current fiscal year ending in March 2014 will be fully met.

11:40 am Market outlook: Markets are no longer cheap, nor are they in a zone that is attractive, says UBS head of research Gautam Chhaochharia . Hence it will be naive to expect a run-up from these levels. Referring to common belief that the market is expecting a BJP win in the coming election, he says if the "business-friendly party" delivers a positive surprise, then market can touch all-time high. There is a possibility of Nifty touching 6800 next year. But if the election results are not as expected, the reverse can also happen, he warns.

He advises investors not to buy at 6300 levels where risk of it going down remains. He does not see FII money chasing Nifty in the coming days as cyclicals which apperared cheap after the recent rally are no longer attractive.

11:30 am Buzzer: Shares of  Shree Ganesh Jewellery House fell 10 percent intraday on Thursday as its September quarter earnings were dismal. The jewellery company posted a net loss of Rs 1047.74 crore in the July-September quarter this fiscal against a profit of Rs 82.57 crore in the corresponding quarter of FY13.

However, during the period, its income increased by 82 percent to Rs 4,142.27 crore from Rs 2,279.05 crore year-on-year.

The market is holding firm on expiry day. The Sensex is up 149.18 points at 20569.44, and the Nifty is up 44.90 points at 6102.00. About 1106 shares have advanced, 570 shares declined, and 97 shares are unchanged.

Dr Reddy's Labs, L&T, Sesa Sterlite, Reliance and ONGC are top gainers in the Sensex. Bank Nifty is up around 1 percent while technology stocks are under pressure. Both Infosys and TCS are losers in the Sensex.

The rupee weakens as positive economic data from the US sparks a global rally for the dollar. Dollar demand from importers adds to the pressure.

Bond prices rise on renewed buying seen in the new 10-year paper after the yield slips below 8.68 percent.

Asian markets followed their Wall Street counterparts higher led by an over 1 percent rally in the Nikkei and Shanghai index.

In commodities, Nymex prices slip on higher than expected build up in inventories while losses on Brent were lessened by unrest in Libya. Gold is trading a tad higher at USD 1240/ ounce. 

11:00am Market Update
The market is still in bull grip as the Sensex climbed 163.71 points to 20,583.97, and the Nifty advanced 48.90 points to 6,106. Two shares advanced for every share declining on the BSE.

Petrochemical major Reliance Industries extended its gains to 2 percent. L&T, IDFC and Jaiprakash Associates, too, gained further to 1.7 percent, 1.9 percent and 6 percent, respectively.

10:55am Dr Reddy's Labs gains 2%
The brokerage houses believe the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) import alert on Wockhardt's Chikalthana facility will help Dr Reddy's Labs to gain some market share.

Morgan Stanley estimates the current size of the Metoprorol XL market to be approximately USD 300 million. "Wockhardt's exit should result in a USD 60 million -plus sales opportunity for the incumbents. Wockhardt's exit from the lamotrigine XR market could imply USD 10 million sales upside for incumbents, the brokerage house report said.

According to report, if Dr Reddy's Labs can translate the above opportunities into market share, Morgan Stanley sees USD 20-25 million sales upside (with high margins) on an annualized basis, implying around 3 percent earnings tailwind for FY15.

10:50am Shree Ganesh Jewellery locked at 10% lower circuit post loss in Q2

Shree Ganesh Jewellery has posted a net loss of Rs 1,048 crore in the quarter ended September 2013 as against profit of Rs 83 crore in a year ago period, impacted by higher expenses that more than doubled.

Ban on import of gold by the government and unwind of one sale transaction affected the profitability of the company.

However, income from operations increased 82 percent year-on-year to Rs 4,142.3 crore during July-September quarter.

Total expenses of the jewellery maker jumped 2.4 times to Rs 5,150.22 crore in second quarter from Rs 2,150.63 crore in a year ago period, led by higher purchases of stock-in-trade and other expenses.

10:45am Sushil Finance raises target price for PTC India

Considering the sound business model and long-term growth prospects, Sushil Finance maintains positive view on PTC India and recommends an accumulate rating with a revised price target of Rs 72 (earlier Rs 60) based on the SOTP methodology.

"Healthy volume growth, stable margin profile coupled with higher surcharge & rebate income has enabled the Company to deliver good set of numbers for the quarter ended Sept'13. Increasing power demand along with strong pipeline of long-term PPA's provides volume growth visibility going ahead. Increasing government initiatives to revive power segment coupled with repayment of dues from Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation (UPPCL) has not only strengthened its balance-sheet but also has mitigated the major concern of the Company. Also, management's decision of revising tolling arrangement in our view is very positive for Company in the long run while it would provide short-term pain by way of decline in profitability on back of relatively lower margins," the report said.

10:42am Market Expert
Ambareesh Baliga of Edelweiss Financial Services sees Nifty going back to 6,300-6,350 levels and expects December 8 to be a deciding factor for the market.

He says FII flows are slowly drying up, but the market still has momentum and this is due to retail or local participation. He expects the smallcap and midcap names to rally more than the largecaps as local investors are more interested in them.

10:32am Power Grid in focus
State-owned Power Grid, which will soon hit the market with a follow-on public offer, will seek shareholders' approval to hike shareholding limit for FIIs in the company to 30 percent from existing 24 percent.

Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd has said that increasing the limit would provide more headroom for investments by Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) in the company.

