Nifty ends below 7900, Sensex up 120 points; oil stocks support

3:30 pm Market closing: The market has ended with hefty gains supported by oil, auto and infra stocks. The Sensex ended up 120.38 points or 0.5 percent at 25773.61, and the Nifty closed up 30 points or 0.4 percent at 7890.75. About 1300 shares have advanced, 1306 shares declined, and 177 shares are unchanged.

ONGC, Axis Bank, HDFC, Asian Paints and M&M were top gainers while NTPC, Adani Ports, Reliance, HUL and Tata Motors.

2:55 pm Market Update: Equity benchmarks remained higher. The Sensex rose 169.34 points to 25822.57 and the Nifty advanced 45.25 points to 7906.

ONGC (3.8 percent), Axis Bank (3.4 percent), HDFC (2.9 percent) and GAIL (1.9 percent) were the top gainers in Nifty. Among the losers were Tata Motors (-0.4 percent), Reliance (-0.3 percent), Bharti Airtel (-0.3 percent) and SBI (-0.1 percent).

European shares were trading firm with UK's FTSE up 37 points at 6189, France's CAC up 18 points at 4330, and Germany's DAX up 8 points at 9961.    

2:40 pm Earnings: Bharat Forge's fourth quarter profit declined 19 percent to Rs 164.52 crore in quarter ended March 2016 compared to Rs 203.2 crore in year-ago period, impacted by weakness in North America's business.

Revenue slipped 17.6 percent to Rs 1,008 crore in January-March quarter compared to Rs 1,223.9 crore in corresponding period of last fiscal, hit by export business (that declined 28.7 percent). America's business plunged 41.8 percent in same period.

Operating profit dropped 17.1 percent year-on-year to Rs 298 crore but margin expanded by 20 basis points to 29.6 percent during the quarter due to focus on productivity improvement and lower raw material cost (down 20 percent), manufacturing cost (down 15 percent) & other expenses (down 12 percent).

2:20 pm Market Expert: Vibhav Kapoor, Director, IL&FS, believes the market currently is over-bought and fairly valued. It needs to consolidate for some time, he said, adding that if the monsoons are as good as promised then reaching Nifty levels of 8700-9000 by March, 2017 is possible.

The markets will consolidate in the near-term till the British referendum decision which is slated for June 23. After that, the markets would show a path forward.

Kapoor agrees with most experts that the market is expensive and so one should not chase it at these levels. Buying on dips would be a right strategy for those bullish on the medium-term, he said.

2:00 pm Market Check
Equity benchmarks remained strong in afternoon trade, supported partly by European cues. The Sensex rallied 237.25 points to 25890.48 and the Nifty climbed 68.30 points to 7929.05. The broader markets gained half a percent.

HDFC, Axis Bank and ONGC were top contributors to Sensex's gains, up 3-4 percent followed by TCS, ICICI Bank, L&T and ITC while HUL and NTPC fell 1.5-2 percent.

European stocks traded higher pulled up by the miners amid a rally in oil prices and as sentiment was given a boost by Warren Buffett's investment in Apple. France's CAC, Germany's DAX and Britain's FTSE gained 1 percent each.

Oil futures rose for a second straight session today, with US crude hitting a six-month high, as the market focused on supply disruptions that prompted long-time bear Goldman Sachs to issue a bullish assessment on near-term prices.

Oil prices have rallied for most of the past two weeks due to a combination of Nigerian, Venezuelan and other outages, declining US output and virtually frozen inflows of Canadian crude after fires in Alberta's oil sands region. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures were up 0.7 percent at USD 48.07 a barrel.

1:55 pm Exclusive: Tata Steel has met with all the seven bidders looking to buy its bleeding UK assets, reports CNBC-TV18's Kritika Saxena, quoting sources. It is further learnt that out of these seven, three bidders will be shortlisted before the first week of June. All bidders have been individually assured that they won't be taking on the pending liability burden of Tata Steel's UK assets. The bidders will be meeting the UK government this week.

