Sensex ends 202 points lower; Coal India falls 10%, banks weak

03:40 pm Market closing: The market ended on a lower note. The Sensex is down 201.56 points at 21063.62, and the Nifty is down 57.25 points at 6261.65. About 869 shares have advanced, 1717 shares declined, and 245 shares are unchanged.

Coal India lost 10 percent, TCS fell 6 percent in today's trade.  Wipro , HDFC and ICICI Bank are major laggards in the Sensex. Among the gainers are Bajaj Auto , BHEL , Cipla , HUL and M&M.

03:30 pm Management speaks:
Home appliances manufacturer Bajaj Electricals is looking at a turnover of Rs 5,000 crore by the end of financial year 2014-15.

"This fiscal, we are looking at a turnover of Rs 4,200 crore. In the next financial year, the company is looking at a turnover of Rs 5,000 crore", chairman and managing director Shekhar Bajaj said.

Of that, about 2 percent, or Rs 100 crore, will accrue from exports, Bajaj said.

He also said the company would remain focussed on the low-end home appliances segment and would not venture in the white goods sector. "We are practically the market leader in almost in all the ome appliances segment like fans, toasters, OTG and others. We have a competitive edge in that segment," he added.

03:20 pm FM's speech:
Listing out the achievements of UPA government, Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Friday said the country has achieved tremendous growth in the past 10 years and will continue to do so in the next decade as well.

Addressing AICC members, he said the Congress should consider fielding at least 272 candidates below 35 years in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls in order to empower the youth and entrust them with more authority, power and responsibility.

"The last 10 years have been years of tremendous growth and development for India and next 10 years will also be years of tremendous growth and development for India. People of India will once again entrust the responsibility to the Congress Party," Chidambaram said.

03:10 pm Gold update:
Exports of gold jewellery from India in December dropped 30.4 percent from a year ago to USD 443.19 million, an industry body said on Friday. Gold jewellery exports from April to December fell 51.5 percent to USD 4.92 billion, the Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) said in a statement.

03:00 pm Market outlook
After a topsy-turvy 2013, Indian equities are likely to have smooth ride this year, expects Jayesh Gandhi, executive director, Morgan Stanley Mutual Fund. ''Given the fair amount of optimism, issues surrounding the Indian equity market seem to be ending. 2014 would be relatively better than 2013,'' he told CNBC-TV18 speaking from the sidelines of the IAIP's 4th India investment conference. Not only equity, but investors in fixed income are also posed to fetch better retu

rns this year, he added. According to him, the current economic environment signals that growth is bottoming out and the domestic cyclical theme is likely to play out over six-12 months.

02:45pm Reliance drags Sensex 200 points
The market plunged one percent in last hour of trade as Reliance Industries shed all i ts gains ahead of earnings for the quarter ended December 2013.

The Sensex lost 201.77 points to 21,063.41, and the Nifty fell 60.60 points to 6,258.30. Declining shares outnumbered advancing ones by a ratio of 1727 to 758 on the BSE.

HDFC, one of the index heavyweights, extended losses to 3 percent and TCS slipped further to 5.5 percent.

02:25pm The market continued to see selling pressure in afternoon trade weighed down by banks, telecom, metals and select technology stocks.

The Sensex declined 114.75 points to 21,150.43, and the Nifty slipped 26 points to 6,292.90. About two shares declined for every share advancing on the BSE.

HDFC Bank fell 0.7 percent. The country's second largest private sector lender matched street expectations on net profit front supported by other income but net interest income was below the forecast in the quarter ended December 2013.

Net profit of the bank grew 25 percent to Rs 2,326 crore from Rs 1,859 crore while net interest income, the difference between interest earned and interest earned, rose 22 percent to Rs 4,635 crore from Rs 3,799 crore year-on-year.

Reliance Industries gained more than a percent ahead of its third quarter earnings. Wipro too is going to announce its December quarter earnings after market hours; the stock dropped over 3 percent.

