Nifty ends above 8700, Sensex up 191 points; Coal India up 6%

The market maintained its northward journey for the fourth consecutive session on Wednesday with the Nifty conquering 8700 level. The broader markets also moved in tandem with benchmarks. Positive global cues and banks passing on rate cuts to system boosted sentiment today.

The 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 191.16 points to 28707.75 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rallied 54.10 points to 8714.40 supported by technology, FMCG, Coal India and Reliance Industries.

Sanjay Dutt of Quantum Securities feels the risk reward is now favorable for long term investors. He is positive on banks, NBFCs and midcap capital goods.

Asian markets too were strong today as Hang Seng sky rocketed to a 961-point gain, up 3.8 percent at a seven-year high while Shanghai topped 4000 for the first time ever, after Bank of Japan kept its massive monetary stimulus plan intact.

Back home, banks and realty stocks remained in focus today. Leading banks like SBI, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank cut lending rates by 15-25 basis points after the RBI nudged banks to lower rates as the central bank has already cut repo rate by 50 basis points in 2015. SBI and HDFC Bank were up 0.2-0.6 percent whereas ICICI Bank and Axis Bank fell 0.5-0.7 percent.

Real estate was one of the top performing sectors after the cabinet approved the Real Estate Development and Regulation Bill that paved the way for setting up a regulator for the sector. HDIL said the bill was a positive move which will increase transparency in the sector. Shares like Brigade Enterprises, HDIL, Indiabulls Real, Puravankara Projects, Sobha and Sunteck Realty rallied 2-8 percent.

Coal India was the biggest gainer on Sensex, up nearly 6 percent after the government removed the cap on e-auction sales volumes. Bipin K Saxena, Director-Marketing, CIL said the company was looking to sell more coal via the e-auction route, targeting 10 percent of total sales via e-auction route.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries was the biggest contributor to Sensex gains, up 4 percent. Royal Dutch Shell will buy the BG Group in a cash and stock deal worth a whopping USD 70 billion, the biggest deal in the oil & gas sector in a decade.

State-run oil marketing company BPCL surged 3 percent after UBS upgraded the stock to buy with increased target price of Rs 945. The brokerage said it ranked best amongst peers.

Drug maker Dr Reddy's Labs climbed 2 percent as the company and its subsidiary Promius Pharma filed three new drug applications with the US Food and Drug Administration. While reiterating overweight rating with a potential upside of 15 percent, Barclays believes these filings can translate into launches in this segment from FY17E onwards and revenue potential is likely to be USD 30-100 million for each filing with the entire segment likely to be worth USD 500 million over the next 4-5 years.

However, Sesa Sterlite was down 2 percent after S&P downgraded Vedanta's credit rating to BB- from BB with a negative outlook citing weak financial performance for atleast 12 more months because of low oil prices.

Among others, Infosys, TCS, ITC, Bharti Airtel, Cipla and GAIL gained 1-2.5 percent whereas HDFC, Hero Motocorp and ONGC fell 1-2 percent.

The BSE Midcap Index gained 0.7 percent and Smallcap jumped 1.8 percent. Advancing shares outnumbered declining ones by a ratio of 1758 to 1020 on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

In the broader space, Glenmark Pharma shot up nearly 5 percent after the cabinet committee on economic affairs approved hiking company's FII limit to 49 percent from 35.07 percent. Additionally the company's US arm's pricing investigation has been concluded which is not expected to materially impact the company's cashflow.

Rural Electrification Corporation gained 2.6 percent as its offer for sale got fully subscribed. The government is looking to rake up around Rs 1,550 crore via the offer for sale.

Midcaps like Ess Dee Aluminium, Kitex Garments, Bajaj Hindusthan, Prism Cement, Geometric, Amtek Auto, JK Tyre, HCL Infosystems, India Cements, IRB Infrastructure, Vakrangee and Crompton Greaves surged 4-20 percent.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister, Narendra Modi launched Mudra or the Micro Units Development & Refinance Agency today. The NBFC has a corpus of Rs 20,000 crore and credit guarantee corpus of Rs 3,000 crore. Modi expects traditional banking system to move towards MUDRA model in 1 year, saying it will provide the bottom up push needed to expand GDP.

