Nifty ends above 8100, Sensex gains 65 points; Cipla up 6%

03:30 Market closing
The market ended a volatile session on a higher note. The Nifty managed to end above 8100, up 19.80 points at 8105.50 while the Sensex was up 65.17 points at 27061.04. Cipla, Bharti Airtel, Maruti, Sesa Sterlite and Hero Motocorp were top gainers in the Sensex.

Among the top losers were Sun Pharma, Hindalco, Tata Power, NTPC and BHEL.

03:00pm Gayatri Projects rally
Gayatri Projects spiked 6 percent as the company in joint venture with SPL Infrastructure has bagged new order worth Rs 158.92 crore from NHAI, said the flagship company of the Gayatri Group.

The project work includes improvement and augmentation of Thanjavur-Pudukottai section 2 laning with Paved Shoulders for 55.228 km of NH-226 in the state of Tamil Nadu under NHDP-IV on EPC mode.

02:50pm Market Check
The market extended gains in last hour of trade with the Sensex rising 85.20 points to 27081.07 and the Nifty climbing 21.90 points to 8107.60 supported by ITC that gained 1.7 percent.

About 1734 shares have advanced, 1244 shares declined, and 106 shares are unchanged.

02:30pm Oracle Financial in demand
Investors rushed to buy more shares of Oracle Financial Services Software after it declared hefty amount of dividend. The stock rallied as much as 10.5 percent to touch a record high of Rs 4,080 on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

"The board of directors of the company has declared an interim dividend of Rs 485 per equity share," said the company in its filing.

The company will distribute dividend worth Rs 4,081.3 crore to 8,41,50,904 equity shares.

For the year ended March 31, 2014, the company had reported cash and bank balances of Rs 6,672.6 crore, increased from Rs 5,471 crore in previous financial year.

02:00pm The market continued to be in a tight range in afternoon trade as investors are cautious ahead of July industrial output and August CPI data. The Sensex rose 3.51 points to 26999.38 while the Nifty fell 2.60 points to 8083.10 but the broader markets outperformed benchmarks.

The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices gained 0.2 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively. About 1633 shares have advanced, 1290 shares declined, and 101 shares are unchanged.

Cipla shares rallied 6 percent followed by ITC, HDFC, Maruti Suzuki and Hero Motocorp with 1-1.5 percent whereas Hindalco Industries, L&T, Sun Pharma, NTPC, Coal India and Tata Power declined 1-3 percent.

HDFC, Force Motors, Sun Pharma, Coromandel International, Lovable Lingerie, SBI, Motherson Sumi, Cipla and Tata Steel were most active shares.

Index of industrial production (IIP) for July is likely to fall to 1.7 percent while the consumer price index (CPI) for August may soften to 7.7 percent, says a CNBC-TV18 poll. Both the macro-economic data points will be released post market hours today and between, the CPI will be crucially watched even from a bond market perspective.

The market seems to have lost interest and trading listlessly, more eager for the weekend.
The Sensex is down 15.01 points at 26980.86 and the Nifty is down 8.40 points at 8077.30. About 1556 shares have advanced, 1284 shares declined, and 87 shares are unchanged.

Cipla, Maruti, ITC, HDFC and Bharti are top gainers while Hindalco, Sun Pharma, Coal India, Tata Power and NTPC are major losers in the Sensex.

Midcaps outperform key indices with a 2 percent gain this week.

Auto companies are in focus as the SIAM conference is underway, Tata Motors tells CNBC-TV18 that  an increase in investments in road transport will help CV sector and expects M&HCV growth to pick up third quarter onwards. Meanwhile Hero Moto sees festive season demand to be better than last year.

01:00pm Strides on buyers' radar
Shares of Strides Arcolab gained 1.5 percent after Macquarie has included its top small-cap pick in India with a target price of Rs 950. The brokerage feels that its dividend could be a near-term catalyst and is positive that generic business will deliver strong growth going forward driven by market share ramp-up of recent launches.

"During the last earnings call, Strides Arcolab had highlighted that from USD 390 million of receivables from Mylan, it expects contingent holdback (of USD 250 million) to get released in Q2 FY15. With 20 days left for Q2FY15 end, dividend could be a near-term catalyst," it said in a report.

After retaining USD 50 million for the Biotech business, the drug company intends to distribute the remaining cash (post tax) as dividends. USS 40 million of regulatory escrow will be released post full resolution of FDA issues by Mylan and USD 100 million of tax escrow after three years.

12:30pm Interview
Ravi Kannan, Director and CEO of Snowman Logistics says the company expects to maintain growth rate of last few years with clear visibility on expansion plans. He says the cold chain solutions provider will add another 35 percent to its capacity in FY15. "We are looking to expand to tier II and tier III cities," he told CNBC-TV18.

He is confident of stable growth going forward. "We may take the number of depots to 37 from the current 25 by fiscal-end," he says.

