Sensex ends above 28000 for 1st time; Tata Steel slips 2%

Equity benchmarks continued record breaking spree with the Sensex closing above the 28000-mark for the first time on the back of buying in rate sensitives - banking & financials and autos stocks. However, the market halved its gains in last couple of hours of trade due to weak European cues.

The 30-share BSE Sensex rose 98.84 points to close at 28008.90 and the 50-share NSE Nifty hit 8400 level during the day but could not hold the same, up 20.65 points to end at 8383.30. The broader markets gained too, the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices climbed 0.5 percent and 0.2 percent, respectively.

Experts believe the market may continue to hit new high in medium term amid intermittent consolidation and correction.

Prolonging bullish tone of the market, Ravi Muthukrishnan, Co-head research, ICICI Securities has a Nifty target of 9,200 in a year's time. In addition, he expects earnings to grow 16-18 percent in FY15-16.

With most earnings meeting street estimates, winter session of Parliament coming in and anticipation of various reforms encircling the Budget, he sees huge upside for the market hereon.

According to, Motilal Oswal, CMD ,Motilal Oswal Financial Services, the themes playing in Indian markets currently are the massive balance sheet expansion by Bank of Japan, probable balance sheet expansion by the ECB early next year, collapsing commodity prices due to a strong US dollar and a slowing Chinese economy leading to a slowing inflation  and eventual softening interest rates in India

On the global front, major Asian markets closed higher with the Nikkei hitting a fresh seven-year high (up 0.4 percent) as media report suggested that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will delay a second sales tax hike to avoiding damaging Japan's economic recovery, and call a snap election to cement his position. China's Shanghai and Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.5-1 percent.

However, European markets trimmed losses to trade with marginal losses (at 16:30 hours IST). In early trade, Germany's DAX and France's CAC had declined 1-1.5 percent after the announcement of regulatory penalties for the alleged manipulation of forex markets. The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has imposed fines totalling more than USD 1.7 billion on lenders like Citi Bank, JPMorgan Chase and UBS.

Back home, rate sensitives like banks and autos indices touched record highs intraday ahead October CPI and September industrial output data that will be announced today evening.

Private sectore lenders ICICI Bank and Axis Bank rallied 1.3 percent and 3 percent, respectively. HDFC Bank was up 0.5 percent and SBI gained 0.2 percent while housing finance company HDFC climbed over a percent.

Auto stocks like Tata Motors, Hero Motcorp and Bajaj Auto rallied 1.5-2 percent followed by Maruti with 0.8 percent whereas M&M fell 0.6 percent. Media report suggested that commercial vehicle maker Tata Motors and utility vehicle maker Mahindra & Mahindra announced price increases in the range of 1-2 percent, citing higher input costs.

Cigarette maker ITC was up 1.5 percent.

Tata Steel fell more than 2 percent ahead of second quarter earnings. After market hours, the steel maker said its consolidated profit grew by 36.8 percent year-on-year to Rs 1,254 crore for the July-September quarter led by income from land sale in Mumbai. Earnings missed street expectations on every front.

Shares of L&T, Cipla, Sun Pharma, NTPC and Tata Power were down 1-3 percent.

In the broader space, state-run Oil India lost more than 2 percent after reporting a 32.7 percent decline in net profit at Rs 608.3 crore in July-September quarter on lower revenues and operational income.

Bajaj Hindusthan climbed 6 percent after the company reduced its net loss significantly to Rs 131 crore in July-September quarter from Rs 509.5 crore in same quarter previous fiscal led by lower expenses, cut in sugar business loss, higher other income and strong profit in distillery business.

About 1524 shares advanced while 1521 shares declined on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

03:30 pm Market closing
It is a day of breaking records. The benchmark indices have ended at record high levels once agian. The Sensex was up 98.84 points at 28008.90 and the Nifty was up 20.65 points at 8383.30. About 1517 shares advanced, 1528 shares declined, and 105 shares were unchanged.

Banks and auto lend major support. Axis Bank was up 3 percent while Bajaj Auto, Tata Motors, Hero and ITC were up 1-2 percent each.

Among the laggrads were Cipla, Tata Steel, NTPC and L&T.

02:55pm Interview
Shemaroo Entertainment has had a good first half this fiscal year. Its H1 FY15 PAT rose 73 percent year-on-year, driven by the digital business growth. Hiren Gada, whole-time director and CFO, Shemaroo Entertainment expects to see margin improvement ahead with digital business improving ahead. He says the company aims to do better in the second half of the fiscal year.