Net profit of Reliance Industries is seen edging lower to Rs 5,300 crore versus Rs 5,490 crore quarter-on-quarter, despite a boost from other income. Revenues for the firm are seen coming in flat, at Rs 1.04 lakh crore.

A CNBC-TV18 poll of analysts expects Wipro's operating profits to rise 5.7 percent to Rs 2,393 crore compared to Rs 2,264 crore in the previous quarter. Revenues are expected to go up to Rs 10,332 crore versus Rs 10,068 crore, an increase of 2.6 percent.

Coal India fell more than 9 percent as the stock goes ex-dividend today. The company declared an interim dividend of Rs 29 per share.

TCS shares crashed 5 percent post lower-than-expected revenues and margin in the quarter ended December 2013 while its rival Infosys gained 0.5 percent.

ICICI Bank, HDFC, Bharti Airtel , Axis Bank and Tata Steel lost 1-2 percent while HUL and Bajaj Auto climbed over 1.5 percent.

1:50 pm Rupee check: The rupee is trading at 61.33/34 after touching 61.3175, its highest since December 11 and below its close of 61.5350/5450 on Thursday, reports Reuters.

Traders say good foreign bank selling of the greenback likely on behalf of clients looking to invest in the debt market is hurting the pair.

The US dollar faded a little on Friday after a mixed bag of US economic data, while the Australian dollar was vulnerable after disappointing jobs figures the previous day knocked it below an important support level to a 3-1/2-year low.

1:40 pm Stock in news: Shares of Indian Oil Corporation ( IOC ) jumped 5 percent intraday on Friday as it gears up for a 10 percent stake sale. An empowered group of ministers (EGoM) approved selling 10 percent (or 24.27 crore shares) government stake in IOC to ONGC and OIL India to rake in Rs 4,800-5,000 crore.

Sudhir Vasudeva, Chairman and ONGC (which already holds 8.77 per cent stake in IOC) said "most likely" the 10 percent stake will be split equally between ONGC and OIL. "The 5 percent stake will cost us Rs 2,200 to Rs 2,300 crore and this amount will not have any bearing on our capital expenditure plans," he said. OIL is sitting on a cash pile of about Rs 8,000 crore.

Oil Secretary Vivek Rae said there will be no lock-in period and both ONGC and OIL would be free to encash their shares anytime. "We had wanted that there should be no lock-in period (for selling off the shares) and I think the EGoM has agreed to this. And this meets our concern," Vasudeva said.

1:30 pm Market outlook: Brokerage house HSBC Equities feels that the final price of 900 MHz spectrum is unlikely to exceed two times the reserve price, even if a strong contender like Reliance Jio were to bid in the upcoming auction next month.

News reports that the Mukesh Ambani promoted Reliance Jio may bid for both the 900 and 1800 spectrum bands caused shares of rival telecom firms Bharti Airtel and Idea to tumble on Thursday.

''We note there is still a possibility that Reliance may not have applied for 900 band and we await clarity. That said serious participation by Reliance Jio in 900 in our view would put definite pressure on 900 MHz pricing,'' said the HSBC note to clients.

The market is sliding further as banks, IT and realty stocks are succumbing to selling pressure. The Sensex is down 146.68 points at 21118.50, and the Nifty is down 37.70 points at 6281.20. About 793 shares have advanced, 1558 shares declined, and 251 shares are unchanged.

TCS is down over 5 percent post announcing its third quarter results. Wipro is also trading lower ahead of its earnings.

The other big earnings to watch out for is Reliance Industries . Reliance Industries is likely to report lower profits at Rs 5300 crore, gross revenue margins (GRMs) seen at USD 7.5 per barrel as compared with USD 7.7 per barrel last quarter.

Meanwhile, the dollar pushed higher on Friday and Asian stocks clawed their way off session lows, moving past downbeat results on Wall Street as some investors wagered that upcoming US data will paint an optimistic picture of the world's largest economy.