Snowman Logistics saw huge buying appetite on listing day itself, starting trade at Rs 75 (the equilibrium price arrived in pre-opening session) on the Bombay Stock Exchange. That is 60 percent returns for investors over the issue price of Rs 47, which is more than grey market premium of 25-30 percent premium.

Kannan says the money raised from the IPO will be partially used to pay back a bridge loan.

12:00pm The market remained lacklustre in trade today with the Sensex gaining 21.13 points at 27017 and the Nifty rising 2.75 points to 8088.45 ahead of August CPI and July industrial output data. FMCG, auto and steel stocks supported the market whereas heavyweights like Infosys, Reliance and L&T were under pressure.

About 1509 shares have advanced, 1203 shares declined, and 87 shares are unchanged on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Gaurav Mehta, VP - Institutional Equities, Ambit Capital expects a near-term correction that will help market from being complacent.

Ambit Capital is of the view that the Nifty has been in a structural uptrend post breakout above 6350. A fresh breakout may be seen if Nifty sustains above 8130-8150, 8150 being crucial resistance. In addition, Mehta has a 30,000 target on the Sensex in FY15.

Cipla topped the buying list, up over 2 percent followed by ITC, Tata Motors, HDFC, TCS, Bharti Airtel, Maruti, HUL, GAIL and Sesa Sterlite with 0.5-1 percent.

However, aluminium major Hindalco Industries lost nearly 3 percent. Drug maker Sun Pharma trimmed losses to 1 percent from 3.5 percent in early trade while Infosys, L&T, Reliance, NTPC, ICICI Bank, Wipro, SBI and Coal India declined 0.3-1.3 percent.

11:50 am IPO listing day: Snowman Logistics has seen huge buying appetite on listing day itself, beginning the trade at Rs 75 (the equilibrium price arrived in pre-opening session) on the Bombay Stock Exchange. That is 60 percent returns for investors over the issue price of Rs 47, which is more than grey market premium of 25-30 percent premium.

It means the person, who has applied for 300 shares (the minimum bid quantity) by paying Rs 14100, received a whopping Rs 8400 on day one (Rs 28 per share premium over issue price). The appetite seems not ending as there were pending buy orders of 1,399,831 shares, with no sellers available at 10:42 hours IST. The stock was quoting at Rs 78.75 (the highest level in today's trade), up Rs 31.75, or 67.55 percent on the BSE. The current market capitalisation of the company stands at Rs 1,310 crore.

11:30 am Interview: In a bid to make a mark in the big car segment, India's top car maker Maruti Suzuki launched mid-sized sedan Ciaz. The car is available in petrol and diesel fuel options powered by a 1.4 litre and 1.3 litre engines respectively. Bookings opened on September 3.

Speaking exclusively to CNBC-TV18, Chairman RC Bhargava said, "Ciaz is not really the premium segment. It is like the Honda City segment. It is the same segment in which we had the Baleno and SX4. So, this car is another offering in that segment. We hope this car will do better in this segment than what we have achieved in the past." He further added that in the festival season one can see growth of 20-25 percent over the non-festive season. Bhargava is hopeful that the growth pattern this year will be similar to the past and will be sustained. The global launch of Ciaz is planned during the forthcoming festival season. 

The market is volatile ahead of IIP and CPI data release. The Sensex is down 9.61 points at 26986.26 and the Nifty is down 8.25 points at 8077.45. About 1420 shares have advanced, 1085 shares declined, and 81 shares are unchanged.

Hindalco, Sun Pharma, NTPC, Wipro and Coal India are major laggards in the Sensex. Among the gainers are Cipla, Maruti, ITC, Bharti and GAIL.

Index of industrial production (IIP) for July is likely to fall to 1.7 percent while the consumer price index (CPI) for August may soften to 7.7 percent, says a CNBC-TV18 poll. Both the macro-economic data points will be released post market hours today and between, the CPI will be crucially watched even from a bond market perspective.

The estimate for July IIP is that it is going to see a growth of 1.7 percent versus 3.4 percent on a month-on-month (M-o-M) basis. It is expected to scale down from what was seen for entire Q1 FY15 and this will eventually help the industry's growth in Q1 of gross domestic product (GDP) as well. The range for IIP, it is expected to be anywhere between 0.5 percent and 3 percent, says the poll. May IIP was revised higher to 5.5 percent versus 4.7 percent earlier.

11:00am Interview
In a bid to make a mark in the big car segment, India's top car maker Maruti Suzuki launched mid-sized sedan Ciaz. The car is available in petrol and diesel fuel options powered by a 1.4 litre and 1.3 litre engines respectively. Bookings opened on September 3.

Speaking exclusively to CNBC-TV18, Chairman RC Bhargava said, "Ciaz is not really the premium segment. It is like the Honda City segment. It is the same segment in which we had the Baleno and SX4. So, this car is another offering in that segment. We hope this car will do better in this segment than what we have achieved in the past."