The company's EBITDA margins have been in the range of 23-27 percent. Gada says business on mobile platform has also been growing.

02:35pm Logistics stocks in demand
Transport Corporation, Gati, Snowman Logistics, Patel Integrated and Allcargo Logistics rallied 3-12 percent.

02:25pm Adani Enterprises in focus
Gujarat-based Adani Enterprises turned profitable with second quarter consolidated net at Rs 210 crore aided by strong operational performance. The loss in the year-ago quarter was Rs 417 crore.

The company missed street expectations on topline and bottomline front but beat estimates on operational front. Profit was expected at Rs 324 crore on revenue of Rs 15,584 crore for the quarter.

Consolidated total income from operations grew by 3.4 percent to Rs 14,067 crore in the quarter ended September 2014 compared to Rs 13,602 crore in same quarter last year.

Core operating profit (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) surged 64.1 percent year-on-year to Rs 2,985 crore and margin expanded 780 basis points to 21.2 percent in the quarter gone by, which both were higher than analysts' expectations of Rs 2,755 crore and 17.7 percent, respectively.

02:00pm Market Check
Equity benchmarks trimmed gains in afternoon trade with the Sensex climbing 104.93 points to 28014.99 and the Nifty rising 21 points to 8383.65 led by banking & financial and auto stocks.

About 1537 shares have advanced, 1392 shares declined, and 116 shares are unchanged on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Prolonging bullish tone of the market, Ravi Muthukrishnan, Co-head research, ICICI Securities has a Nifty target of 9,200 in a year's time. In addition, he expects earnings to grow 16-18 percent in FY15-16.

With most earnings meeting street estimates, winter session of Parliament coming in and anticipation of various reforms encircling the Budget, he sees huge upside for the market hereon.

Rate sensitives like banks and autos indices touched record highs ahead of the retail inflation data later today that is expected to be lower than in September. A CNBC-TV18 poll expects the October CPI to drop to 5.63 percent versus 6.46 percent in September on account of recovery in monsoon and sharp fall in commodity prices.

Bajaj Hindusthan climbed over 5 percent after the company reduced its net loss significantly to Rs 131 crore in July-September quarter from Rs 509.5 crore in same quarter previous fiscal led by lower expenses, cut in sugar business loss, higher other income and strong profit in distillery business.

Oil India fell nearly 3 percent after reporting profit of Rs 608.3 crore on revenue of Rs 2,081 crore for the quarter, which were lower than analysts' expectations of Rs 850 crore and Rs 2,600 crore, respectively.

Global markets remained under pressure. European markets like Germany's DAX and France's CAC declined 1-1.5% after the announcement of regulatory penalties for the alleged manipulation of forex markets. The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has imposed fines totalling more than USD 1.7 billion on lenders like Citi Bank, JPMorgan Chase and UBS.

1:50 pm Result: India Cements has turned profitable with July-September quarter net at Rs 7.5 crore as against loss of Rs 22.5 crore in the year-ago period on strong operational performance.

Total income from operations grew by 3.84 percent to Rs 1,136 crore in the quarter ended September 2014 from Rs 1,094 crore in same quarter last year.

Operating profit jumped 35.15 percent year-on-year to Rs 183 crore and margin expanded by 370 basis points to 16.1 percent in Q2FY15 on fall in operational expenses.

Employee expenses fell 3 percent on yearly basis to Rs 76.80 crore, other expenses dropped 20 percent to Rs 156.60 crore and power & fuel cost declined 3 percent to Rs 296.30 crore while transportation and handling cost increased 10.75 percent to Rs 265.13 crore in the quarter gone by.

1:30 pm Buzzing: Shares of Minda Industries touched record high at Rs 655 per share, up 17 percent intraday on Wednesday after it posted strong June-September quarter results. The company has posted a net profit of Rs 25.57 crore in the second quarter.

Group CFO Sudhir Jain said the improvement in volumes helped the topline. The volume growth of the company may rise from the current 15 percent to 20 percent in the quarters to come, he said in an interview to CNBC-TV18. The auto-components manufacturer is also expecting margins of around 13 percent in next three-four quarters versus 8 percent currently.

The board has also approved hiving-off of the running business of battery division of the company, located at Pant Nagar, Uttrakhand to a prospective joint venture between Minda Industries and Panasonic Corporation.

