Sensex closes 260 points higher, Nifty ends above 9500 for the first time

3:30 pm Market at Close: Benchmark indices had a fantastic session on Tuesday, with indices closing at fresh all-time highs. The Nifty closed above 9500 for the first time ever.

The Sensex ended up 260.48 points at 30582.60, while the Nifty closed higher by 66.85 points at 9512.25. The market breadth, however, was narrow as 1,426 shares advanced against a decline of 1,361 shares, while 178 shares were unchanged.

Hero MotoCorp, TCS and ACC were the top gainers on both indices, while BHEL, ONGC and Kotak Mahindra Bank lost the most.

Auto, FMCG and IT indices gained the most on Nifty, while metals saw some profit booking.

3:19 pm Buzzing: Shilpi Cable Technologies share price continued to hit lower circuit for the 14th consecutive session, especially after overseas lender filed a petition against the company under Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.

The trading in the stock was frozen at Rs 60.90 today, down 5 percent and there were pending sell orders of 2,715,845 shares, with no buyers available.

The share price lost nearly 74 percent in last one month from Rs 231.80 on April 13.

The company in its filing to exchanges, on April 30, said, "An overseas bank has filed a petition against Shilpi Cable before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), under Section 8 & 9 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016."

3:10 pm JPMorgan initiates coverage on TVS: TVS Motors caught the investors' eye on Tuesday after JPMorgan initiated coverage on the stock. The shares traded over 2 percent higher intraday.

Leading global research firm, JPMorgan initiated coverage on the stock with an overweight rating and a target price of Rs 590.

''Earnings growth for the company, in our view, will be higher than peers led by volumes, portfolio premiumization and margin expansion,'' it said in its report.

2:25 pm Nifty at 9600 soon?: The Nifty continued its upward momentum even in the May series and moved above 9400 after spending some time consolidating around 9200 in the April series. The Nifty has not moved much below its April settlement level of 9350.

In days to come, ICICI Securities believes the consolidation with a positive bias may continue and the Nifty may move towards 9600.

"On the options front, since the inception of the May series the highest Put base was placed at the 9200 strike, which has gradually moved higher to 9300 Put strike. The current open interest in 9300 Put is higher than any of the Call open interest, which makes it a crucial support for the Nifty in the near term. On the higher side, Call option position seems vulnerable vulnerable at 9500 strike. It may be breached breached if the Nifty sustains sustains above 9400. Thus, closure closure of these short Call positions may move the Nifty towards 9600," it explains.

2:00 pm Market Check: Equity benchmarks rallied further in afternoon, with the Nifty hitting 9,500 level for the first time and the Sensex firmly above 30,500.

The 30-share BSE Sensex surged 212.35 points to 30,534.47 and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 55.60 points at 9,501.

ITC (up 2.15 percent), Reliance Industries (up 1.32 percent) and TCS (up 2.24 percent) contributed almost 45 percent to index gain.

SBI, Maruti Suzuki, Bharti Airtel and Dr Reddy's Labs gained 2-3 percent.

1:45 pm Results: Country's second largest telecom company Vodafone India today reported a 10.2 percent dip in its FY17 operating profit at Rs 11,784 crore, hurt by aggressive competition.

The company, which is set to be merged with Idea Cellular to create the country's largest telecom player, had reported an EBITDA profit of Rs 13,115 crore on a standalone basis in the year ago period.

The British telecom major's overall revenue on a standalone basis slipped 0.6 per cent to Rs 43,095 crore, while the margin contracted by nearly three percentage points to 27.2 per cent.

1:30 pm New launch: The country's largest car maker Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) today launched an all new version of its compact sedan Dzire, priced between Rs 5.45 lakh and Rs 9.41 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi).

The petrol variants with manual powertrains are priced between Rs 5.45 lakh and Rs 7.94 lakh while the diesel trims are tagged between Rs 6.45 lakh and Rs 8.94 lakh.

The petrol automatic variants are priced between Rs 6.76 lakh and Rs 8.41 lakh while the diesel trims with automatic transmission are in the range of Rs 7.76 lakh and Rs 9.41 lakh (all prices ex-showroom Delhi).

