Nifty ends at 8204, Sensex in red; auto, FMCG stocks fall most

3:30 pm Market closing: The market has ended with minor losses. The Sensex wass down 47.13 points or 0.2 percent at 26765.65, and the Nifty slipped 16.20 points or 0.2 percent at 8203.70. About 982 shares have advanced, 1600 shares declined, and 190 shares are unchanged.

Adani Ports, Dr Reddy's Labs, Lupin, Coal India and Wipro were top gainers while Tata Motors, GAIL, HUL, ITC and Infosys were losers in the Sensex. Auto and FMCG stocks fell most.

3:15 pm Drug recall: As many as 2,839 bottles of anti-bacterial medicine Nitrofurantoin Oral Suspension manufactured by Sun Pharmaceutical are being recalled in the US market on account of failed dissolution specifications.

The ongoing nationwide voluntary recall by Nostrum Laboratories Inc for Nitrofurantoin Oral Suspension, USP, 25 mg/5 mL is a class II recall, according to the latest enforcement report on USFDA site.

The 2,839 bottles were manufactured and distributed by Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Inc, it added.

2:59 pm Market Update: Equity benchmarks remained under pressure with the Sensex falling 55.25 points to 26757.53 and the Nifty down 20.20 points at 8199.70.

About 1559 shares declined against 948 advancing shares on BSE.

2:50 pm Textile boost: The Cabinet today approved incentives to boost job creation, manufacturing and exports in labour-intensive textile sector.

"Cabinet has approved concessions to boost manufacturing and exports in textile sector," official sources said.

Moreover, production incentives through Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (TUFS) linking capital subsidy will be introduced.

According to sources, the measures also include simplification of labour laws like introduction of fixed term employment and enhancing duty drawback to push textile and apparel exports.

Textiles exports for 2015-16 fiscal stood at USD 40 billion, falling way short of the USD 47.5 billion target, a senior Textiles Ministry official had earlier said.

2:00 pm Market Check
The market extended losses in afternoon trade on profit booking amid mixed global cues. FMCG, banks and Tata group stocks declined while pharma stocks gained.

The Sensex fell 111.47 points to 26701.31 and the Nifty slipped 36.80 points to 8183.10. The market breadth remained weak as about 1535 shares declined against 896 advancing shares on Bombay Stock Exchange.

European stocks traded mixed after an initial pop at the open today, as investors remain cautious a day ahead of the UK's referendum on European Union (EU) membership.

Oil prices rose in Asian trading, with US crude joining Brent above USD 50 a barrel after data from the American Petroleum Institute (API) showed a larger than expected draw on stocks.

US crude futures rose 0.94 percent to USD 50.32 a barrel and Brent crude futures were up 0.67 percent at USD 50.96 a barrel.

1:50 pm Market slips again: The Sensex is down 121.09 points or 0.4 percent at 26691.69, and the Nifty down 42.40 points or 0.5 percent at 8177.50. About 913 shares have advanced, 1508 shares declined, and 168 shares are unchanged.

Dr Reddy's, Adani Ports, Coal India, Lupin and Bharti are top gainers while Tata Motors, GAIL, Tata Steel, HUL and ITC were losers in the Sensex. Banks, auto, FMCG and metal lead the fall

1:30 pm Spectrum: The cabinet approved an auction of mobile phone airwaves.

Earlier this year India's telecoms ministry had proposed sale of airwaves in the 700 Mhz, 800 Mhz, 900 Mhz, 1800 Mhz, 2100 Mhz, 2300 Mhz and 2500 MHz bands.

India is the world's second largest mobile phone market by users after China, and a rapid expansion of high-speed 4G services is expected to create demand for additional airwaves.

The government is expected to announce details of the auction at a press conference later in the day, the official who did not want to be named, said.

The market is slipping away as the Nifty breached 8200 briefly. The Sensex is down 49.27 points or 0.2 percent at 26763.51 and the Nifty slips 19.30 points or 0.2 percent at 8200.60. About 1035 shares have advanced, 1312 shares declined, and 171 shares are unchanged.

Dr Reddy's Labs, Coal India, Adani Ports, Lupin and Bharti Airtel are gainers while Tata Motors, Tata Steel, GAIL, HUL and Infosys are losers in the Sensex.