1:30 pm Interview: The country's largest mortgage lender HDFC is not worried about low on-balance sheet loan growth as higher loans sold is helping the lender get higher returns on equity, said Keki Mistry, Vice Chairman & CEO of the company. In an exclusive chat with CNBC-TV18's Ritu Singh, Mistry said the company is earning a weighted average return of 1.2 percent on Rs 32,000 crore of loans sold. HDFC has seen a sharp growth of Rs 4000 crore in the non-individual segment in the last quarter, he said, adding, he expects it to continue once the investment cycle picks up and rural demand increases. Mistry is confident of growth this business in the medium to long term.

The market is still surging ahead as the the Sensex is up 222.24 points or 0.9 percent at 25875.47. The Nifty is up 64.65 points or 0.8 percent at 7925.40. About 1373 shares have advanced, 1056 shares declined, and 165 shares are unchanged.

ONGC, HDFC, Axis Bank, M&M and Maruti Suzuki are top gainers while NTPC, HUL, Adani Ports, Bharti Airtel and SBI are major losers in the Sensex.

Brent crude pushed towards USD 50 a barrel, boosted by supply disruptions from the escalating Canadian wildfires and armed attacks against oil facilities in Nigeria.

Wildfires burning around the oil sands hub of Fort McMurray in Alberta, Canada, have been rapidly moving north, forcing firefighters to shift their efforts to protecting existing oil facilities.

In Nigeria, Africa's biggest crude producer, troops have made several arrests following the attacks on an offshore oil facility as the government yesterday moved to avert a labour strike over petrol prices.

12:57 pm Market Update: The Sensex rose 223.63 points or 0.87 percent to 25876.86 and the Nifty jumped 65.85 points or 0.84 percent to 7926.60. About 1374 shares advanced against 978 declining shares on BSE.

ONGC (4.3 percent), Axis Bank (3.1 percent), HDFC (3.1 percent) and M&M (2.3 percent) were the top gainers in Nifty. Among the losers were NTPC (-1.7 percent), HUL (-1.4 percent), Adani Ports (-0.8 percent) and Bharti Airtel (-0.4 percent).

In sectoral performance as reflected by the respective indices, oil & gas (1.7 percent), capital goods (1.4 percent), auto (1.1 percent) and consumer durables (0.8 percent) gained, while power (-0.3 percent) were under pressure.

12:40 pm Buzzing: Shares of Piramal Enterprises today surged 9 percent, buoyed by the company reporting a 89 percent jump in net profit in March quarter.

Yesterday, Piramal Enterprises reported a 89 percent jump in net profit at Rs 180 crore for the March quarter compared with Rs 95 crore in the same period last year, following strong revenue growth across businesses.

The company reported a 34 percent increase in revenue at Rs 1,734 crore during the March quarter as against Rs 1,298 crore during the corresponding period last year.

The revenue for 2015-16 fiscal were Rs 6,610 crore, up 29 percent, from 2014-15. Its net profit, however, declined sharply by 67 percent at Rs 951 crore for 2015-16 fiscal as against Rs 2,850 crore in the previous year.

12:20 pm FII View: HSBC has changed its rating on India from underweight to neutral as hype around the reforms process has subsided; and premium to the region has declined and India is only 10 percent above its historic premium, said Devendra Joshi of HSBC, one of the largest banking and financial services organisations.

He expects the BSE Sensex to touch 26,000 levels in December 2016, which is only about half-a-percent over the current levels.

12:00 pm Market Check
The market climbed further in noon trade with the Sensex rising more than 200 points, supported by HDFC (up 3.2 percent), Axis Bank (3.3 percent) and L&T (up 2 percent).

The 30-share BSE Sensex rallied 214.76 points to 25867.99 and the 50-share NSE Nifty jumped 63.20 points to 7923.95. The BSE Midcap index rose 0.7 percent and Smallcap advanced 0.4 percent due to positive market breadth. About 1307 shares advanced against 931 declining shares on Bombay Stock Exchange.

Motherson Sumi Systems rallied 7 percent after the company reported quarterly revenue of more than Rs 10,000 crore for the first time in history. Profit and operating profit beat analysts' expectations, rising 21.6 percent and 13 percent YoY, respectively.

HUL and NTPC lost over a percent. SBI and Adani Ports declined 0.7 percent each.