The market still continues to maintain uptrend with the Sensex gaining 145.97 points at 28056.03. The Nifty is up 35.10 points at 8397.75. About 1570 shares have advanced, 1237 shares declined, and 116 shares are unchanged.

Bajaj Auto, Axis Bank, Tata Motors, Hero Moto and ICICI Bank are top gainers in the Sensex. Among the losers are Tata Steel, Cipla, NTPC, HUL and Tata Power.

Brent crude dropped below USD 81 a barrel, holding just above a four-year low as concerns over a mounting oil glut outweighed geopolitical and supply disruption risks in Ukraine and Libya. With oil prices having fallen 30 percent from a mid-June peak, whispering among OPEC delegates ahead of its Nov 27 meeting is starting to suggest it could informally cut output by around 500,000 barrels a day (bpd).

Japanese stocks gained as investors gave the thumbs-up to a media report that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will delay a second sales tax hike to avoiding damaging Japan's economic recovery, and call a snap election to cement his position.

The Nikkei benchmark closed up 0.4 percent at 17,197.05, its highest since October 2007.

12:55pm Interview
Minda Industries soared 13 percent intraday on Wednesday to Rs 635 after reporting nearly five-fold jump in net profit to Rs 26 crore for the July-September quarter, due to strong operational income and exceptional item gain on account of sale of battery division.

The company had profit of Rs 5.12 crore in the same quarter year ago.

Speaking to CNBC-TV18, group CFO Sudhir Jain said the improvement in volumes helped the topline. The volume growth of the company may rise from the current 15 percent to 20 percent in the quarters to come.

The auto-components manufacturer is also expecting margins of around 13 percent in next three-four quarters versus 8 percent currently.

The company is currently operating at 80-85 percent capacity utilisation and expects it to improve to 95 percent in second half of FY15.

Minda has also expanded its Manesar plant in last two years and has added a plant in Hosur recently. The company is not serious about any further acquisitions currently, Jain added.

12:40pm Nikkei at fresh 7-year high
Japanese stocks gained, as investors gave the thumbs-up to a media report that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will delay a second sales tax hike to avoiding damaging Japan's economic recovery, and call a snap election to cement his position.

The Nikkei benchmark closed up 0.4 percent at 17,197.05, its highest since October 2007.

Department store shares outperformed the market as the prospect of retailers avoiding damage to sales similar to that caused by April's tax hike boosted sentiment.

The broader Topix advanced 0.4 percent to 1377.05, while the JPX-Nikkei Index 400 closed up 0.2 percent at 12,580.85, reports Reuters.

12:20pm Market Expert
Prolonging bullish tone of the market, Ravi Muthukrishnan, Co-head research, ICICI Securities has a Nifty target of 9,200 in a year's time. In addition, he expects earnings to grow 16-18 percent in FY15-16.

With most earnings meeting street estimates, winter session of Parliament coming in and anticipation of various reforms encircling the Budget, he sees huge upside for the market hereon.

In an interview to CNBC-TV18, he advises investors to look at quality midcap stocks, as discount between largecaps and midcaps have struck down dramatically.

12:00pm Market Check
The market continued to trade strong with the Sensex rising 144.19 points to 28054.25 and the Nifty climbing 32.85 points to 8395.50 led by auto and financial stocks.

About 1520 shares have advanced while 1199 shares declined on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

In key macro data to watch for today is October CPI and September industrial output which will be announced after market hours. A CNBC-TV18 poll expects consumer price index to come in sharply lower at 5.63 percent versus 6.46 percent in September while industrial activity is also expected to pick up, which is seen at 2 percent versus 0.4 percent in August.

Power Grid Corporation of India fell over 2 percent after its second quarter earnings missed street estimates. Total income came in higher by 4.5 percent while PAT came in lower by 3.1 percent at Rs 1,200 crore.

In key earnings, Tata Steel declined more than a percent lower as a CNBC-TV18 poll expects topline to fall by 2 percent due to weak European volumes though Indian volumes will be marginally higher. Profits are expected to decline by 35 percent owing to higher effective tax rate at the consolidated level.

Aurobindo Pharma gained 3.7 percent after the company's US subsidiary emerged as highest bidder to acquire Natrol with bid of USD 132.5 million while GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals too gained 3.7 percent after CNBC-TV18 learnt that the company has shortlisted a buyer for it's Thane property worth Rs 1,000 crore.

