Nifty ends at 7850, Sensex spikes 481 points; M&M gains 7%

3:30 pm Market closing: The Nifty has ended at highest level since January. The 50-share index was up 141.50 points or 1.8 percent at 7850.45. The Sensex closed up 481.16 points or 1.9 percent at 25626.75. About 1557 shares advanced, 1119 shares declined, and 152 shares were unchanged.

M&M, ICICI Bank, Maruti, BHEL and Bajaj Auto were top gainers while Infosys and Adani Ports were losers in the Sensex.

2:58 pm Kotak on Wipro's buyback: The buyback announcement by Wipro, feels Kawaljeet Saluja, executive director & head of research at Kotak Institutional Equities, is basically a tax-efficient cash-distribution approach adopted by the company, given the high tax incidence on dividend distribution. 

In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Saluja agrees tightening of execution under the new chief executive at Wipro and opportunities to capture low hanging fruits in terms of business are positives which might aid growth in FY17.  However, sustainable growth and convergence of growth rate with the industry will take time, he says citing reason for a reduced rating on the stock.

2:45 pm India's fuel demand: India's fuel demand surged to its highest level in at least 15 years in the fiscal year ended March, driven by growing appetite for gasoline-guzzling vehicles and a boost in mining and manufacturing activity.

Fuel consumption, a proxy for oil demand, rose 10.9 percent to 183.5 million tonnes between April 2015 and March 2016, data from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) of the oil ministry showed.

Consumption of gasoline or petrol rose 14.5 percent to 21.8 million tonnes, its highest level in at least 15 years as Indian passenger vehicle sales grew at their fastest pace in five years in the last fiscal.

Demand for gasoil, or diesel, grew at its fastest pace in four years, rising 7.5 percent to 74.6 million tonnes.

2:35 pm Market Update: The Sensex extended rally in last hour of trade, rising 481.68 points or 1.92 percent to 25627.27. The Nifty climbed above 7850 level, up 144.55 points or 1.88 percent at 7853.50.

About 1647 shares advanced against 948 declining shares on BSE.

2:20 pm Adani's fresh hurdle in Australia: Indian mining giant Adani's 21.7 billion dollar coal mine project in Australia today faced a fresh legal hurdle after traditional owners of Queensland's Galilee Basin challenged the leases granted to the controversy-hit project.

Wangan and Jagalingou (W&J) representative group said it has filed an interlocutory application in the Federal Court of Australia challenging the leases.

The application would argue that the mining leases, announced by Queensland state's mines minister Anthony Lynham this month, were not properly issued.

"The Queensland government issued the mine leases in the absence of the consent of the W&J people to Carmichael mine, and in the face of their three-time rejection of an Indigenous Land Use Agreement with Adani," a statement said.

The W&J representative group also released a letter dated October 15th last year, in which Lynham said he would consider the lease applications after all legislative requirements were satisfactorily explored.

2:00 pm Market Check
Equity benchmarks maintained strong uptrend with the Sensex rising 437.26 points or 1.74 percent to 25582.85 and the Nifty climbing 128.90 points or 1.67 percent to 7837.85. The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices gained 1 percent each.

The market breadth remained positive as about 1647 shares advanced against 935 declining shares on Bombay Stock Exchange.

European stocks traded sharply higher today, tracking gains in the US and Asia, buoyed by higher oil prices and better-than-expected China export data. France's CAC, Germany's DAX and Britain's FTSE advanced 1-2 percent.

1:30 pm Interview: For Zuari Agro Chemicals , a good monsoon will prove to be a god-send, says Kapil Mehan, MD & Group CEO. Mehan is not talking about Zuari alone. Rains, he said, will bring more business to the agri input and pesticides companies as well, he says. He is hopeful of two things: one, demand for fertilisers, which is the company's key product, will grow by 10-15 percent, thanks to rains; two, the company's inventory, which has remained piled up from last year owing to a fall in demand, will find a market now. The company's topline and working capital will most definitely stand to gain from the rains, says Mehan.

The market is riding high on good monsoon hopes and a firm macro data. The Sensex is up 427.93 points or 1.7 percent at 25573.52, and the Nifty is up 130.25 points or 1.7 percent at 7839.20. About 1693 shares have advanced, 777 shares declined, and 116 shares are unchanged.

M&M, Hindalco, ICICI Bank, Tata Motors and Maruti are top gainers while Infosys and GAIL are losers in the Sensex.

Gold prices were down by Rs 126 to Rs 29,387 per 10 grams in futures trade today as participants cut down their holdings amid a weak trend overseas.

Analysts said there is a weakening trend in the overseas markets, weighed on the precious metal prices at futures trade here. Besides, profit-booking at the prevailing levels too attributed fall in the precious metal prices, they said.

12:59 pm Market Update: The Sensex rose 415.85 points or 1.65 percent to 25561.44 and the Nifty rallied 126.95 points or 1.65 percent to 7835.90.