The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, held its ground on the day, adding 0.1 percent at 80.949.

The dollar was flat on the day against the yen at 104.34 yen, though it held well off a four-week low of 102.85 set on Monday. Against the euro, the dollar edged up to USD 1.3615.

12:59pm Gainers and Losers
Reliance Industries , Hindustan Unilever , Bajaj Auto and Tata Power gained more than a percent.

Infosys , Sun Pharma , Mahindra and Mahindra , Hero Motocorp , Cipla and GAIL were other gainers.

TCS , Axis Bank , Tata Motors , Infosys, Den Networks , HDFC Bank and HCL Technologies are most active shares on exchanges.

However, Coal India plunged more than 9 percent as it is quoting ex-dividend. The company announced an interim dividend of Rs 29 per share.

TCS tanked 5 percent on profit booking as well as lower-than-expected revenues and margin in the quarter ended December 2013.

12:53pm Reliance Industries to announce Q3 results after market hours

Operating and net profits for Reliance Industries ( RIL ) are expected to fall during the third quarter, when the conglomerate reports earnings Friday evening.

A CNBC-TV18 poll of analysts expects RIL to clock earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of Rs 7,420 crore in the October-December quarter, compared to Rs 7,850 crore in the previous quarter.

Net profit is seen edging lower to Rs 5,300 crore versus Rs 5,490 crore quarter-on-quarter, despite a boost from other income. Revenues for the firm are seen coming in flat, at Rs 1.04 lakh crore.

A key reason behind the fall in profits would be the high-base effect -- revenues in the previous quarter jumped to Rs 1.04 lakh crore from Rs 87,645 crore in the quarter before, and as its refining and petrochemicals are expected to remain pressured.

A key positive for the company was the government's decision in December last year to hike the gas price, a move unanimously analysts viewed as a positive for the company.

12:43pm Infotech Enterprises talks to CNBC-TV18
IT solutions company Infotech Enterprises is fairly confident of delivering strong results going forward. In Q3FY14, the company's net profit (Q-o-Q) declined 4.3 percent to Rs 69.39 crore versus Rs 72.5 crore. Its revenue in rupee terms increased 5.3 percent to Rs 578.4 crore verus Rs 549.3 crore, sequentially.

Speaking to CNBC-TV18 about the financial performance of the company, President and COO Krishna Bodanapu said three out of its four verticals had a record quarter, but he sees see muted growth in utilities and telecom segment for next few quarter. ''About 1 percent growth seen in this quarter may be attributed to seasonality,'' he added.

Meanwhile, the company expects its margins to remain flat going ahead and would be reinvesting excesses capital back into its business. Its Q3 EBITDA (Q-o-Q) stood at Rs 113.6 crore against Rs 108.8 crore.

12:33pm ITC stock unchanged post Q3 numbers
Tobacco major ITC surpassed street expectations on topline and bottomline in the December quarter, but operational performance fell short. Quarterly net profit rose more than 16 percent year-on-year to Rs 2,385 crore led by huge rise in other income.

Revenues jumped 13 percent to Rs 8,623 crore in the quarter ended December 2013 as against Rs 7,627 crore in a year ago period.

According to a CNBC-TV18 poll, analysts had expected profit after tax of Rs 2,345 crore (up 14.3 percent) on net sales of Rs 8,530 crore (up 11.8 percent) for the quarter.

A big positive for the company was that its FMCG business outside of cigarettes has broken even operationally amid a general slowdown in the segment.

Other income surged 59 percent on yearly basis to Rs 391 crore during the quarter.

12:23pm The market extended losses in noon trade with the 30-share BSE benchmark falling more than 100 points and the Nifty breaking the 6300-mark. It was weighed down by financials, metals and select technology stocks.

The Sensex declined 130.74 points to 21,134.44, and the Nifty slipped 31.80 points to 6,287.10. Declining shares outpaced advancing ones by a ratio of 1453 to 796 on the BSE.