India's aviation sector reclaimed its pride as the US regulator Federal Aviation Authority upgraded air safety rating, which was shot in the arm for Air India and Jet Airways which can now sign code-share agreements with US airlines.

03:30pm Market Closing: The market rallied for the fourth consecutive day on Wednesday led by Reliance Industries. The Sensex gained 191.16 points at 28707.75 and the Nifty rose 54.10 points to 8714.40.

About 1755 shares have advanced, 1020 shares declined, and 202 shares are unchanged on the BSE.

Coal India was the biggest gainer, up 6 percent followed by Reliance Industries with 3.5 percent gains. Infosys, TCS, ITC, Bharti Airtel, Dr Reddy's Labs, GAIL and Cipla gained 1-3 percent whereas HDFC, ONGC, Sesa Sterlite and Hero Motocorp fell 1-2 percent.

In the midcap space, Ess Dee Aluminium, Kitex Garments, Bajaj Hindusthan, Prism Cement, Geometric, Amtek Auto, JK Tyre, HCL Infosystems, India Cements, IRB Infrastructure, Vakrangee and Crompton Greaves surged 4-20 percent.

03:00pm Snapdeal acquisition: E-retailer Snapdeal.com today said it bought online mobile recharge firm Freecharge for an undisclosed amount in a bid to boost its reach in the fast-growing mobile transactions business.

Snapdeal, backed by SoftBank Corp, competes with Flipkart and Amazon.com Inc's India unit in the country's online shopping market, which is expected to be worth USD 102 billion by 2020, according to Morgan Stanley.

Easy availability of smartphones and cheap data plans have resulted in most of those transactions to be made via apps, where consumers use their mobile phones for everything from buying clothes to booking movie tickets.

Freecharge allows users to top up amounts on their mobile phone or internet connections and get coupons as reward for using its service.

Snapdeal Chief Executive Kunal Bahl said 1 million mobile transactions would take place daily once the companies are combined. About 75 percent of all Snapdeal transactions now are through mobile users, he said.

02:30pm Pharma cos in focus: The government has allowed pharmaceutical companies to hike rates of 509 essential medicines used for treating various ailments like diabetes, hepatitis and cancer by 3.84 percent with effect from April 1.

The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has issued a notification for price hike of drugs in line with the wholesale price index of 2014 under Drug Price Control Order, 2013.

"As confirmed by the economic adviser (Minister of Commerce and Industry), the annual increase in the wholesale price index (WPI) works out at 3.84 per cent during calender year 2014 over the corresponding period in 2013," NPPA said in a notification.

02:00pm Market Check
The market remained strong aided by technology, FMCG, capital goods, auto and select oil stocks. The Sensex jumped 195.60 points to 28712.19 and the Nifty advanced 49.45 points to 8709.75.

Coal India rallied 5 percent after the government removed the cap on e-auction sales volumes. Reliance Industries and TCS extended uptrend to 3.5 percent and 2.5 percent, respectively.

Dr Reddy's Labs gained 2 percent as the company and its subsidiaries filed 3 new drug applications with the US drug regulator FDA. ITC, Infosys, Bharti Airtel, Cipla, GAIL and BHEL advanced 1 percent each whereas HDFC, Axis Bank, ONGC and Hero Motocorp fell 1-2 percent. Sun Pharma, ICICI Bank and NTPC slipped over 0.5 percent.

Sesa Sterlite declined more than 2 percent after S&P downgraded Vedanta's credit rating to BB- from BB with a negative outlook citing weak financial performance for atleast 12 more months because of low oil prices.

The broader markets also maintained morning gains, up 0.8-1.7 percent. About 1707 shares have advanced, 955 shares declined, and 201 shares are unchanged on the BSE.
 
