Nifty ends below 8150, Sensex flat; Maruti, ITC, Axis losers

3:30 pm Market closing: The market has ended flat with the Nifty below 8150. The 50-share index closed up 14.40 points or 0.2 percent and the Sensex is up 43.66 points or 0.2 percent at 26392.76. About 1523 shares advanced, 1137 shares declined, and 157 shares were unchanged.

HDFC, Adani Ports, ONGC, SBI and Tata Steel were top gainers while Maruti Suzuki, HUL, Axis Bank, ITC and Lupin were losers in the Sensex.  

3:15 pm Market Off day's high: Equity benchmarks came off day's high in late trade. The Sensex gained 49.94 points at 26399.04 and the Nifty rose 17.80 points to 8146.55.

3:05 pm Order inflow: State-run real estate company NBCC shares gained 5 percent intraday on securing total business of Rs 24,694 crore in November.

It was significantly higher compared with year-ago period as well as previous month.

NBCC had secured total business amounting to Rs 192.74 crore in November 2015 and Rs 410 crore in October 2016.

2:59 pm Market Update: The Sensex was up 98.45 points at 26447.55 and the Nifty gained 32.40 points at 8161.15. About 1589 shares advanced against 995 declining shares on the BSE.

2:55 pm Earnings: Chemical manufacturing company DCW, formally known as Dhrangadhra Chemical Works, has reported a whopping 64.8 percent growth in profit at Rs 8.9 crore compared with year-ago period, driven by strong operational performance.

EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) grew by 18 percent to Rs 45.2 crore and margin expanded by 340 basis points to 13.4 percent due to lower other expenses, raw material cost and power & fuel cost.

However, revenue during the quarter fell 12.2 percent to Rs 336.1 crore compared with Rs 382.6 crore in same quarter last year.

2:48 pm LIC income: Country's largest insurance company Life Insurance Corporation of India earned Rs 10,900 crore on sale of investments in the six months period ended September 2016, a solid growth of 69 percent compared with year-ago period, according to CNBC-TV18 quoting sources.

2:42 pm Tata Group stocks in limelight: Tata Group stocks hogged the limelight after a consolidation seen in the past due to Tata-Mistry battle.

Tata Motors, Tata Power, Tata Steel, Tata Coffee, Tata Chemicals etc gained 1-5 percent.

2:37 pm Gold at 6-month low: Gold extended its slump for the second day as it slipped below the Rs 29,000 mark by falling Rs 250 to an over six-month low of Rs 28,800 per 10 grams in the bullion market today, tracking a subdued global trend.

Moreover, reduced offtake by jewellers owing to a considerable fall in demand at the domestic spot market in view of the prevailing cash crunch following demonetisation of high-value notes hurt sentiment.

Silver too declined by Rs 100 to Rs 41,100 per kg on reduced offtake by industrial units and coin makers.

Traders said sentiment was downbeat, largely in sync with a weak global trend, where gold closed at near 10-month lows as investors shrugged off the ongoing political turmoil in Italy that boosted appeal of equities and other riskier assets.

2:20 pm Market Expert: Unless currency disbursements improve and liquidity returns to the system quickly, the impact of demonetisation on economy and corporate performance could be much more severe than anticipated; that is the feedback from a survey done Religare Capital Markets on a recently concluded road-trip.

A team comprising Religare's MD & CEO Gautam Trivedi, MD & Head of Research Varun Lohchab and Vice President Navin Sahadeo went round the country to assess the cash crunch impact.

Speaking to CNBC-TV18, they said there is chance that not only FY17 earnings will have to be trimmed, but even FY18 first half estimates could be hurt. In case liquidity does not return into the market then it could be tough for companies to compensate the business lost during the second half this year, Lohchab said.

The fact that rural regions are either not exposed to or not adept at digital payment transactions makes them the most vulnerable. Due to lack of cash availability farmers are using older seeds and refraining for pesticide purchases which will lead to lower yields.

2:00 pm Market Check: The buying interest continued in afternoon trade on hopes of repo rate cut in RBI policy that will be announced on Wednesday. Nifty Realty index gained the most among sectoral indices, up nearly 2 percent while PSU Bank rose 0.8 percent.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 113.23 points at 26462.33 and the 50-share NSE Nifty climbed 41.30 points to 8170.05 while the BSE Midcap and Smallcap jumped 0.8 percent each on positive breadth. About 1657 shares advanced against 897 declining shares on the exchange.

The rupee appreciated further on weakness in dollar, gaining past the 68 a dollar. It advanced 27 paise to 67.94 against the US dollar.