Amid a weakening global trend gold futures traded Rs 66 down at Rs 30,230 per 10 gram today as speculators reduced their positions.

In a similar fashion, the metal for delivery in far-month October shed Rs 47 or 0.15 percent to Rs 30,498 per 10 gram in 34 lots.

Market analysts said the fall in gold futures was mostly in tune with a weak trend overseas where it held a two-day slump on speculation that Britain will probably vote to stay in the European Union in a referendum tomorrow, eroding demand for haven assets.

12:59 pm Market Update: The Sensex fell 46.11 points to 26766.67 and the Nifty declined 17.35 points to 8202.55.

About 1311 shares declined against 1026 advancing shares on BSE.

12:40 pm Europe opens: European stocks opened higher, a day ahead of the UK's referendum on European Union (EU) membership.

The pan-European STOXX 600 was up 0.41 percent.

European stocks closed mostly higher on Tuesday following polls that allayed fears of a Brexit, although a renewed decline in oil prices tempered gains. Broadly, opinion polls show that support for the remain and leave camps is neck-and-neck, making the result too close to call.

12:35 pm Interview: The third phase of batch two radio auctions is likely to be held around mid-September. The process started on June 20 inviting applications and a pre-bid conference is expected on July 11.

SL Narayanan, Group CEO of Sun TV , told CNBC-TV18 that the company will be bidding in the third phase. Most of the bids are for West India.

''We will have to look at potential for returns,'' Narayanan says. The company did not participate in second phase of auction as it was way past their risk-taking threshold.

''We have (been) building geographical reach,'' he says adding that the company is not interested in looking at locations where it already exists.

The company's revenue from its radio business is around Rs 400 crore and is profitable.

12:15 pm FII View: Sanjay Sinha of Citrus Advisors said the Brexit will have an impact. "The market hasn't priced in the risk of the Brexit referendum. The impact could be big in the short-term and bigger in the medium-term," he said.

In case the markets get the best possible news with Brits choosing to remain in the EU, he expects Nifty to hover around 8500 levels. He adds this may not happen immediately. In the long-term, he estimates Nifty to be around 9000 points. "The rally will be led by cyclicals, especially sectors like banking, auto and construction."

He says the bond market is not immune to global risks and as far as currency market is concerned uncertainty over the next RBI Chief and foreign currency non-resident deposits maturing soon will have have an impact.

12:00 pm Market Check
Equity benchmarks as well as broader markets remained choppy in noon trade as investors not only in India but also globally are cautious ahead of UK referendum that will be held on June 23.

The Sensex declined 1.88 points to 26810.90 and the Nifty fell 5.25 points to 8214.65. The market breadth turned negative as about 1195 shares declined against 1007 advancing shares on Bombay Stock Exchange.

Dr Reddy's Labs gained more than 2 percent. CLSA is betting big on the stock and sees it as a double bagger in three years. The brokerage firm expects the stock to re-rate as earnings growth recovers, niche products are introduced in the USA and FDA issues are resolved.

Tata Motors and Tata Motors (DVR) topped selling list on Nifty, down over 2 percent.

Escorts, Force Motors, Tata Metaliks, Vakrangee, Arvind, Tata Motors, SBI and Axis Bank were most active shares on exchanges.

11:55 am Textile policy: Cabinet along with the Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs has deferred its decision to announce a new textile policy to next week, reports CNBC-TV18, quoting official sources.

However, there could some minor announcements with respect to increasing employment for the sector.

Voicing their expectations from the policy, Ajay Shankar, Former Member, NMCC said the expectation from the policy would be a focus on transformation where the labour-intensive garment sector gets support to enhance its share in the overall exports, and for this transition to happen there should be enough policy instruments.

11:45 am Debut day: Shares of Max Ventures and Industries (MVIL), a part of the USD 2 billion Max Group, started off first trade below Rs 45 (the pre-opening price) and hit an intraday low of Rs 42.75, down 5 percent. Exchanges have fixed Rs 45 as its previous close.

However, immediately the stock rebounded 5 percent to Rs 47.25 on the National Stock Exchange. More than 24 lakh shares already traded on the exchange.