Meanwhile, the cabinet on Tuesday evening amended a bill to regulate the real estate sector, protect home buyers and curb undeclared "black money" in property markets that costs the exchequer billions of dollars in lost taxable income.

01:25pm FMC merger: Capital markets regulator Sebi expects the proposed merger of commodities regulator FMC with it to be completed in 6-12 months.

While Sebi is assessing all regulatory issues and requirements for financial, infrastructure and human resources to facilitate a "timely smooth transition", it wants the Budget allocation being provided by the government for FMC staff to continue for the next 3-4 years before the regulator can generate extra resources on its own to meet the costs. As such, Sebi does not get any grant from the government.

Announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in Budget for 2015-16, the merger will help streamline regulations and curb wild speculations in commodities market, while facilitating participation of domestic and foreign institutional investors and launch of new products such as options.

"The entire transition will take place over the next six months to one year," a senior official said, adding that the financial implications of the merger are still being assessed and have not been considered in Sebi's Budget estimates for the financial year 2015-16.

01:00pm Market Check
The market remained in a positive terrain in afternoon trade with the Sensex rising 193.78 points to 28710.37 and the Nifty climbing 54.55 points to 8714.85. The BSE Midcap gained 0.8 percent and Smallcap rallied 1.6 percent.

The market breadth also remained strong with the advance:decline ratio at 1653 to 857 on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries extended rally, up 3 percent followed by Infosys, TCS, ITC, Tata Motors, SBI, Dr Reddy's Labs, Cipla, Wipro and BHEL with 1-2 percent upside.

Coal India maintained its top position in the buying list, up 5 percent. The government removed the cap on e-auction sales volumes. Bipin K Saxena, Director-Marketing, CIL told CNBC-TV18 that the company is looking to sell more coal via the e-auction route, targeting 10 percent of total sales via e-auction route.

Real estate has been one of the top performing sectors today after the cabinet approved the real estate development and regulation bill which paved the way for setting up a regulator for the sector. HDIL said the bill was a positive move which will increase transparency in the sector. DB Realty, Brigade, Indiabulls Real, HDIL, Parsvnath, Sobha and Puravankara gained 2-6 percent.

However, HDFC and ONGC fell more than 1 percent followed by ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Sun Pharma and NTPC with marginal gains. Sesa Sterlite declined nearly 2 percent after S&P downgraded Vedanta's credit rating to BB- from BB with a negative outlook citing weak financial performance for atleast 12 more months because of low oil prices.

12:30pm Global merger: Royal Dutch Shell said it had agreed to buy BG Group for 47 billion pounds (USD 70 billion) in the first oil super-merger in a decade.

In a joint statement, the two firms said that as part of the recommended deal Shell would pay 383 pence in cash and 0.4454 Shell B shares for each BG share.

It said this represented a premium of around 52 percent to the 90 trading day average.

The deal will result in BG shareholders owning around 19 percent of the combined group.

12:00pm Market Check
The market extended gains in noon trade, supported by technology, auto, FMGC, select banks & oil stocks. Positive momentum in Asia too lent support to the market.

The Sensex climbed 178.66 points to 28695.25 and the Nifty jumped 52.60 points to 8712.90 while the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices gained 1-1.6 percent.

About 1630 shares have advanced, 752 shares declined, and 171 shares are unchanged on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Coal India continued to see buying interest, rising more than 5 percent. The government removed the cap on e-auction sales volumes. Bipin K Saxena, Director-Marketing, CIL told CNBC-TV18 that the company is looking to sell more coal via the e-auction route, targeting 10 percent of total sales via e-auction route.

Real estate has been one of the top performing sectors today after the cabinet approved the real estate development and regulation bill which paved the way for setting up a regulator for the sector. HDIL said the bill was a positive move which will increase transparency in the sector. DB Realty, Brigade, Indiabulls Real, HDIL, Parsvnath, Sobha and Puravankara gained 2-6 percent.

