Nifty ends Oct series at 8615; HDFC & ITC gain, SBI loses 2%

3:30 pm Market closing: The market has ended with slight gains. The Nifty closed October Futures and Options (F&O) at 8600. The Sensex was up 79.39 points or 0. 3 percent at 27915.90. HDFC, Dr Reddy's labs, ICICI Bank, ITC and Bharti Airtel were gainers in the Sensex.

Hero MotoCorp, Asian Paints, Wipro, SBI and Bajaj Auto were losers in the Sensex.

3:07 pm: The market is in green as the Sensex is up 62.38 points or 0.2 percent at 27898.89, and the Nifty is down 4.15 points at 8611.10. About 1018 shares have advanced, 1607 shares declined, and 243 shares are unchanged.

HDFC, Dr Reddy's Labs, ITC, ICICI Bank and Cipla are top gainers while Asian Paints, Hero MotoCorp, Lupin, Bajaj Auto and Wipro are losers in the Sensex.

2:45 pm Air Asia: The Civil Aviation Ministry is keeping a close watch on developments related to the purported disclosures made by ousted Tata Group chairman Cyrus Mistry about AirAsia India, where Tatas are a partner, and will act if something actionable is brought to its notice.

"We are waiting for any input from any quarter," Civil Aviation Secretary R N Choubey said, adding "we have not received anything so far".

Mistry raised "ethical concerns" in Tata group's aviation joint venture with AirAsia and alleged that forensic investigation revealed fraudulent transactions of Rs 22 crore involving non-existent entities in India and Singapore.

2:30 pm More on Tata? Cyrus Mistry, who was removed for Chairmanship of Tata Sons on Monday, wrote a scathing letter to Board members highlighting numerous issues plaguing the group companies. The problems highlighted by Mistry were already been talked about in hush tones and he just put them out in open, believes Anil Singhvi of Ican Investment Advisors. The main concern is for the minority shareholders who have not been given any concrete reasons for Mistry's removal, he said. The company should have been more responsible in the way things were handled. Singhvi added that this makes a strong case for class action suit by the shareholders of the listed companies.

2:20 pm FPIs in FY17: More than 1,300 new foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have registered with capital markets regulator Sebi in April-August of 2016-17, showing a sign of their willingness to be part of India's growth story.

In the last fiscal, a total of 2,900 FPIs had received approval from Sebi.

The number of FPIs with Sebi approval increased to 5,626 at the end of August from 4,311 in March-end, reflecting an addition of 1,315 such investors, latest data from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) showed.

FPI investors consider India as a preferred and stable market, given its macro-economic stability, long-term growth prospects and ongoing economic and social reforms, market experts said.

Besides, Sebi has decided to offer direct entry to well-regulated foreign investors for investing in corporate bonds, they added.

They had pumped in over Rs 36,000 crore in the capital markets (debt and equity) in April-August period.

2:00 pm Market Check: Equity benchmarks recouped losses in afternoon trade with the Nifty reclaiming 8600 level amid volatility ahead of expiry of October derivative contracts, supported by HDFC and ITC. However, auto, IT and Tata group stocks remained under pressure.

The Sensex was up 9.54 points at 27846.05 while the Nifty declined 14.90 points to 8600.35.

Experts expect the expiry of Nifty contracts for current series at around 8600 level.

Maruti Suzuki fell nearly a percent on profit booking as the stock already priced in stellar earnings. ONGC was also down 1 percent on profit taking after quarterly earnings.

European markets recovered early losses to trade marginally higher. France's CAC, Germany's DAX and Britain's FTSE were up 0.2-0.4 percent.

Crude oil prices also gained strength after a flat trade. Brent crude was trading at USD 50.37 a barrrel, up 0.8 percent and US crude gained 0.6 percent at 48.48 a barrel.

1:45 pm Earnings: State-run oil & gas exploration company ONGC's profit during July-September quarter grew by 17.5 percent sequentially to Rs 4,975 crore, beating analysts' estimates.

Revenue in Q2 increased 3.4 percent to Rs 18,395 crore compared with Rs 17,785 crore in previous quarter.

EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) was up 7.9 percent to Rs 9,100 crore.

ONGC has recommended the issue of bonus shares in the proportion of 1 new equity share for every 2 existing shares.

1:35 pm New SEZs: Five developers including KRC Infrastructure and Projects and GAR Corporation have sought the government approval to set up new special economic zones (SEZs).

These applications will be considered at the meeting of the Board of Approval (BoA), headed by Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia, on November 3.

KRC Infrastructure and Projects and Gera Developments have planned for jointly setting up of IT/ITeS SEZ in Pune, over an area of 4.03 hectares.