11:50 pm FII view: HSBC has changed its rating on India from underweight to neutral as hype around the reforms process has subsided; and premium to the region has declined and India is only 10 percent above its historic premium, said Devendra Joshi of HSBC, one of the largest banking and financial services organisations.

He expects the BSE Sensex to touch 26,000 levels in December 2016, which is only about half-a-percent over the current levels.

He believes that higher salary for public sector employees and expectation of a good monsoon have played a major role in changing India's rating. 

Joshi is overweight on IT stocks, consumer sector and industrial space.

11:30 am Market outlook: Vibhav Kapoor, Director, IL&FS, believes the market currently is over-bought and fairly valued. It needs to consolidate for some time, he said, adding that if the monsoons are as good as promised then reaching Nifty levels of 8700-9000 by March, 2017 is possible. The markets will consolidate in the near-term till the British referendum decision which is slated for June 23. After that, the markets would show a path forward. Kapoor agrees with most experts that the market is expensive and so one should not chase it at these levels. Buying on dips would be a right strategy for those bullish on the medium-term, he said.

The market is still holding its gains with the Nifty above 7900. The Sensex Sensex is up 158.50 points or 0.6 percent at 25811.73, and the Nifty is up 47.95 points or 0.6 percent at 7908.70. About 1230 shares have advanced, 784 shares declined, and 118 shares are unchanged.

ONGC, Axis Bank, GAIL, HDFC and L&T were top gainers in the Sensex while NTPC, HUL, Bharti, Adani Ports and SBI are major losers in the Sensex.

Shares of Sun TV Network surged 10 percent as most exit polls have predicted that the DMK-Congress alliance may win the state elections in Tamil Nadu. Chennai-based Sun TV owned by Kalanithi Maran (grandnephew of DMK President M Karunanidhi) is seen gaining high revenue growth when DMK is in power.

A rally in US crude oil prices recently has put the market on its firmest footing since the rout started in 2014, with the spread between prices for near-term delivery and future delivery narrowing, suggesting the worst of the supply glut may be over.

Oil prices in global markets have been lifted in the past week by news of falling US production and output disruptions in Canada and Nigeria.

10:57 am Market Update: Benchmark indices were little changed over the last half an hour of trade. The Sensex rose 151.73 points to 25804.96 and the Nifty advanced 45.90 points to 7906.65. About 1224 shares advanced against 765 declining shares on BSE.

ONGC (3.0 percent), Axis Bank (2.6 percent), GAIL (2.2 percent) and Hero Motocorp (1.7 percent) were the top gainers in Nifty. Among the losers were Tata Motors (-0.6 percent), Bajaj Auto (-0.4 percent), Adani Ports (-0.4 percent) and Bharti Airtel (-0.1 percent).

Key Asian markets were trading firm. Singapore's Straits Times led gainers, trading 35 points or 1.3 percent higher at 2771. Taiwan's Taiwan Index was up 79 points or 1.0 percent at 8146, Japan's Nikkei 225 was up 119 points at 16586, Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 46 points at 19930, and Korea's KOSPI was up 1 point at 1969. China was the only exception to the bullish trend with the Shanghai down 10 points at 2839.

10:50 am Interview: The country's largest mortgage lender HDFC is not worried about low on-balance sheet loan growth as higher loans sold is helping the lender get higher returns on equity, said Keki Mistry, Vice Chairman & CEO of the company.

In an exclusive chat with CNBC-TV18, Mistry said the company is earning a weighted average return of 1.2 percent on Rs 32,000 crore of loans sold.

HDFC has seen a sharp growth of Rs 4000 crore in the non-individual segment in the last quarter, he said, adding, he expects it to continue once the investment cycle picks up and rural demand increases. Mistry is confident of growth this business in the medium to long term.

10:35 am Buzzing: Shares of Sun TV Network surged 11 percent intraday as most exit polls have predicted that the DMK-Congress alliance may win the state elections in Tamil Nadu. Chennai-based Sun TV owned by Kalanithi Maran (grandnephew of DMK President M Karunanidhi) is seen gaining high revenue growth when DMK is in power.