Glenmark Pharma rallied nearly 5 percent after the cabinet committee on economic affairs approved hiking company's FII limit to 49 percent from 35.07 percent. Additionally the company's US arm's pricing investigation has been concluded which is not expected to materially impact the company's cashflow.

REC recovered, up 3.5 percent as its offer for sale got fully subscribed. The indicative OFS price is seen at Rs 316 per share versus a floor price of Rs 315 per share. The government is looking to rake up around Rs 1,550 crore via the offer for sale today.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister, Narendra Modi launched Mudra or the Micro Units Development & Refinance Agency. The NBFC has a corpus of Rs 20,000 crore and credit guarantee corpus of Rs 3,000 crore. Modi expects traditional banking system to move towards MUDRA model in 1 year, saying it will provide the bottom up push needed to expand GDP.

11:25am REC in Focus: Rural Electrification Corporation gained more than 2 percent on account of its offer for sale today has been fully subscribed. The indicative OFS price is seen at Rs 316 per share versus a floor price of Rs 315 per share. The government is looking to rake up around Rs 1,550 crore via the offer for sale today.

11:00am Market Check
The market continued to hold northward journey amid consolidation with the Nifty hovering around 8700 level. The broader markets extended gains; the BSE Midcap gained 1 percent and Smallcap rallied 1.6 percent.

The Sensex climbed 133.24 points to 28649.83 and the Nifty rose 43.80 points to 8704.10. More than two shares advanced for every share declining on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Global markets also supported with the Nikkei trading at 15-year high after the Bank of Japan maintained its monetary policy. China and Hong Kong markets traded at a 7-year high.

Back home, banks remained in focus on account of the base rate cuts. After SBI, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank last evening, it was Axis Bank that announced a 20 basis points base rate cut to 9.95 percent effective April 13.

Coal India topped the buying list on Sensex, up 6 percent. The management told CNBC-TV18 that they are looking to sell 50-55 million tonnes via e-auction route in FY16, which is roughly 10 percent of total sales. Morgan Stanley said easing curbs on Coal India's e-auction sales was a positive development while Nomura said clearing ambiguity on any cap on e-auction sales volume was a positive.

BPCL surged more than 4 percent after UBS upgraded the stock to buy. It is the top pick and UBS said it ranked best amongst peers. UBS has raised the target price to Rs 945.

However, Sesa Sterlite fell 1.5 percent after S&P downgraded Vedanta's credit rating to BB- from BB with a negative outlook citing weak financial performance for atleast 12 more months because of low oil prices.

10:50am Interview: L&T Finance Holdings' cost of borrowings has reduced 30-40 basis points recently, N Sivaraman, President and Whole-Time Director of the company said in an interview to CNBC-TV18 today.

He said commercial vehicle loan growth was likely to be low in the near term even as there were some signs of recovery.

He expects margins in retail loans to improve and those in wholesale loans to be stable.

He said the company's overall margins have been improving by 15 basis every quarter.

10:25am Market Update: The market trimmed gains due to selling in ICICI Bank and HDFC. The Sensex rose 70.35 points to 28586.94 and the Nifty advanced 28.20 points to 8688.50.

About 1413 shares have advanced, 613 shares declined, and 148 shares are unchanged on the BSE.

10:20am BoJ maintains status quo: The Bank of Japan kept monetary policy steady today, suggesting that policymakers remain unfazed by slowing inflation and recent signs of weakness in the economy.

As widely expected, the BOJ left unchanged its pledge to increase base money, or cash and deposits at the central bank, at an annual pace of 80 trillion yen (USD 666 billion) through purchases of government bonds and risky assets.

Board member Takahide Kiuchi, who has expressed concerns that massive money printing could sow the seeds of a future bubble, called for the BOJ to cut back its asset buying.

He proposed reducing the base money target, and the annual pace of increase in the BOJ's government bond holdings, to 45 trillion yen. The proposal was rejected by a majority vote.

Investors will be watching whether Governor Haruhiko Kuroda, at his post-meeting news conference, will stick to his conviction of hitting his 2 percent inflation target two years into the stimulus programme.