The BoA meeting agenda said that "a joint developer SEZ proposal has come for the first time. However, there is no guideline as to how it would be operational. Hence submitted to the Board for consideration".

GAR Corporation too has proposed to set up similar two SEZs in Telangana. Similarly, EON Kharadi Infrastructure has sought nod fopr its IT/ITeS zone in Pune.

1:25 pm Market recovers: Equity benchmarks recouped its losses with the Nifty reclaiming 8600 amid volatility ahead of expiry of October derivative contracts.

The Sensex was up 11.02 points at 27847.53 and the Nifty fell 13.05 points to 8602.20 but the market breadth remained weak.

About 1571 shares declined against 970 advancing shares on the BSE.

1:15 pm Earnings: Maruti Suzuki surpassed analysts' expectations on bottomline as well as topline front but operating profit margin was lower than estimates. Profit shot up 60.2 percent year-on-year to Rs 2,398 crore on other income, operational income and volume growth.

Revenue during the quarter grew by 29.3 percent to Rs 20,296.8 crore compared with Rs 15,699.7 crore in same period last year.

Profit was estimated at Rs 1,868 crore on revenue of Rs 18,222 crore for the quarter, according to analysts polled by CNBC-TV18.

1:00 pm Market Check
The market is still under pressure but recovered a bit as the Sensex is down 79.20 points or 0.3 percent at 27757.31. The Nifty is down 40.85 points or 0.5 percent at 8574.40. About 879 shares have advanced, 1628 shares declined, and 191 shares are unchanged.

HDFC, Dr Reddy's Labs, ITC, Sun Pharma and Cipla are top gainers while Asian Paints, Hero MotoCorp, Wipro and Lupin are losers in the Sensex.

Meanwhile, Varun Lohchab, Managing Director and Head of Research Religare Capital Markets says the second quarter of current fiscal will see volumes for fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) bottom out, says

He says Hindustan Unilever (HUL) volumes have also bottomed out and he does not see a V-shaped recovery in its volume growth.

He sees a same-store sale growth (SSSG) at 5-6 percent for the next year for Jubilant Foodwork. He adds that Jubilant's growth in the second quarter has come at the cost of margins.

12:59 pm Market Update: Benchmark indices halved losses in afternoon trade. The Sensex was down 79.20 points at 27757.31 and the Nifty down 40.85 points at 8574.40.

The market breadth remained weak as about two shares declined for every share advancing on the BSE.

12:45 pm Europe opens: European stocks opened lower amid rising concerns that OPEC countries will not reach an agreement over a production cut and a raft of corporate earnings.

The Pan-European STOXX 600 index was down 0.18 percent.

12:35 pm Earnings: Public sector lender Vijaya Bank showed stellar performance in July-September quarter with profit growing 34 percent year-on-year to Rs 154.5 crore on strong net interest income, other income and operational growth despite provisions remained at elevated level. Asset quality also improved.

Net interest income during the quarter grew by 19.5 percent to Rs 827.8 crore while non-interest income doubled to Rs 388.3 crore on yearly basis.

Operating profit reported a whopping 43 percent growth at Rs 570.9 crore compared with year-ago period.

12:20 pm Drug launch: Sun Pharma today said it has launched generic versions of Daiichi Sankyo medicines, used in treatment of high blood pressure, in the US market.

In a BSE filing, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries said "its wholly owned subsidiary has launched in US, the authorized generic versions for all strengths of Benicar, Benicar HCT, Azor and Tribenzor of Daiichi Sankyo Inc".

Four medicines include Olmesartan Medoxomil, Olmesartan Medoxomil-Hydrochlorothiazide, Amlodipine Besylate-Olmesartan Medoxomil and Amlodipine Besylate-Hydrochlorothiazide -Olmesartan Medoxomil tablets.

"The launch is pursuant to a distribution and supply agreement between Sun Pharma's wholly owned subsidiary and Daiichi Sankyo Inc, which grants the Sun Pharma subsidiary, exclusive rights to distribute these tablets in the US for a pre-determined period," it added.

12:00 pm Market Check: Equity benchmarks as well as broader markets extended losses in noon trade with the Sensex down 144.34 points at 27692.17 and the Nifty down 57.25 points at 8558, dragged by banks, infra and oil stocks.

The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices were down more than 1 percent on weak breadth. About 1638 shares declined against 775 advancing shares on the exchange.

Tata Group stocks continued to reel under pressure and remained in the most active list due to ongoing Tata-Mistry issue. Tata Motors, Tata Steel and TCS fell 1-2 percent, continuing to fall for the third consecutive session.

Markets in Asia Pacific were mostly lower, with energy plays in the region under pressure after oil prices extended their losing streak during the US session. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index slipped 1.07 percent. Chinese mainland shares traded lower, with the Shanghai composite down 0.17 percent. Japan's Nikkei 225 average was down 0.3 percent.