1:15 pm Market Check: Benchmark indices advanced their gains from the morning session, with the Nifty around one third of a percent higher.

The Sensex was up 142.04 points at 30464.16, while the Nifty rose by 34.20 points at 9479.60. The market breadth was narrow as 1,340 shares advanced against a decline of 1,227 shares declined, while 176 shares are unchanged.

Bharti Airtel, Dr Reddy's and ACC continued to gain, while ONGC, Asian Paints, Zee Entertainment and Indiabulls Housing lost the most.

1:05 pm Earnings: Public sector lender Punjab National Bank (PNB) turned black in the quarter ended March 2017, with profit at Rs 261.9 crore against loss of Rs 5,367.1 crore in corresponding quarter of last fiscal.

Gross non-performing assets as a percentage of gross advances fell to 12.53 percent from 13.7 percent and net NPAs fell to 7.81 percent from 9.09 percent on sequential basis.

12:42 pm Interview: Chennai Petroleum Corporation (CPCL) reported a weak set of fourth quarter earnings. The margins were hit due to higher employee expenses and impairment of its non-current assets.

CPCL is a group company of IOC.

B Ashok, Chairman of the company said the company saw an improvement in its gross refining margins (GRMs) for the full years FY17. The GRMs came stood at USD 6.05 per barrel as compared to USD 5.27 in FY16. For the quarter they were USD 7.05/bbl compared to USD 5.02/bbl for the same quarter last fiscal.

The throughput increased 6.34 percent to 10.256 million tonnes for FY17 compared to 9.644 million tonnes in FY16.

12:32 pm  Europe opens: European markets opened slightly lower as investors continued to weigh global security concerns and awaited the latest batch of corporate earnings.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 moved 0.16 percent lower with almost all sectors and major bourses in negative territory.

12:15 pm Market Check: Benchmark indices were trading steady, with the Nifty well above 9450-mark.

The Sensex was up 106.62 points at 30428.74, while the Nifty was up 23.00 points at 9468.40. The market breadth was narrow as 1,292 shares advanced against a decline of 1,182 shares, while 172 shares were unchanged.

Bharti Airtel, Dr Reddy's Laboratories and ACC gained the most, while ONGC, BHEL, Zee Entertainment and Indiabulls Housing were the top losers.

11:36 am Monsoon: India's monsoon rains are expected to arrive on the southern Kerala coast on May 30, two days ahead of schedule, a weather office source said on Tuesday.

India looks likely to receive higher monsoon rainfall than previously forecast as concern over the El Nino weather condition has eased, K.J. Ramesh, director general of the state-run India Meteorological Department, told Reuters last week.

11:15 am Oil Update: Oil prices rose today, extending gains after a joint announcement by top producers Saudi Arabia and Russia to push for an extension of supply cuts until the end of March 2018.

Brent crude futures were at USD 51.96 per barrel, up 14 cents, or 0.27 percent, from their last close.

US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at USD 49.01 a barrel, up 16 cents, or 0.33 percent from their last settlement.

10:55 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks were off day's high in morning as investors preferred some profit booking after indices hit record highs. Banks and infra stocks were under pressure while technology and FMCG stocks gained.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 84.02 points at 30,406.14 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 18.05 points to 9,463.45 while the BSE Midcap index was flat with negative bias.

Gold prices rose for a fourth day as the dollar eased on signs of slower economic activity in the United States that dented expectations of an aggressive string of interest rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve.

10:31 am Buzzing: Shares of Skipper touched 52-week high of Rs 214, gains 9 percent intraday on new orders worth Rs 500 crore and strong fourth quarter results.

The company has secured new orders worth Rs 376.48 crore from national & Rs 123.73 crore from international markets for supply of power transmission towers & telecom poles.

The company's Q4FY17 net profit jumped 46.3 percent at Rs 52.8 crore versus Rs 36.1 crore, in the same quarter last fiscal.