Exchanges have fixed 5 percent circuit limit (on both sides) for the stock.

Max Ventures (formerly known as Capricorn Ventures) is the holding company for Max Speciality Films, an innovation leader in the speciality packaging films business. The company has also recently incorporated a wholly owned subsidiary, Max Estates, which will undertake real estate development projects.

11:30 am Defaulters: Bank of Baroda has declared its list of wilful defaulters as of March 31 2016. It has tagged 186 borrowers in the list who owe the bank a total sum of Rs 1,663 crore.

The top 10 defaulters are not very common names. They owe the bank a total of Rs 712 crore. Pearl Vision is the biggest defaulter in the list owing Rs 104 crore to the bank.

BoB only added 9 wilful defaulters between September 2015 and March 2016. These new defaulters increased the total amount owed to the bank by Rs 470 crore. Publicly known wilful defaulters like Kingfisher Airlines, have not been tagged by them. Although, the bank is exposed to some of those companies.

11:15 am Big breaking: Reuters report says that the government is proposing to make six big PSU banks by merging 26 banks. Proposal moots SBI, PNB, Canara Bank, Union Bank, BoB, BoI to lead merger. Proposal seeks to merge Andhra Bank, Bank of Maharashtra, Vijaya Bank with Bank of India and merge Syndicate, IOB & UCO Bank with Canara Bank.

It is an absolutely flat market as investors seem to be cautious ahead of the crucial Brext vote. The Sensex is down 12.39 points at 26800.39, and the Nifty is down 7.25 points at 8212.65. About 983 shares have advanced, 1065 shares declined, and 132 shares are unchanged.

Dr Reddy's Labs, Adani Ports, HDFC Bank, TCS and ICICI Bank are top gainers while Tata Motors, Tata Steel, GAIL, HUL and NTPC are losers in the Sensex.

Gold hovered near its lowest in over a week on Wednesday as Asian stocks rose amid indications that Britain would vote to remain in the European Union.
Bullion fell nearly 2 percent on Tuesday in its biggest one-day loss in a month, touching its weakest since June 10 at USD 1,264.10 an ounce. That came after two opinion polls on Monday suggested it was increasingly likely Britain would choose to stay in the EU.

A vote on June 23 by Britain to leave the 28-member EU, dubbed "Brexit," could tip Europe back into recession, putting more pressure on the global economy, thereby increasing the safe-haven appeal of bullion.

10:45 am Interview:  Max Ventures and Industries has announced an open offer of 1.84 crore shares, and in an interview to CNBC-TV18, Sahil Vachani, the managing director of the company said that if successful, the promoters stake will increase to 75 percent.

It reported a revenue of Rs 700 crore in FY16 and is looking forward to grow its packaging films - traditional manufacturing business - vertical in the next 2-3 years.

"We aim to grow our packaging business from 45,000 tonnes per annum to 75,000 tonnes per annum by 2018 via capex of around Rs 250 crore using both debt and internal accruals," he added. 

Other verticals of the company's business are: real estate, education and investment.

The company's long-term debt is Rs 181 crore and short-term debt is Rs 79 crore in the packaging films business and there are plans to raise further capital through both debt and equity in due course of time.

10:30 am Gold Update: Gold hovered near its lowest in over a week as Asian stocks rose amid indications that Britain would vote to remain in the European Union.

Bullion fell nearly 2 percent on Tuesday in its biggest one-day loss in a month, touching its weakest since June 10 at USD 1,264.10 an ounce. That came after two opinion polls on Monday suggested it was increasingly likely Britain would choose to stay in the EU.

A vote on June 23 by Britain to leave the 28-member EU, dubbed "Brexit," could tip Europe back into recession, putting more pressure on the global economy, thereby increasing the safe-haven appeal of bullion.

Spot gold was nearly flat at USD 1,268.49 an ounce. US gold was down 0.1 percent at USD 1,271.40 an ounce.

10:15 am FII View: Bharat Iyer of JP Morgan says base case target for December 2016 for the Nifty remains at 8,600.

He says he expects Indian equities to deliver returns of 12-14 percent over the next twelve months, adding valuations at 17x forward earnings are higher than the average seen over the last decade.