11:55 am Hurdle for Taj Mansingh: The Delhi High Court on Thursday allowed New Delhi Municipal Committee (NDMC) to proceed with the auction process of the Taj Mansingh Hotel.

Delhi High Court dismissed the plea to made by the Indian Hotels Co (IHCL), a subsidiary of Tata Group, to renew its licence and upheld NDMC's decision to go for auction.

On September 25, a single judge had dismissed the suit by the current operator IHCL, to renew its licence and upheld the NDMC's decision to go for auction. The following day, the IHCL filed an appeal before the division bench against this order.

11:45 am Exclusive: Sources tell CNBC-TV18 that State Bank of India, a major lender to Tata Group companies, is meeting today. The purpose of the meeting chaired by Chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya is to take stock of the bank's exposure to Tata Group companies in case there are write-offs.

Further, CNCB-TV18 gathers from its sources that SBI's total likely exposure to Tata Group companies could be slightly above Rs 50,000 crore. Its subsidiaries total exposure could be over Rs 70,000 crore.

11:30 am Result analysis: Analysts gave a thumbs-up to Hero MotoCorp after the two-wheeler company reported a net profit of Rs 1,004 crore for the second quarter ended September, up 30 percent from Rs 786 crore in the year-ago period.

Total income rose 15 percent to around Rs 8,449 crore during the period from Rs 7,346 crore in July-September quarter last year, the company said in a filing to BSE.

Prakash Diwan of Altamount Capital termed the performance as great but said that the company's profit and margins story needs to be seen with a headroom of it diminishing towards the last quarter of the fiscal year 2016-17. He said the company will have to roll out new models and have a healthy product mix to tackle competition. This, he added, will rev up profits for Hero MotoCorp, he said.

The market is still struggling under selling presurre on September Futures and options (F&O) expiry day. The Sensex is down 109.27 points or 0.4 percent at 27727.24 and the Nifty is down 46.50 points or 0.5 percent at 8568.75. About 912 shares have advanced, 1340 shares declined, and 174 shares are unchanged.

ITC, Dr Reddy's Labs, HDFC, Sun Pharma and ONGC are top gainers while Asian Paints, Tata Motors, HUL, Wipro and Hero MotoCorp are losers in the Sensex.

Continuing its winning run, gold prices rose by another Rs 32 to Rs 29,866 per 10 gram in futures trade today amid a firm global trend.

Analysts attributed persistent rise in gold prices at futures trade to a firming trend overseas and ongoing festive and wedding season demand from jewellers in the domestic spot market.

Meanwhile, gold edged higher 0.03 per cent to USD 1,267.10 an ounce in Singapore.

10:58 am Market Update: Benchmark indices continued to fall in morning trade with the Sensex down 116.41 points at 27720.10 and the Nifty down 48.65 points at 8566.60.

About 1310 shares declined against 906 advancing shares on the BSE.

10:50 am Adani's progress in Australia: Indian mining giant Adani today said it plans to start construction of a 21.7 billion dollar Carmichael coal mine project in Australia in 2017 after years of legal delays over environmental approvals.

"The company is moving ahead, having already invested more than 3.3 billion dollar to date, and still proposes to start the construction stage in the third quarter of 2017," the company's spokesperson said, but added that the uncertainty continued in relation to the Queensland Government's proposed water legislation.

"Adani has already complied with existing legislation," he said.

"There is also the outstanding legal challenges to decisions and approvals already granted by both the Commonwealth and State governments," he added.

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.

10:34 am Poll: Oil marketing company Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) is expected to disappoint with its quarterly earnings. Standalone profit is seen falling 61.6 percent sequentially to Rs 3,174 crore as refining margin may fall to USD 4.1 a barrel from USD 10 a barrel in previous quarter. In Q1FY17, margin was boosted by large adventitious gains.

Revenue is expected to fall 15 percent quarter-on-quarter to Rs 91,077 crore in Q2.

Operating profit during the quarter may plunge 53 percent to Rs 6,436 crore and margin may shrink to 7.1 percent from 12.8 percent in previous quarter, according to average of estimates of analysts polled by CNBC-TV18.

10:20 am FII view on Mistry-Tata issue: Samir Arora of Helios Capital said that the departure of Cyrus Mistry from the Tata Sons was handled as badly as that of Raghuran Rajan from the Reserve Bank.

''The reason given for Mistry's departure are ridiculous,'' he said, adding that strong vision oriented person is needed for the Tata Group.

Arora believes that there is nothing to panic about as far as Tata Consultancy Services is concerned. However, Tata Motors – a company that maybe well run – but is not well accounted for.