HDFC retained its top position in the buying list, up 3 percent followed by Infosys, Tata Motors, SBI, Adani Ports and ONGC with more than a percent gain. However, HUL and ITC fell a percent each.

1:45 pm Exclusive: Two Marquee private equity players – KKR and Temasek – are likely to pick-up minority stake in the life insurance arm of State Bank of India (SBI), sources have told CNBC-TV18. The two PE players could buy less than 2.5 percent stake each in SBI Life. CNBC-TV18 reports that SBI is likely to raise Rs 1,800 crore by selling around 4.5 percent stake in SBI Life. The entire deal is expected to value SBI Life at Rs 40,000 crore. The SBI Life stake sale will be announced over the next few days. SBI, Temasek and KKR did not offer any comment on the above news.

1:30 pm Interview: Submission of Trastuzumab dossier to the United States Food & Drug Association (USFDA) is an important milestone for Biocon and the review process is expected to take 18-24 months, says CMD Kiran Mazumdar Shaw. Speaking to CNBC-TV18, Shaw said huge opportunities exist for Biocon in the US biosimilars market. The company has also filed for 3 biosimilars with European Union regulator and is likely to file those with the USFDA too. Discussing the Indian market, Shaw said while exports have not been impacted due to demonetisation, Indian business saw lower sales over the last month. Shaw added that dependence on domestic business is quite small. Stopping sale of Abraxane has also impacted Indian business. Some decline in branded formulation business is expected on back of this, she said.

The market continues to see buying especially IT and oil stocks. The Sensex is up 103.74 points or 0.4 percent at 26452.84, and the Nifty up 33.30 points or 0.4 percent at 8162.05. About 1630 shares have advanced, 816 shares declined, and 146 shares are unchanged.

HDFC, GAIL, NTPC, Adani Ports and Infosys are top gainers while ITC, HUL, Sun Pharma, Hero MotoCorp and Asian Paints are losers in the Sensex.

The six-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) began its deliberations today amid widespread expectations of at least 0.25 per cent (25-basis point) cut in the policy rate to cushion the impact of demonetisation.

This is the second meeting of MPC headed by RBI Governor Urjit Patel after the first in October, when it had cut repo, or the short-term lending rate, by 0.25 percent to 6.25 percent. RBI has reduced the policy rate by 1.75 percent since January 2015.

12:59 pm Market Update: Equity benchmarks continued to gain. The Sensex was up 90.23 points at 26439.33 and the Nifty rose 28.10 points to 8156.85.

About two shares advanced for every share falling on the BSE.

12:55 pm Rupee strengthens: The Indian rupee has strengthened further ahead of RBI policy tomorrow, gaining past 68 against the US dollar.

It has appreciated by 23 paise to 67.98 a dollar. It is a good recovery, especially after hitting a record low of 68.855 on November 24.

12:45 pm Rate cut on cards?: The Reserve Bank of India is widely expected to cut interest rates on Wednesday as the economy reels from an unexpected clampdown on cash, but foreign investors will be looking for some assurance that new Reserve Bank Governor Urjit Patel has firm control over monetary policy.

Most economists believe the RBI will cut the repo rate by 25 basis points (bps) to a six-year low of 6.00 percent at a policy review, and follow that with at least one easing next year after the scrapping of high-value bank notes severely curbed consumer demand.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi stunned the country on November 8 by banning banknotes that accounted for 86 percent of currency in circulation to draw down on the shadow economy.

But the new rate outlook is a concern to some foreign analysts and investors who had been comforted by the high-profile drive to tame inflation under previous Governor Raghuram Rajan.

"Patel has a very strong academic background and he was leading proponent of the inflation targeting regime, so we should give him the benefit of doubt," said Manik Narain, emerging markets strategist at UBS in London.

"But if they cut rates again (this week) it could give markets a reason to believe there is political pressure on him," said Narain, who does not see the need for an imminent cut.

12:32 pm CLSA on Tata Motors: CLSA has maintained its buy call on Tata Motors due to attractive valuations after recent correction, but slashed target price to Rs 585 (from Rs 635 earlier) following cut in earnings per share estimates.

The brokerage house has reduced its FY17-18 EPS by 16-37 percent but expects a strong 53 percent EPS CAGR over FY17-19 period.

It feels JLR (Jaguar Land Rover) business should deliver strong mid-teens volume growth over FY18-19 and India business should turn profitable only by FY19.

The stock fell nearly 19 percent from the closing level of Rs 540.20 on November 8, especially after the Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a ban on legal tender of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes with immediate effect.

12:20 pm FII View: Tushar Mahajan of Nomura Financial Advisory & Securities expects 8200-8230 to be a strong resistance for the 50-share NSE Nifty.