11:50 am Market outlook: The more fragile the world is, the greater the liquidity will be to emerging markets, said Nandan Chakraborty, MD-Institutional Equity Research, Axis Capital . He says that one needs to be circumspect of money volume invested in markets and advises investors to be ''stock-specific and not sector-specific''. Stating that reforms in India are more about co-ordination, Chakraborty said that induction of good ministers in Cabinet will speed up the process.

He is hopeful of greater clarity on reforms by Budget. According to Chakraborty, interest rates are bound to fall, but he does not expect RBI to cut rates in December policy. India is in a sweet spot currently and FII response has been positive in the past few months, said Dharmesh Mehta, Deputy CEO, Axis Capital.

11:30 am Boardroom: Flexible packaging company Uflex 's consolidated net profit grew over 40 percent at Rs 65 crore. Uflex group president - finance RK Jain says the market conditions have been favourable for the company. It saw an improvement in pricing, resulting in better financials. The company is also benefiting from falling crude prices as it is affecting prices of crude derivatives, which is used by it as raw material. However, Jain says the impact of crude prices will be passed on to customers.

At the very best, the company can see some tactical gains, he adds. He does expect major reduction in margins on reduced crude price. Uflex's total global debt stands at over Rs 2,000 crore, with debt to equity ratio at 0.8:1.

Jain expects to see a reduction in interest cost on reducing debt. He expects to see better pricing and volume growth ahead with demand supply gap reducing. He expects to invest around USD 300 million on capex over the next three years.

The market is still holding its gain led by auto and banking stocks. The Sensex is up 168.49 points at 28078.55 and the Nifty is up 38.60 points at 8401.25. About 1466 shares have advanced, 971 shares declined, and 81 shares are unchanged.

Bajaj Auto, Tata Motors, BHEL, Hero Motocorp and Axis Bank are top gainers while Tata Power, NTPC, HUL, Tata Steel and L&T are losers in the Sensex.

Asian markets take strong cues from the US to trade mixed. Nikkei hits a fresh 7-year high in trade while Shanghai remains weak. Brent drops towards USD 81 per barrel on concerns over a mounting oil glut which outweighed supply disruption risks.

10:58am Aurobindo in Focus
Shares of Aurobindo Pharma jumped 4 percent after its US arm emerged as the highest bidder for acquisition of nutritional supplement maker, Natrol and other affiliate entities under a process to be finally approved by the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

''Under the auction process, Aurobindo USA emerged as the highest and best bidder with a bid of USD 132.5 million to acquire the assets of Natrol with an agreement to take on certain liabilities,'' it said in a statement.

Natrol manufactures and sells nutritional supplements in USA and other international market.

10:45am Bayer CropScience spikes 12%
Agro-chemical firm Bayer CropScience posted a 52.02 percent increase in its net
profit at Rs 176.10 crore for the second quarter ended of this fiscal on account of increase in income from operations.

The company had clocked a net profit of Rs 116.50 crore in the year ago period. Total income from operations rose to Rs 1,241 crore in July-September quarter from Rs 1,050.40 crore in the comparable quarter year ago period, the company said in a BSE filing.

10:30am Interview
Shalimar Paints slumped over 4 percent after it posted a weak set of numbers. The company has made a loss of over Rs 2 crore in Q2FY15 compared with a profit in excess of Rs 4 crore last year. The company's margins too cracked over 700 basis points to barely 1.5 percent but the company is in an aggressive product launch mode now.

Sameer Nagpal, managing director, says the company is looking to launch atleast four new products in Q3 and a new product per quarter after that.

Nagpal says the company will show strong growth in Q3 on the back of new capacities.

10:20am Tyre stocks in demand
Apollo Tyres gains 3.2%, JK Tyre and Industries rises 4.6% and Ceat gains 7.6%.

Traders say operating margins may increase further as key raw material prices decline. Natural rubber prices in the local market are near five-year lows.

Brent drops towards USD 81 as oil glut worries counter disruption risks. Crude prices have dropped by over 25 percent since June, reports Reuters.

10:10am Smartphone sales jump
Growing consumer preference for Internet-enabled phones and falling prices has helped
smartphone sales in India to grow 65 percent to 23.5 million units in the third quarter of 2014, a report by Counterpoint Research said on Tuesday.

This is against sales of over 14 million smartphones sales in July-September 2013 period, Counterpoint said in its Market Monitor Q3 2014 Report.

On a quarter on quarter basis, sales were up over 23 percent from about 19 million units in April-June 2014 quarter, reports PTI.