He further added that in the festival season one can see growth of 20-25 percent over the non-festive season. Bhargava is hopful that the growth pattern this year will be similar to the past and will be sustained. The global launch of Ciaz is planned during the forthcoming festival season.

10:30am Market Expert
Sanjeev Prasad, Senior Executive Director & Co-Head, Kotak Institutional Equities says the medium-term rally remains intact, but the next leg of upmove will depend on government reforms. He says the market may be already discounting FY16 earnings and may see upside of 9 percent before getting fully discounted.

He is positive on autos, private banks from the start of the year and continues to remain so. ''We are adding more consumption names to our portfolio,'' he told CNBC-TV18.

10:00am Equity benchmarks remained in a consolidation mode with the Sensex rising 33.95 points to 27029.82 and the Nifty gaining 5.60 points to 8091.30 while the broader markets continued to outperform.

The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices climbed 0.3 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively. About 1360 shares have advanced, 752 shares declined, and 78 shares are unchanged.

Snowman Logistics started trade at Rs 75 on the Bombay Stock Exchange, up 59.6 percent over its issue price of Rs 47 on huge buying interest on the listing day. The issue was subscribed 60 times, so such a nice listing was expected by analysts.

Shares of ITC, HDFC, ONGC, TCS, Bharti Airtel, Maruti, HUL, Sesa Sterlite and Gail gained 0.3-0.8 percent whereas ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Wipro, Tata Power, Dr Reddy's Labs and Hindalco fell 0.3-0.8 percent.

Drug maker Sun Pharma lost another 3.5 percent, in addition to 5 percent loss in previous session after US drug regulator conducted a surprise audit at the company's Halol facility (which contributes 40 percent of US sales and 25 percent to consolidated profit) in Gujarat. The company is seeking shareholders' approval to set borrowing limit up to Rs 50,000 crore and also for raising funds up to Rs 12,000 crore.

9:50 am Snowman debut day: Snowman Logistics shares will list today. It has fixed the issue price at higher end of the price band of Rs 44-47 apiece as majority of the bids were at the higher band.

After looking at great response to the issue, which got oversubscribed 60 times supported by QIBs, HNIs as well as retail, expectations for listing price are very high now.

According to sources, the grey market premium is around Rs 15-23 over the issue price of Rs 47, but experts' range for listing price is 5-45 percent.

Experts are very bullish on the stock in the long term as it is the only listed company in cold chain industry having excellent fundamentals, but their debut price range for the stock is very high.

9:35 am FII view: Abhay Laijawala, Deutsche Equities says the brokerage house believes that the skew in India's household savings to physical assets has bottomed and it may see a transition towards more productive financial assets.

''The trend of increasing allocation to equity MFs is one such sign of this shift, in our view. The financials sector should be the biggest beneficiary of the shift. Prospective stock beneficiaries include Kotak Mahindra Bank, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, Bank of Baroda, PNB and LIC Housing Finance,'' he adds.

The market has opened marginally higher. The Sensex is up 28.47 points at 27024.34 and the Nifty is up 1.35 points at 8087.05. About 607 shares have advanced, 152 shares declined, and 29 shares are unchanged.

Wipro, TCS, HDFC, ONGC and ICICI Bank are top gainers.Sun Pharma, Sesa Sterlute, HDFC Bank, GAIL and Hero are major laggards.

The Indian rupee opened flat at 60.97 per dollar against the previous day close of 60.92.The dollar hovered below a 14-month peak against a basket of major currencies as the sell-off in sterling and the euro tapered off, but commodity currencies remained under pressure.

Pramit Brahmbhatt of Veracity said, "Expect investors to trade cautiously and track the market closely at higher levels. Rupee is expected to trade rangebound to slightly weak tracking the local equity movement. See a range of 60.50-61.50/dollar."

IIP for July and CPI for august will be released today. A CNBC-TV18 poll sees IIP falling to 1.7 percent month on month primarily due to weak core sector data and base effect. CPI on the other hand is likely to soften to 7.7 percent mainly on account of food inflation. Core inflation will be key and could surprise with market expectation anywhere between 6.9 percent to 7.3 percent.

In the US, stocks cut losses to close mixed as geopolitical tensions lingered ahead of consumer data. Boosted by low oil prices, transports also gained and helped stocks turn positive.

In commodities, crude prices rebounded from multi-month lows as global tensions and profit-taking momentarily outweighed fears about ample supply. Separately IEA expects global oil demand to grow by 0.9 million barrels a day in 2014. That's a drop of 65,000 barrels per day, compared with last month's forecast.

From precious metals space, gold logged its fourth straight daily loss yesterday, weighed by increasing speculation that the US Federal Reserve could soon raise rates sooner than expected. It was trading around USD 1240 an ounce.