In FY11 when DMK was in power, its ad revenue growth was at 23 percent which fell to -2 percent in FY12 when Jayalalitha became the Chief Minister. Thereafter, Sun TV's ad revenue has never touched double digit growth except in FY13 hitting 11 percent. However, in FY14 ad revenue growth was at 1.6 percent. In FY15, ad revenue growth was at 6.5 percent.

10:20 am FII View: Rakesh Arora of Macquarie said post a sharp rally of 4 percent in the last 1 month the market is taking a breather. Sector rotation is evident as market seeks support, he added.

According to him, monsoon is making steady progress till now and few drops in Mumbai will be enough to push market out of the tight range it is stuck in.

10:00 am Market Check
Equity benchmarks maintained early gains with the Sensex rising over 150 points, led by oil, auto, infra, technology and select FMCG stocks. The broader markets also gained, rising 0.4 percent.

The 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 154.47 points to 25807.70 and the 50-share NSE Nifty advanced 46.45 points to 7907.20. The market breadth remained positive as about two shares advanced for every share declining on Bombay Stock Exchange.

Axis Bank and ONGC rallied more than 2 percent followed by HDFC and Bharti Airtel with over a percent upside while SBI and ICICI Bank lost early gains.

Most Asian markets advanced as energy plays rallied after rising oil prices spurred a banner session on Wall Street. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 index tacked on 0.75 percent, likely boosted in part by a slightly weaker yen.

9:55 am  Buzzing: Shares of Sun TV Network surged 11 percent intraday on Tuesday as most exit polls have predicted that the DMK-Congress alliance may win the state elections in Tamil Nadu. Chennai-based Sun TV owned by Kalanithi Maran (grandnephew of DMK President M Karunanidhi) is seen gaining high revenue growth when DMK is in power.

In FY11 when DMK was in power, its ad revenue growth was at 23 percent which fell to -2 percent in FY12 when Jayalalitha became the Chief Minister. Thereafter, Sun TV's ad revenue has never touched double digit growth except in FY13 hitting 11 percent. However, in FY14 ad revenue growth was at 1.6 percent. In FY15, ad revenue growth was at 6.5 percent.

9:30 am Will exit polls help BJP in reform? Nomura says, "Currently, the NDA (BJP+) has 68 out of 243 seats in the Upper House (plus five nominated seats). Together these five states account for 51 seats in the Upper House, of which six will come up for re-election in 2016 (all in Tamil Nadu), six in 2017 (all in West Bengal) and eight in 2018 (West Bengal and Kerala). The BJP's victory in Assam will not help, as none of the seats (seven in the Upper House) are up for re-election until 2019. However, its improved tally in West Bengal and Kerala should help (although it depends on BJP's final share of seats). Overall, if the exit polls are accurate, then the state election results could marginally improve the BJP's seat tally in the Upper House, but the government will need to continue to build a consensus to push through legislative reforms in the Upper House (since its seat share remains under 50 percent )."

The market has opened strong with the Nifty hitting 7900 cheering results of the exit polls. The 50-share index is up 46.05 points or 0.6 percent at 7906.80. The Sensex is up 147.05 points or 0.6 percent at 25800.28. About 550 shares have advanced, 166 shares declined, and 27 shares are unchanged.

ONGC, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, HDFC and Bharti Airtel are top gainers while Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto and Asian Paints are losers in the Sensex.

The Indian rupee opened marginally higher by 6 paise at 66.74 per dollar against previous close of 66.80.

Ashutosh Raina of HDFC Bank said, "The USD has been strengthening since last week against high beta commodity currencies and the Yen, as energy prices
touch 6-month highs."

The dollar slipped against the euro and pound after a report showed that the US manufacturing industry continues to face headwinds.

The yen too weakened as risk appetite improved with the rise in oil prices and Japan, set to host a G7 meeting later this week, again signalled its willingness to intervene in the market to weaken its currency.

Asian markets advanced as energy plays rallied after rising oil prices spurred a banner session on Wall Street. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 index tacked on 0.70 percent, likely boosted in part by a slightly weaker yen. The US dollar was fetching 109.03 yen at 8:06 a.m. SIN/HK time, up from levels as low as around 108.50 yen in the previous session.

Wall Street rallied sharply, juiced by a jump in Apple shares and gains from energy stocks that were backed by stronger oil prices.