About 1703 shares advanced against 764 declining shares on Bombay Stock Exchange.

12:45 pm Buzzing: Shares of Kaveri Seed today jumped by around 7 percent after the company announced that it has opened a new plant in Telangana.

Kaveri Seed Company yesterday announced that it has opened a new plant at Karimnagar District of Telangana with an investment of over Rs 21 crore.

The plant, which is scheduled to commence operations in the first week of May, spread across 14 acres has an installed capacity of 10 to 20 tonnes (Paddy/Maize) of production per hour based on the crop, the firm said in a BSE filing.

The plant will enhance the existing capacity of seed process to meet the growing demand from the markets, company's Managing Director G V Bhaskar Rao said.

12:30 pm Tata Steel in focus: India's Tata Steel and Germany's Thyssenkrupp are holding high-level talks on the possibility of combining their European steel operations in a joint venture, but are also looking at other options, German daily Rheinische Post said today.

The newspaper said that under the model currently being discussed Tata and Thyssenkrupp would each shares in the joint venture proportional to the values of the businesses they were contributing.

It also said that Tata was very interested in Thyssenkrupp's Brazilian CSA steel plant.

Officials at both Thyssenkrupp and Tata Steel declined to comment on the report.

12:15 pm FII View: Although markets are currently in an upswing, Tushar Pradhan, CIO of HSBC Global Asset Management, offers a corrective.

The earnings season, which will kick off with bellwether Infosys announcing results this Friday, will play a key role in how markets respond, he says.

And, let's also not forget the monsoon, he warns. Despite the meteorological (MET) department's above-normal forecast for the south-west monsoon, it is too early to be carried away, he says.

A gloomy-sounding Pradhan goes on to add that the March earnings won't be as exciting as the markets make them out to be. He hedges by saying earnings, however weak they may be, won't dampen the enthusiasm.

12:00 pm Market Check
Equity benchmarks continued to hold morning gains, aided by broadbased buying post monsoon expectations and CPI & industrial output data. The broader markets gained more than 1 percent.

The 30-share BSE Sensex surged 411.78 points or 1.64 percent to 25557.37 and the 50-share NSE Nifty climbed 121 points or 1.57 percent to 7829.95. More than two shares advanced for every share declining on Bombay Stock Exchange.

Mahesh Nandurkar of CLSA says a forecast of above normal monsoon by the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) and the private forecaster Skymet augurs well for the agri GDP and overall growth outlook for FY17.

According to him, the rural economy should receive a welcome boost as a result and can potentially drive a 0.5-1 percent GDP impact, though a lot will depend on the spatial and temporal distribution of rainfall.

ICICI Bank, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Motors and Hindalco Industries topped buying list on Sensex, up 4-6 percent followed by HDFC, ITC, HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries and SBI while GAIL was the only loser, down nearly a percent.

11:55 am Exclusive: Promoters of eClerx, an industry-focused specialist managing and improving complex data-driven processes, are exploring options to sell part or complete stake in the company, reports CNBC-TV18 quoting scources.

At present, the promoters hold little over 50 percent stake and over the last six months larger Indian and Japanese information technology (IT) companies have shown renewed interest in the stake sale.

Sources have also said that some private equity firms and hedge funds have also approached the company for taking in parts stake below 10 percent.

11:30 am Moody's on oil: Lower remittances from Gulf nations, which have been hit hard by the slump in oil prices, will cut the benefits of cheaper oil imports for several Asia Pacific countries including India, Moody's Investors Service said today.

"Generally, weaker remittances will immediately impact the recipient countries' credit profiles via their balance of payment positions. A prolonged fall would also hurt economic growth, given the importance of remittances to household incomes," it said in a report.

Moody's in a report titled 'Sovereigns -- Asia Pacific: Falling Remittances from the Gulf Dampen Benefits of Lower Oil Prices' analyzes the potential credit implications of weaker remittances from their citizens working abroad for six Asian countries -- Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.

The market is surging ahead on monsoon cheers and strong macro data. The Sensex is up 421.33 points or 1.7 percent at 25566.92, and the Nifty is up 126.45 points or 1.6 percent at 7835.40. About 1634 shares have advanced, 539 shares declined, and 111 shares are unchanged.

M&M, ICICI Bank, Hindalco, Bharti Airtel and Wipro are top gainers.

Oil futures fell in early Asian trade as profit-taking and concern over a larger-than-expected build in US crude stocks outweighed a report that Russia and Saudi Arabia had reached consensus on an oil output cap. A firmer US dollar also pressured oil prices. A stronger greenback makes dollar-denominated commodities more expensive for holders of other currencies.

Investors are also concerned oil production could rise as prices move even higher curtailing moves by oil producers, including Russia and Saudi Arabia, for an oil output cap.

10:45 am CLSA on BHEL: CLSA retained outperform rating on the stock as the ABB-BHEL consortium has emerged as the lowest bidder for the Rs 6,000 crore order for PWGR's biggest HVDC line, the Raigarh-Pugalur transmission line.