10:00am Market Check
The market continued to trade at record high on Wednesday. The 50-share NSE Nifty touched the 8400-mark led by banks and auto stocks, up 38.50 points at 8401.15.

The 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 181.85 points to 28091.91. More than two shares advanced for every share declining on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Aditya Narain, Citigroup says the money is now gushing in. ''It's the FII, the recently inspired domestic investor, and the biggest, the foreign debt investor who are in focus. The India flow tide has turned decisively: it's high, rising and could well have a long way to go,'' he adds.

''Ride the wave, but remember… tides do turn. While we do believe there will be small swells and ebbs, the inflow tide should stay strong for a while. We remain positive on the Indian market, and maintain our 31,000 Sensex target for December 2015,'' says Narain.

Bajaj Auto and Tata Motors topped the buying list, rising over 2.5 percent followed by Hero Motocorp, HDFC, Axis Bank and Ambuja Cements climbed 1-1.75 percent.

However, Tata Steel, Power Grid, Jindal Steel and NMDC fell 1-2 percent. HCL Technologies, NTPC, Tata Power, Larsen and Toubro and HUL declined 0.3-0.9 percent.

Ceat, HUL, Force Motors, Persistent Systems, JK Tyre, Hero Motocorp, SBI and Aurobindo Pharma were most active shares on exchanges.

9:50 am Result estimates: Private steel maker Tata Steel is expected to report a 35.3 percent decline in consolidation profit after tax at Rs 593 crore in July-September quarter compared to Rs 917 crore in the year-ago period due to higher tax rate, according to the average of estimates of analysts polled by CNBC-TV18. In Q2FY14, there was a deferred tax of Rs 390.02 crore.

Revenue during the quarter is seen falling 1.8 percent to Rs 35,990 crore in the quarter ended September 2014 from Rs 36,644.9 crore in same quarter last year due to weak European volumes (though Indian volumes may be marginally higher).

Operating profit (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) may grow 9.5 percent year-on-year to Rs 4,057 crore and margin may expand 120 basis points to 11.3 percent in the quarter gone by.

9:30 am Macro data poll: Inflation based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the month of October is seen at 5.63 percent versus 6.46 percent on a month-on-month basis, another new low for the index since it started in January 2012, says a CNBC-TV18 poll. Even the industrial output (IIP) for September is expected to come at 2 percent versus 0.4 percent in August.

CPI-based inflation eased for the second month in a row to 6.46 percent in September, compared with a downward revised 7.73 percent a month ago. It is expected to come in at its lowest since the new index was started on the back of a recovery in monsoon, which prevented food inflation from becoming a nasty shock.

Following the trend of past three months, one can see that food inflation peaked in July and after that it has been falling month-on-month. In July, it stood up 2.7 percent against the previous, while it fell by 1.6 percent and 0.3 percent in August and September, respectively. October prices are expected to be down by about 7 percent against September on a sharp fall in vegetable and cereal prices.

However, industrial output numbers (IIP), expected at 2 percent, could be bit of negative news. According to the poll, it can range from 1 to 2 percent, while many respondents also gave zero as the expected IIP growth, which means no growth at all. 

The market has opened at new record high following strong global cues. The Sensex is up 48.58 points at 27958.64 and the Nifty is up 27.70 points at 8390.35. About 504 shares have advanced, 141 shares declined, and 27 shares are unchanged.

Coal India, Tata Power, Tata Steel, BHEL and Reliance are top gainers in the Sensex. Among the losers are Infosys, NTPC and Wipro.

The Indian rupee opened flat at 61.52 per dollar versus 61.55 Tuesday.The yen hovers around seven-year lows against the dollar early on reports that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will call a general election in December.

NS Venkatesh of IDBI Bank said, "Both rupee & bond markets will closely watch the macro economic data release lined up later today. Rupee markets will also take cues from equity markets."

"Softening of inflation will be positive for currency and the rupee is expected to marginally strengthen against the dollar on the back of trade flows as well as capital flows. We expect a narrow USD-INR range of Rs 61.45-61.60/dollar," he added.

The US markets closed marginally higher with both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite hitting record highs. Meanwhile, Asian markets are mixed in morning trade with Japan's Nikkei hitting a new 7-year high.

In commodities, Brent crude prices trade around USD 81 per barrel after falling on Tuesday to USD 80.46, the lowest level since September 2010. From precious metals space, gold prices steady as demand for physical metal picked up after the previous day's 2 percent slide.