10:00am Market Check
The market continued to see buying interest led by Reliance Industries. Technology, FMCG and banks also supported the market. The Sensex rose 142.33 points to 28658.92 and the Nifty advanced 47.30 points to 8707.60 while the broader markets have consistently been beating benchmarks.

The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices gained 0.8 percent and 1.5 percent, respectively. About 1392 shares have advanced, 504 shares declined, and 120 shares are unchanged on the BSE.

The risk reward is favourable for long-term investors, said Sanjay Dutt, Director at Quantum Securities, who believes second-rung companies would be big beneficiaries of the next move.

Speaking on the lending rate cuts taken by top three banks, Dutt said though the move is a definite positive but not much should be read into a 15-25 bps rate transmission.

Coal India topped the buying list on Sensex, up 3 percent followed by Reliance Industries with 2 percent rally. Infosys, TCS, Tata Motors, HDFC Bank, ITC, SBI and Bharti gained 0.7-1 percent. Maruti Suzuki rallied 1.7 percent.

However, ONGC and Sesa Sterlite lost nearly 2 percent. HDFC, Sun Pharma, M&M, NTPC and Tata Steel fell marginally.

09:40am FII View: Bharat Iyer, JP Morgan said the equity markets went into the event with limited expectations; consequently the disappointment was muted.

In terms of sector stance, he maintained the focus should remain on alpha, rather than beta. ''We would position for a potential recovery in the local economy through high quality financials with a strong capital & liability franchise & manufacturing sectors with low financial leverage & high operating leverage - commercial vehicles & cement are key picks here,'' he explained.

Separately he remained overweight IT services and healthcare, he said, adding the demand environment remains solid. He believes concerns on INR appreciation turning into a headwind are over done.

09:15am Market Check
The market extended upmove in opening trade today with the Nifty reclaiming 8700 level led by FMCG, IT and banks stocks. The Sensex rallied 122.87 points to 28639.46 and the Nifty climbed 38.65 points to 8698.95.

About 429 shares have advanced, 73 shares declined, and 92 shares are unchanged on the BSE.
 
Shares of Coal India, Tata Motors, Infosys, Tata Power, NTPC, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Sun Pharma topped the buying list on Sensex. However, Bharti Airtel declined.

The cabinet has cleared the decks to create a regulator for realty sector. The watchdog will address consumer grievances within 60 days. Penal provisions will be initiated against realtors who violate the rules.

Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan kept key policy rates unchanged yesterday and asked bankers to pass on previous rate cuts. Banks obliged with the ICICI Bank cutting rates by 25 basis points. SBI and HDFC Bank also eased rates by 15 basis points each.

Glenmark Pharma gained 3.5 percent on approval from CCEA to hike FII limit in company.

The Indian rupee opened lower by 7 paise at 62.32 per dollar today against previous day's closing value of 62.25.

NS Venkatesh of IDBI Bank said, "The rupee weakened as Reserve Bank of India (RBI) kept policy rates unchanged and its statement also raised concern over the future rate action. The forward premia rates traded with a softening bias."

He further added, "The dollar index has marginally strengthened, it is expected that the rupee will trade in a narrow range but with a depreciating bias in the range of 62.20-62.40/dollar today."

The dollar recovered all the ground it lost against the euro from Friday's jobs report. The dollar index holds above 97 levels. Citing the currency's strength, Bank Of America-Merrill Lynch cut its 2015 earnings estimates for the S&P 500 by USD 2 a share.

Among global markets, in the US, stocks closed mildly lower as investors eyed continued gains in oil and the dollar ahead of the unofficial start of earnings season on Wednesday.

In Europe, equities rallied to close higher, with fears over an impending interest rate hike in the US receding and investors cheering acquisition news. From the peripheral indices Irish and Italian indices ended with gains of more than 1 percent.

And Asia was positive in morning trade ahead of Bank of Japan's policy decision.

Among commodities, crude prices slipped after Saudi Arabia revved up crude production to its highest level on record in March.