Shares of Wipro dropped 3.5 percent ahead of its third quarter earnings due later in the day. The fall may be on account of IT leader TCS disappointed street on revenue and margin front in the quarter ended December 2013.

A CNBC-TV18 poll of analysts expects Wipro's operating profit to rise 5.7 percent to Rs 2,393 crore compared to Rs 2,264 crore in the previous quarter. Revenues are expected to go up to Rs 10,332 crore versus Rs 10,068 crore, an increase of 2.6 percent.

Shares of Mindtree plunged 6 percent as the Bangalore-based IT services exporter missed street expectations on the profit front while the rest of earnings (revenues and operational performance) were in-line. Net profit fell 31 percent sequentially to Rs 88.5 crore in the quarter ended December 2013 as it reported forex loss of Rs 27.2 crore as against forex gain of Rs 20 crore. The forex loss was higher than analysts' forecast of USD 3 million.

12:00 pm Boardroom: Basmati rice major KRBL expects its revenue to grow 20 percent going forward, driven by strong export demand, said the company's chairman and managing director Anil Mittal.

In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Mittal said export demand was improving and that West Asia remained the biggest market for the company. Mittal said he was not looking at capacity expansion in the near future as existing utilization was around 60 percent.

11:50 am Result poll: State-run PTC India will announce its third quarter (October-December) earnings today.

According to CNBC-TV18 poll, analysts expect the company to report strong results in the quarter ended December 2013 led by over 30 percent year-on-year growth in power trading volume and higher treasury income. They expect core trading volume to grow by over 40 percent on yearly basis. Growth in trading volume can be attributed to improvement in transmission infrastructure, due to commissioning of an important line at Raigad and increase in exchange-traded volumes, coupled with higher long-term volumes.

11:40 am Market outlook: Tirthankar Patnaik of Religare Capital Markets remains positive on the Indian IT sector and prefers investing in Infosys , HCL Technologies over TCS and Wipro .

According to him, TCS is trading at 20 times plus valuations, which is expensive. Also, he is not expecting good numbers from Wipro in Q3FY14.

He remains cautious on the overall banking space, but is betting on private sector lenders HDFC Bank and Yes Bank . From the pharma space, he is bullish on largecaps Sun Pharma , Lupin and Dr Reddy's . He likes IPCA Labs among small, midcap pharma stocks. Meanwhile, he said that Religare is turning incrementally positive on metals space.

11:30 am Results: Cigarette-FMCG-to-hotel major ITC surpassed street expectations on topline and bottomline front in December quarter , but operational performance fell short. Its third quarter net profit rose more than 16 percent year-on-year to Rs 2,385 crore led by huge rise in other income. Revenues jumped 13 percent to Rs 8,623 crore in the quarter ended December 2013 as against Rs 7,627 crore in a year ago period.

On the operational front, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation jumped 14.7 percent to Rs 3,181 crore and margin expanded 50 basis points to 36.9 percent in the December ended quarter as against analysts' forecast of 18.3 percent and 210 basis points growth, respectively.

The market continues to remain rangebound. The Sensex is down 25.86 points at 21239.32, and the Nifty slips 1.85 points at 6317.05. About 374 shares have advanced, 251 shares declined, and 133 shares are unchanged.

Rupee trades higher against the dollar tracking improvement in global risk appetite after US inflation, unemployment data released yesterday came along expected lines. Gilts also trade higher as market sentiment remains positive on easing WPI, CPI inflation rates in December.

Sonia Gandhi says decision on Rahul Gandhi is final and the Congress is ready and prepared for battle ahead. Sonia Gandhi spoke in the crucial All India Congress Committee meet. Yesterday the Congress party announced that Party Vice President Rahul Gandhi will not be named as the party's prime ministerial candidate, but he will lead the party's election campaign.

In the commodity space, Brent crude slipped toward USD 105 a barrel on Friday as concerns over a rise in supply from Libya and Iran dragged on prices, although an OPEC production cut checked losses.