The 200 day-moving average of the Nifty is around 8180-8200.

If the Nifty manages to sustain at 8230, there is every possibility that the index could touch 8400 by the year end, he feels.

He believes if the Nifty does indeed hit 8400 then Bank Nifty would lead that up move. However, it will be advisable to stay away until the Reserve Bank's monetary policy meet on December 7, he says.

12:00 pm Market Check
The market retained its morning gains with the Sensex rising over 100 points and Nifty holding 8150 level, aided by banking & financials, technology, oil and select auto stocks. Now all eyes are on tomorrow's RBI policy.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 118.30 points at 26467.40 and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 37.20 points at 8165.95 while the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices rose 0.7 percent each.

About two shares advanced for every share falling on the exchange.

Sun TV Network was one of the top five most active stocks, down more than 3 percent on profit booking after rising 13 percent in previous session. However, Raj Television Network continued to rally, up 2 percent on top of 17 percent upside in previous session.

ITC and HUL fell more than 1 percent each while HDFC was the biggest gainer, up 3 percent after yesterday's correction.

11:45 am RBI policy, what next? The Reserve Bank of India is widely expected to cut interest rates on Wednesday as the economy reels from an unexpected clampdown on cash, but foreign investors will be looking for some assurance that new Reserve Bank Governor Urjit Patel has firm control over monetary policy.

Most economists believe the RBI will cut the repo rate by 25 basis points (bps) to a six-year low of 6.00 percent at a policy review, and follow that with at least one easing next year after the scrapping of high-value bank notes severely curbed consumer demand.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi stunned the country on November 8 by banning banknotes that accounted for 86 percent of currency in circulation to draw down on the shadow economy.

11:30 am Market outlook: Unless currency disbursements improve and liquidity returns to the system quickly, the impact of demonetisation on economy and corporate performance could be much more severe than anticipated; that is the feedback from a survey done Religare Capital Markets on a recently concluded road-trip. A team comprising Religare's MD & CEO Gautam Trivedi, MD & Head of Research Varun Lohchab and Vice President Navin Sahadeo went round the country to assess the cash crunch impact. Speaking to CNBC-TV18, they said there is chance that not only FY17 earnings will have to be trimmed, but even FY18 first half estimates could be hurt. In case liquidity does not return into the market then It could be tough for companies to compensate the business lost during the second half this year, Lohchab says.

The market continues to rally as the Sensex is up 122.75 points or 0.5 percent at 26471.85. The Nifty is up 35.95 points or 0.4 percent at 8164.70. About 1540 shares have advanced, 635 shares declined, and 110 shares are unchanged.

HDFC, GAIL, Infosys, NTPC and Wipro are top gainers while HUL, ITC, Sun Pharma, Axis Bank and Hero MotoCorp are losers in the Sensex.

Oil prices eased early in Asia as crude output rises in virtually every major export region despite plans by OPEC and Russia to cut production, triggering fears that a fuel glut that has dogged markets for over two years might last well into 2017.

Traders said the price falls were due to rising output from within the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia.

OPEC's oil output set another record high in November, rising to 34.19 million barrels per day (bpd) in November from 33.82 million bpd in October, according to a survey based on shipping data and information from industry sources.

10:59 am Market Update: The Sensex was up 123.95 points at 26473.05 and the Nifty gained 36.15 points at 8164.90.

About 1489 shares advanced against 623 declining shares on the BSE.

10:50 am Adani's project in Australia: Indian energy giant Adani today said it will start construction at the USD 21.7 billion Carmichael mine in Australia by the middle of next year and vowed to give priority local workers for the project, which is expected to generate some 10,000 jobs.

The announcement came a day after Adani secured the final approval for a permanent rail line for the controversy-hit project despite protests from green groups.

Adani's efforts to build one of the world's largest coal mine project in Australia's Queensland state has been hampered time and again since its launch six years ago.

"We want to start construction in the middle of next year," Adani Australia chief executive Jeyakumar Janakaraj told reporters after meeting with Queensland state Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk in the city of Townsville.

10:40 am LNG demand in India: Qatar's RasGas is seeing preference for short-term LNG contracts from customers in India, its chief executive said on Tuesday at the Petrotech energy conference in New Delhi.

Hamad Mubarak Al Muhannadi also said that India needs more LNG terminals to unlock demand. Asia's third-largest economy will become the world's second-largest spot and long-term LNG buyer this year, Muhannadi said.

10:20 am Oil demand: India holds much more weight in the global market because of its constantly increasing demand for crude oil, Daniel Yergin, Co-founder and Chairman of Cambridge Energy Research Associates. India is the third largest importer of oil in the world. By 2040, it will be the second largest importer, says Yergin.