"This will be the biggest T&D order in India for both players. The 1,840km long link will operate at 800kV and have a converter capacity of 6GW. BHEL is likely to get a more value added share of around 25 percent (Rs 1,500 crore) of the total order and ABB shall have the balance. This order crystallises around 24 percent of BHEL's industrial orders for FY17 and helps it to diversify its revenue mix in the higher-end power T&D segment," the brokerage explained.

10:30 am Interview: For Zuari Agro Chemicals , a good monsoon will prove to be a god-send, says Kapil Mehan, MD & Group CEO.

Mehan is not talking about Zuari alone. Rains, he said, will bring more business to the agri input and pesticides companies as well, he says.

He is hopeful of two things: one, demand for fertilisers, which is the company's key product, will grow by 10-15 percent, thanks to rains; two, the company's inventory, which has remained piled up from last year owing to a fall in demand, will find a market now.

The company's topline and working capital will most definitely stand to gain from the rains, says Mehan.

10:15 am Buzzing: Wipro shares gained more than 4 percent intraday ahead of board meeting for discussion of buyback proposal next week.

"Board of directors will consider a proposal for buyback of equity shares of the company on April 20," the IT major said in its filing.

Analysts expect the buyback of shares to be around 2.5 percent of total paid-up equity.

As of March 31, 2015, Wipro had shareholders equity of Rs 37,092 crore and cash on books of Rs 16,619 crore. Its current market capitalisation is more than Rs 1.4 lakh crore.

On April 20, the company will also announce its audited standalone financial results under Indian GAAP and consolidated financial results under IFRS for the fourth quarter and the year ending March 31, 2016.

10:00 am Market Check
The market extended rally in morning with the Sensex climbing 400 points and the Nifty eyeing 7850 level. All sectoral indices continued to be positive, tracking good monsoon forecast, better-than-expected CPI & IIP data and positive global cues.

The 30-share BSE Sensex rallied 398.43 points or 1.58 percent to 25544.02. The 50-share NSE Nifty rose 121.45 points or 1.58 percent to 7830.40 that recovered 1000 points from February low of 6825.

The broader markets also participated in rally with the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices rising more than 1 percent. About four shares advanced for every share declining on Bombay Stock Exchange.

ICICI Bank and Mahindra & Mahindra were top contributors to Sensex's rally, up 4-5 percent followed by HDFC, ITC, HDFC Bank, Tata Motors, L&T, SBI, Wipro, Bharti and Maruti Suzuki with 1-3.6 percent.

9:54 am Monsoon cheers: Mahesh Nandurkar of CLSA says a forecast of above normal monsoon by the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) and the private forecaster Skymet augurs well for the agri GDP and overall growth outlook for FY17.

IMD's accuracy has improved over the last several years and forecasts are credible, he feels.

According to him, the rural economy should receive a welcome boost as a result and can potentially drive a 0.5-1 percent GDP impact, though a lot will depend on the spatial and temporal distribution of rainfall.

9:35 am Buzzing: Shilpa Medicare shares rallied more than 15 percent ion getting good manufacturing practice (GMP) certificate for two units from the Japanese health regulator.

"Shilpa received GMP compliance certificate for two active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) sites from Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency, Japan," the Karnataka based pharma company said.

Both units are in Raichur district of Karnataka. "Unit-1 is in Deosugur Industrial Area and unit-2 in Raichur Industrial growth Centre, Chicksugur," it said. Shilpa Medicare has eight manufacturing facilities, out of which seven are located in India. It has a subsidiary called Loba Feinchemieie GmbH in Vienna (Austria).

9:20 am Market eyes the sky: The Nifty  has hit 7800 briefly. The 50-share index is up 87.95 points or 1.1 percent at 7796.90. The Sensex is up 311.03 points or 1.2 percent at 25456.62, and the Nifty up 87.95 points or 1.1 percent at 7796.90. About 1067 shares have advanced, 155 shares declined, and 27 shares are unchanged.

The market has opened on strong note building hopes of a good monsoon predicted by the weather department. The Sensex is up 301.24 points or 1.2 percent at 25446.83, and the Nifty up 82.80 points or 1 percent at 7791.75. About 701 shares have advanced, 81 shares declined, and 22 shares are unchanged.

ICICI Bank, Wipro, Hindalco, ONGC and SBI are top gainers.

The Indian rupee gained in the early trade. It has opened higher by 8 paise at 66.35 per dollar versus 66.43 Tuesday.

The dollar rebounded from a more than seven-month low against a basket of currencies led by gains versus the safe-haven yen. Gains in oil also drove a rally in commodity-linked currencies such as the Australian and Canadian dollars.

Asia markets traded higher, after a rise in oil prices powered gains in US equities overnight. The US market also ended higher following a surge in energy stocks. The Dow Jones closed up in triple digits.