Libya's crude production has partially recovered after it restarted output at the El Sharara field, while progress in nuclear talks between the major powers and Iran could soon ease sanctions that have curbed exports from the OPEC producer.

Brent crude fell 31 cents to USD 105.44 a barrel by 0345 GMT, on track for a weekly decline of 1.7 percent. US crude inched up 4 cents to USD 94 a barrel and was set to post its first weekly gain in three weeks.

10:59am KRBL talks to CNBC-TV18 post earnings
Basmati rice major KRBL expects its revenue to grow 20 percent going forward, driven by strong export demand, said the company's chairman and managing director Anil Mittal.

In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Mittal said export demand was improving and that West Asia remained the biggest market for the company.

Mittal said he was not looking at capacity expansion in the near future as existing utilization was around 60 percent.

The company's revenues for the December quarter rose 41 percent year-on-year to Rs 704, operating margins improved to 15.5 percent from 14 percent, and net profit surged two-and-a-half times to Rs 71 crore.

10:52am TCS plunges 4.4% post December quarter earnings
Shares of TCS slumped over 4 percent in intraday trade on Thursday after it announced December quarter earnings on Thursday evening. Though the software company reported a net profit of Rs 5,314 crore for the quarter ended December (up 13 percent sequentially), its quarterly revenues at Rs 21,294 crore were marginally lower than analysts estimates.

However, during the December quarter its revenue was up 1.5 percent quarter-on-quarter and 32.5 percent in the year-ago period. Nomura says Q3 results were a tad below expectations on growth and margins, though it is not a concern, as growth in geographies out of India remained strong and management's outlook is for better FY15 growth. The brokerage believes that margin miss was largely on sales investments to drive higher growth.

Meanwhile, CLSA says that the stock may take a breather in the near term as it saw massive move in the stock through 2013 (up over 70 percent) and the run-up over the last week. ''Investors will likely stay invested in the sector leader- TCS,'' it says.

10:42am Mindtree under pressure post Q3 earnings
Shares of Mindtree slid 7 percent on Friday after it announced December quarter earnings .The Bangalore-based IT services exporter missed street expectations on the profit front while the rest of earnings (revenues and operational performance) were in-line.

Net profit fell 31 percent sequentially to Rs 88.5 crore in the quarter ended December 2013 as it reported forex loss of Rs 27.2 crore as against forex gain of Rs 20 crore.

The forex loss was higher than analysts' forecast of USD 3 million.

According to CNBC-TV18 poll, analysts on an average had expected net profit of Rs 95.5 crore on revenues of Rs 790 crore for the quarter.

Revenues grew 2.7 percent quarter-on-quarter to Rs 790.6 crore while dollar revenues increased 2.7 percent to USD 127.1 million in the quarter gone by, which was lower compared to peer HCL Technologies (4 percent) and higher compared to Infosys (1.6 percent).

10:32am ITC to announce Q3 results today
ITC, the country's biggest cigarette maker, will announce its third quarter (October-December) results today. According to CNBC-TV18 poll, analysts expect company's performance to be one of the strongest among the FMCG or consumers space.

They see company's profit after tax rising 14.3 percent year-on-year to Rs 2,345 crore on net sales of Rs 8,530 crore (up 11.8 percent) in the quarter ended December 2013.

Revenues growth is expected to be lead by price hikes taken by company for cigarettes business, but that steep price hikes may keep the pain in cigarette volume growth in the December ended quarter.

Analysts expect around 2-3 percent drop in cigarette volumes as against more than 3 percent in April-September period of current financial year 2013-14.

10:22am HSBC on telecom specturm
Brokerage house HSBC Equities feels that the final price of 900 MHz spectrum is unlikely to exceed two times the reserve price, even if a strong contender like Reliance Jio were to bid in the upcoming auction next month.

News reports that the Mukesh Ambani promoted Reliance Jio may bid for both the 900 and 1800 spectrum bands caused shares of rival telecom firms Bharti Airtel and Idea to tumble on Thursday.