In the postal ballot notice sent to shareholders, the utility has said that present holding of FIIs in the company is about 16 per cent of paid up capital. FIIs holding has been on the rise since the company's FPO in 2010, reports PTI.

10:22am Suzlon Energy surges 7% Suzlon Energy signed contract with Mitsui & Company for 106 MW windfarm in Australia.

Suzlon says project is scheduled for delivery in second quarter of calendar year 2014.

10:12am Alstom T&D up 5.5%
Alstom T&D India, a subsidiary of French firm Alstom, today said it will raise up to Rs 294 crore through sale of shares to institutional investors on November 29.

"Alstom T&D India is offering 16,942,500 equity shares of Rs 2 each of the company by way of an institutional placement programme (IPP) to qualified institutional buyers," the company said in a regulatory filing to stock exchanges.

The price band for the issue shall be Rs 159-174 per equity share, it said, reports PTI.

10:02am The market remained firm in morning trade with the Nifty holding the 6100 level on broadbased buying and positive global cues.

The Sensex is up 177.99 points at 20,598.25, and the Nifty rose 54.40 points to 6,111.50. The market breadth is also strong as advancing shares outnumbered declining ones by a ratio of 882 to 311 on the BSE.

Given that a lot of stock futures positions have been rolled aggressively, one should not expect fireworks from the November F&O series that expires today, says Hemant Thukral, Aditya Birla Money. He sees this series ending around 6,080-6,120.

In the December series, Nifty is likely to hold 6,030-6,050, he said in an interview to CNBC-TV18. He recommends buying the Nifty on any dips keeping a stop loss of 6,050 on the Nifty spot and target of 6,120-6,150 on the upside.

BSE Capital Goods, Realty, Oil & Gas, Auto and Bank indices gained 1 percent each while IT stocks are under pressure.

ICICI Bank , ONGC , M&M, Larsen & Toubro, Reliance Industries and Axis Bank are the biggest gainers among major largecaps, rising between 1-2 percent. However, Infosys declined 0.7 percent and TCS was down just 0.16 percent.

On the global front, Asian markets continued to trade higher with the Shanghai and Nikkei gaining more than 1 percent following record highs on Dow Jones and S&P 500.

9:50 am Currency news: Premiere stock exchange BSE will launch its platform for trading in currency derivatives from Friday, making it the fourth bourse in the country to offer such trades.

"Exchange is pleased to inform trading members that it will be launching trading in Currency and Interest Rate Derivatives with effect from Friday, November 29, 2013," BSE said in a notification. Currency derivative contracts allow investors to take position on change in the foreign exchange rates between pairs of two currencies, such as rupee and dollar.

According to BSE, the currency futures trading would be commenced on the contracts on US Dollar-Indian Rupee, Euro- Indian Rupee, British Pound-Indian Rupee and Japanese Yen- Indian Rupee.

9.41 am Market check: The Nifty holds on to 6100, up 48.20 points  at 6105.30. The Sensex is up 168.72 points at 20588.98.  About 766 shares have advanced, 285 shares declined, and 42 shares are unchanged.

ICICI Bank, M&M, ONGC are up 2% each while Bajaj Auto and SBI gain over 1 percent each. Infosys is down around 0.5 percent on the Sensex.

9:30 am FII view: Laurence Balanco of CLSA feels the Nifty is vulnerable following the failure below major chart resistance at the 6,330-6,340 area. In the near-term, the firm is looking for further downside risk towards the 5,870-5,880 area in the coming weeks.

David Kostin of Goldman Sachs expects Fed taper to start in March, but no hike in fed funds rate until 2016. "Our forecast return reflects 8 percent growth in earnings per share (EPS) to USD 116 coupled with an essentially flat forward P/E multiple near 15 times. Looking ahead, extended growth in sales, earnings, and the economy will lift S&P 500 to 2,100 by end of 2015 and 2,200 by end 2016," he said.

The market has opened November series expiry on a strong note. The Sensex is up 126.39 points at 20546.65, and the Nifty is up 37.45 points at 6094.55. About 272 shares have advanced, 38 shares declined, and 10 shares are unchanged.

Tata Motors, ICICI Bank, Dr Reddy's Labs, Tata Power and BHEL are top gainers in the Sensex. Among the losers are Hero Motocorp and Jindal Steel.

Indian rupee fell 25 paise in early trade to 62.39 against the US dollar on Thursday. It closed at 62.14 per dollar in previous session.

Himanshu Arora of Religare feels the rupee is expected to trade higher against a dollar in today's session as some foreign banks have been seen selling dollars which may continue today as well.

Moreover, weakness in dollar index and strength in domestic equities amid expiry session is also likely to support rupee, he adds. According to Arora, the range for the day is seen between 61.75-62.40/USD.

US markets gained yesterday, with a positive reading on consumer confidence spreading cheer just before the holiday-shopping season.

Asian shares held steady early on Thursday, although Japanese stocks look set to head back towards a 5-1/2 year peak reached in May after the yen fell sharply on the back of relatively positive US economic data.

In commodities, Nymex futures fell by nearly USD 2 a barrel on Wednesday, touching a 5-month low as a higher-than-expected build in inventories weighed down prices, although Brent's losses were lessened by unrest in Libya.

Gold prices still trade on the back-foot below USD 1240 an ounce, although it's steadied a bit this morning.