"But we do not see these as a headwind at this stage as most asset classes globally are trading at a premium to long-term averages given easy liquidity and we believe we are in the early stages of an earnings recovery cycle," says Bharat Iyer.

10:00 am Market Check
The market continued to consolidate ahead of major event - Britain's referendum that will decide whether UK should remain in European Union or leave.

The 30-share BSE Sensex rose 44.83 points to 26857.61 and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 9.20 points at 8229.10. The broader markets outperformed marginally as the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices were up 0.3 percent each.

The market breadth was positive as about 1087 shares advanced against 604 declining shares on Bombay Stock Exchange.

Max Ventures and Industries, the part of Max Group, started off first trade below Rs 45 (the pre-opening price) but immediately rebounded 5 percent at Rs 47.25 on the National Stock Exchange.

9:55 am FII view: Bharat Iyer of JP Morgan says base case target for December 2016 for the Nifty remains at 8,600.

He says he expects Indian equities to deliver returns of 12-14 percent over the next twelve months, adding valuations at 17x forward earnings are higher than the average seen over the last decade.

"But we do not see these as a headwind at this stage as most asset classes globally are trading at a premium to long-term averages given easy liquidity and we believe we are in the early stages of an earnings recovery cycle," says Bharat Iyer.

9:45 am Interview: PVR management is relieved that Competition Commission of India (CCI) has given its nod to the company's acquisition of DT Cinemas as similar ethos and qualities of the two companies will provide great synergy going forward, said Sanjeev Kumar Bijli, Joint MD of the multiplex company.

Speaking to CNBC-TV18, company CMD Ajay Bijli said the DT acquisition will further boost PVR's revenues by Rs 200 crore and will add 60-70 new screens this year. With this deal, the company will add an EBITDA of Rs 40-50 crore, said Bijli brothers in unison.

While almost 80 percent of the company's portfolio is under matured properties, some properties opened last year will mature and strengthen books going ahead, Ajay said.

9:30 am Brexit woes: Jaguar Land Rover, Britain's biggest carmaker, estimates its annual profit could be cut by 1 billion pounds (USD 1.47 billion) by the end of the decade if Britain leaves the European Union, according to two sources familiar with the company's thinking.

The worst-case-scenario estimate is in internal documents seen by both sources that were prepared by the firm's chief economist, David Rea, to outline the possible consequences if Britons vote to leave the world's biggest trading bloc in Thursday's referendum.

It gives an insight into the level of concern at a major company about the uncertainties of a future outside the EU.

The market has opened flat ahead of crucial Brexit vote. The Sensex is down 0.55 points at 26812.23, and the Nifty is down 2.05 points  at 8217.85. About 486 shares have advanced, 203 shares declined, and 36 shares are unchanged.

Dr Reddy's Labs, BHEL, Sun Pharma, Hero MotoCorp and ICICI Bank are top gainers while HUL, ITC, Maruti, HDFC and Tata Motors are losers in the Sensex.

The Indian rupee declined in the early trade on Wednesday. It has opened lower by 10 paise at 67.59 per dollar against previous close of 67.49.

The dollar edged after news that a new poll on Britain's referendum on european union membership showed growing support for the leave camp, pushing down the euro and sterling. Meanwhile the euro dropped the most in a week after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi reiterated his willingness to act to bolster inflation.

Pramit Brahmbhatt of Veracity said, "The rupee is expected to trade sideways in a range of 67.20-67.80/dollar considering mixed cues from global equity markets, the dollar index and nervousness ahead of the EU referendum."

A mega cabinet meet is set to consider the new textile policy and the upcoming spectrum auction today. The new textile policy is aimed at increasing production and productivity of textile sector, generating more employment, bringing down the cost of production, penetrating into newer markets, introducing more value added products and also focusing both on exports and domestic markets.

Globally, Asia markets traded mixed, after US stocks eked out gains Tuesday amid a drop in oil prices, and as investors counted down to the upcoming British vote to decide whether to remain in the European Union.

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said that a cautious approach to monetary policy remains appropriate and while the pace of improvement in the labour market has slowed, it's important not to overreact to one or two labour reports.

US stocks closed mildly higher, amid declines in oil prices.