''We note there is still a possibility that Reliance may not have applied for 900 band and we await clarity. That said serious participation by Reliance Jio in 900 in our view would put definite pressure on 900 MHz pricing,'' said the HSBC note to clients.

''However the final price may not exceed 2x the reserve price, in our view assuming Vodafone and Bharti decide not to retain beyond 5 MHz,'' said the note.

The brokerage has shortlisted the options that Reliance Jio has before it, and the possibility of each of the options.

10:12am The market fell for the second consecutive session on profit taking, tracking weakness in its global peers. The Sensex declined 70.62 points to 21,194.56, and the Nifty fell 14.10 points to 6,304.80.

Coal India kept its top position in the selling list, falling nearly 9 percent as it trades ex-dividend today. The company on January 14 declared an interim dividend of Rs 29 per share.

TCS extended losses to 4 percent as the company disappointed the street with dollar revenue and margin though PAT beat analysts' expectations.

HDFC Bank declined 1.5 percent ahead of third quarter earnings. A CNBC-TV18 poll of analysts expect relatively strong earnings with 25 percent PAT growth fueled by stable provisions and operating leverage, compared to the weaker second quarter that was on account of higher cost of funding. Even asset quality of the lender is expected to be stable during the quarter, but that will be closely watched by analysts.

HDFC plunged over 2 percent followed by ITC, ICICI Bank , Axis Bank , BHEL and NTPC .

9:50 am Buzzing: Jet Airways falls 2 percent as in an unexpected move, Jet Airways Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Gary Kenneth Toomey announced his immediate departure from the airline.

"Gary Kenneth Toomey, chief executive of the company has resigned with immediate effect," Jet Airways said in a BSE filing.

Toomey, who was appointed only last June on a three-year contract, could not be immediately reached for comments.  Ravishankar Gopalakrishnan, the chief financial officer of the airline, will officiate as the "acting chief executive officer" till the board appoints a new chief, the airline said.

9:40 am Boardroom: TCS chief executive N Chandrasekaran expects India business to be slack over the next three quarters, even as the company boasts of a strong international deal pipeline.

In an i nterview to CNBC-TV18 's Menaka Doshi, Chandrasekaran said public sector deal decisions in India were getting postponed. And while TCS is hopeful of the FY15 being a strong year for the company, Chandrasekaran is not factoring a big growth in its India business.

He is bullish on the US, European and Latin American markets, and on the digital business. He said the company was hopeful of better prices once volumes in digital picked up. Chandrasekaran is betting on a USD 4-5 billion opportunity in the digital space.

9:30 am Big fall! Coal India fell nearly 10 percent in early trade as the stock is quoting ex-dividend. The country's largest coal mining company on January 14 announced an interim dividend of Rs 29 per share for the financial year 2013-14.

The company has fixed January 20 as the record date for the purpose of payment of interim divided that will be paid on and from January 25.

Coal India will pay total dividend of Rs 18,317 crore and out of that the government, which holds 90 percent shareholding, will get Rs 16,485.71 crore.

The market opened on a flat note. The Sensex is down 35.11 points at 21230.07, and the Nifty is down 12.65 points at 6306.25. About 191 shares have advanced, 122 shares declined, and 122 shares are unchanged.

Coal India lost 9 percent as it is quoting ex-dividend, while TCS fell 3 percent post announcing its third quarter results. BHEL , ICICI Bank and ONGC are other laggards in the Sensex.  Axis Bank , Tata Steel , Bharti Airtel , Cipla and Reliance are other gainers in the Sensex.

Indian rupee opened higher at 61.50 against US dollar on Friday versus previous day's closing value of 61.53 per dollar.

The US dollar fades a little in early trade after two days of gains, as a run of mixed US economic data left the market uncertain about its future direction.

Wall Street closed Thurdsay lower on disappointing earnings. The S&P 500 slipped from its record highs. Europe too closed in the red while Asia is soft in morning trade.