10:00 am Market Check
Equity benchmarks as well as broader markets continued to trade lower with the Nifty struggling below 8600 ahead of expiry of October derivative contracts.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 86.04 points at 27750.47 and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 37 points to 8578.25 while the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices were down 0.3-0.6 percent on weak market breadth.

Maruti Suzuki is inching towards Rs 6000 level, hitting a record high of Rs 5,916.50 ahead of second quarter earnings. A CNBC-TV18 poll expects the company to report 52 percent growth in profit. ONGC also gained 0.6 percent ahead of earnings.

Sun Pharma gained a percent after it acquired Ocular Technologies from Auven Therapeutics and launched generics of Benicar, Benicar HCT, Azor & Tribenzor in US.

ITC and HDFC rebounded after falling yesterday due to earnings. HDFC Bank, Asian Paints, Tata Motors, SBI and HUL were down 1-2 percent.

9:55 am Result poll: India's biggest car manufacturer Maruti Suzuki is expected to report stellar performance in July-September quarter with profit rising a whopping 52 percent year-on-year to Rs 1,868 crore but margin may decline, according to analysts polled by CNBC-TV18. Revenue during the quarter is seen rising 30 percent year-on-year to Rs 18,222 crore as the mix shifted towards high priced vehicles like Vitara Brezza and Baleno. Compact car segment growth was 9 percent due to success of new Baleno and Celerio. Utility vehicle segment also saw big surge due to success of Vitara Brezza and Ertiga. Maruti sold 4.2 lakh vehicles in Q2, registering a 19 percent growth compared with 3.53 lakh units sold in year-ago period with exports and domestic volumes rising 18 percent.

9:45 am Tata in soup? Markets regulator Sebi has begun looking into the high profile Tata-Mistry case for any possible breach of corporate governance norms and listing regulations at various listed companies of the over USD 100 billion conglomerate. Besides, stock exchanges, sought clarification from many of the group's listed companies on the purported disclosure by ousted Chairman Cyrus Mistry about Rs 1.18 lakh crore possible writedown at the group firms. "We (Sebi) are taking note of each and every development and will act immediately on any hint of possible violation of corporate governance and listing norms or any other regulation under our jurisdiction," a senior official said.

9:30 am FII view: Willem Buiter of Citi says he continues to expect sluggish global growth in 2016 and 2017, with relatively steady growth in advanced economies and a pickup in emerging markets (EMs) growth.

He feels inflation in advanced economies is off its recent lows and will likely rise significantly in the coming 6-12 months.

The rise in inflation in advanced economies is mainly due to base effects, the rebound in oil prices and diminishing external drags, he says.

But although there are some upside risks to commodity prices over the next year, global disinflationary pressures remain quite strong, according to Buiter.

The market has opened in red dragged by September Futures and Options (F&O) expiry jitters and Tata group stocks weakness. The Sensex is down 70.51 points or 0.2 percent at 27766.00, and the Nifty is down 27.50 points or 0.3 percent at 8587.75.
About 449 shares have advanced, 492 shares declined, and 59 shares are unchanged.

ITC, Asian Paints, Dr Reddy's Labs, Sun Pharma and Hero MotoCorp are gainers while Tata Motors, Tata Steel, ICICI Bank, TCS and Bharti are losers in the Sensex.

The Indian rupee opened lower by 9 paise at 66.92 per dollar versus previous close 66.83.

Mohan Shenoi of Kotak Mahindra Bank said, "With upcoming US elections, Fed rate hike on November 2 looks unlikely. However, dollar continues to strengthen on the back of expectations of Fed rate hike in December."

The US dollar fell against a basket of major currencies after touching a nearly nine-month high on Tuesday as the greenback looked vulnerable to weakness on uncertainty surrounding Federal Reserve monetary policy and the US election.

Meanwhile, the euro rose from a seven-month low on signs that the european economy may be improving enough to reduce pressure on the ECB to further ease monetary policy.

Asian shares edged down after disappointing earnings from technology giant Apple dragged on Wall Street, while the dollar remained shy of this week's nearly nine-month highs.
 
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 30.06 points, or 0.17 percent, to 18,199.33, the S&P 500 lost 3.73 points, or 0.17 percent, to 2,139.43 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 33.13 points, or 0.63 percent, to 5,250.27.

Disappointing results and forecasts from some other major US companies weighed on European and Asian stocks.

Gold prices fell as investor appetite for riskier assets recovered slightly, denting demand for safe-haven bullion.

Oil prices bounced off session lows for a time after the U.S. government reported a surprise drawdown in crude inventories, but oil ended lower on growing doubts that OPEC would cut production enough to drain a global oversupply.