Last week, the OPEC cut its output for the first time in eight years to deal with the global glut of crude oil. Yergin says the agreement was a historic one. He says oil prices would have drifted lower if the OPEC agreement did not happen.

 Co-operation between the OPEC members is very important to balance out the excess supply of crude in the world. The goal can be achieved even if all the members don't comply with the agreement, he says.

Russia has played a key role in the OPEC agreement. It acted as a broker between Saudi Arabia and Iran to help the OPEC come to an agreement. There will also need to be co-operation between OPEC and non-OPEC members to deal with the issue.

10:00 am Market Check
Equity benchmarks continued to gain amid consolidation, especially ahead of outcome of monetary policy committee that will be announced on Wednesday.

Largely expectation of 25 basis points cut in repo rate seems already priced in. If RBI cuts repo rate by 50 basis points in total then the market may rally further, analysts feel.

Apart from that, the most important to watch out for would be commentary as it will be the first policy meet after currency demonetisation announced on November 8.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 106.17 points at 26455.27 and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 34.35 points at 8163.10 while the broader markets climbed 0.8 percent each on positive breadth.

About three shares advanced for every share falling on the exchange.

HDFC, Infosys, L&T, Adani Ports, ONGC and Maruti were leading contributors to Sensex's gain while ITC, HUL and Asian Paints were under pressure, down 0.8 percent each.

9:55 am IPO: Initial public offering (IPO) of Laurus Labs has opened for subscription. With price band at Rs 426-428 per share, the Hyderabad-based firm is aiming to raise Rs 1331.79 crore. The issue offers over 2.41 crore shares under offer for sale route and fresh issue worth up to Rs 300 crore.

It has raised over Rs 395 crore by allotting shares to anchor investors, ahead of its initial public offer today. The anchor investors are Goldman Sachs India, Nomura Trust and Banking, SBI Mutual Fund, DSP BlackRock and ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund. More than 92 lakh shares have been allotted to anchor investors at Rs 428 a piece, the higher end of the price band of the estimated Rs 1332 crore IPO.

The leading player in developing generic Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) aims to utilise the net proceeds from the fresh issue towards pre-payment of term loans and general corporate purposes.

9:45 am FII view: Neelkanth Mishra of Credit Suisse said, "We would advise investors to be cautious now. In addition to the difficulties in distribution and the informal sector benefitting from formalisation, there is the risk of an economic slowdown. 72 percent of India's non-agri workforce is in the informal sector and the process of formalisation could take several quarters if not years."

"In the interim, firm-failures would disrupt the economic momentum and cause their own downstream impact on growth," he added.

9:30 am RBI policy meet: The six-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will begin its deliberations today amid widespread expectations of at least 0.25 percent cut in policy rate to cushion the impact of demonetisation.

This would be the second meeting of the MPC headed by RBI Governor Urjit Patel after the first that happened in October, when it had cut the repo rate or short term lending rate by 0.25 percent to 6.25 percent.

 RBI has reduced repo rate by 1.75 percent since January 2015. This will be the first monetary policy review after demonetisation of old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes, following which banks witnessed surge in deposits.

The market has opened higher supported by strong global cues. The Sensex is up 101.38 points or 0.4 percent at 26450.48, and the Nifty up 36 points or 0.4 percent at 8164.75. About 578 shares have advanced, 150 shares declined, and 25 shares are unchanged.

Adani Ports, HDFC, GAIL, NTPC and Sun Pharma are gainers while HUL, ITC and Bharti are losers in the Sensex.

The Indian rupee gained in the early trade. It has opened higher by 7 paise at 68.14 per dollar versus previous close 68.21.

The euro had its best day against the dollar since early June yesterday as investors swiftly moved past the initial shock of a "no" vote in the Italian constitutional referendum. The dollar index holds around 100 mark.

Asian stocks opened higher on the back of a strong Wall Street with markets discounting the potential impact of Italy's referendum vote, while US Treasury yields firmed as robust economic data pointed to an interest rate hike next week.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.4 percent in early trade with Antiopodean markets leading gains. Korea climbed 1 percent in opening trades.

Wall Street rose, with the Dow Jones industrials setting fresh record highs following services sector data that showed further strength in the domestic economy.
US services sector activity hit a one-year high in November, with a surge in production boosting hiring, following on the heels of Friday's employment report that showed strong job gains last month.

Crude prices declined as the market lost confidence that OPEC cuts would be sufficient to reduce oversupply given increased US drilling. Gold prices were flat at around USD 1170 an ounce.