10:15 am PNB in focus: Public sector lender Punjab National Bank is expected to turn profitable with fourth quarter net income at Rs 378.5 crore against net loss of Rs 5,367.1 crore in same quarter last fiscal.

According to average of estimates of analysts polled by CNBC-TV18, net interest income during the quarter is seen rising 37.3 percent to Rs 3,800.8 crore compared with Rs 2,767.7 crore in corresponding quarter of last fiscal.

Key things to watch out for would be management commentary on FY18 slippages and credit cost. Loan growth is expected to remain muted.

Any improvement in net interest margin and lower slippages trend will be considered positive by the Street.

9:55 am Market Check: Benchmark indices extended gains in morning to trade around record highs, aided by Reliance Industries, ITC and Infosys.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 150.61 points or 0.50 percent at 30,472.73 while the 50-share NSE Nifty inched towards 9500 level, up 36.20 points at 9,481.60.

The broader markets underperformed benchmarks despite positive breadth. The BSE Midcap index was up 0.2 percent and Smallcap gained 0.39 percent. About 1146 shares advanced against 702 declining shares on the BSE.

Dr Reddy's Labs rallied further, up 2 percent on top of 3.5 percent rally in previous session on hopes of recovery in US business.

9:49 am Earnings Estimates: Steel major, Tata Steel, could post a net profit of Rs 1,000 crore for the March quarter against a net loss of Rs 3,213 crore reported during the corresponding quarter last year, according to a CNBC-TV18 poll. One must note that the March 2016 quarter had an exceptional item of Rs 2,857 crore.

Meanwhile, the company's revenue is expected to come in 8 percent higher at Rs 31,850 crore against Rs 29,507 crore.

The operating profit for the firm is seen at Rs 4,400 against Rs 2,204 crore posted during the corresponding quarter last year. The margin for the company is seen at 13.8 percent against 7.5 percent.

In its India business, the company's sales volumes are seen rising 17 percent at 3.18 million tonnes against 2.72 million tonnes year on year. Strong volumes in India are likely due to a ramp up at Kalinganagar.

9:35 am FII View: The government recently passed new reform to solve asset quality problem that has been hitting banks' balance sheet for more than two years. It wants to clean this mess as early as possible.

"Meetings with senior bureaucrats and industry experts give us confidence that the government is serious about resolving the NPL mess. A few cases might be resolved in the next 2-3 months itself," Mahesh Nandurkar of CLSA said.

He further said the common scepticism is that several government/RBI attempts in the past haven't worked out. But this time the back is against the wall and if a resolution is not found soon enough, both the banks and the government will have to pay a financial price in FY18 itself, he feels.

A resolution would be positive for corporate banks in general and PSU banks in particular, Nandurkar believes.

In addition, "We were assured that 'Housing for all' remains a key focus area for the government and its funding will not be a constraint, especially for the 'housing loan subsidy' component," he said.

More monies will be made available if demand surges, which is likely, according to him.

9:15 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks opened at fresh record high on Tuesday, continuing upside despite mixed Asian cues.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 63.33 points at 30,385.45 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 12.55 points to 9,457.95. About 643 shares advanced against 258 declining shares on the BSE.

Bharti Airtel was the biggest gainer among largecaps, up nearly 3 percent followed by Tata Steel, TCS, Dr Reddy's Labs, IOC, ACC and ICICI Bank.

Asian Paints, HDFC Bank, BHEL, HDFC, Adani Ports, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Cipla and Bank of Baroda were early losers.

The Indian rupee was flat at 64.06 per dollar in opening against previous day's close of 64.06.

Bhaskar Panda of HDFC Bank says the rupee has been supported by global cues as well as firm flows from FIIs and FDI. Today, he expects the USD-INR pair to trade in a range of 63.95-64.20/dollar range.

Dollar weakened against a major basket of currencies after a weaker than expected US economic data dampened the outlook for the pace of further tightening by the Federal Reserve this year.

Asian markets were mixed, following the bounce in oil prices after the energy ministers of Russia and Saudi Arabia announced output cuts should be extended till March 2018 and as investors largely shrugged off US political news on President Donald Trump.