Sensex ends almost flat, Nifty closes just above 9650; Tata Group stocks gain

3:30 pm Market at Close: Equity benchmark indices ended the session on a sluggish note, with the Nifty ending just above the 9650-mark.

The Sensex closed down 14.04 points at 31297.53, while the Nifty ended lower by 4.05 points at 9653.50. The market breadth was negative as 1,220 shares advanced against a decline of 1,440 shares, while 171 shares were unchanged.

Tata Motors, Tata Motors DVR and Tata Power gained the most on both indices, while Lupin, Axis Bank, Power Grid and Eicher Motors lost the most.

3:17 pm Europe Update: European bourses edged higher, as investors turned their attention to individual stock news and data.

Sterling fell to a one-week low of 1.2671 against the US dollar after the Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney said now is not the time to raise rates.

France's CAC, Germany's DAX and Britain's FTSE were up 0.2-0.4 percent.

3:05 pm Buzzing: Tata Motors shares rallied 4 percent intraday on buzz of initial public offering of Jaguar Land Rover that was bought by the company in 2008 for USD 2.4 billion.

"Tata Group is considering an initial public offering of Jaguar Land Rover, the luxury-car maker," Bloomberg said quoting people familiar with the matter.

The conglomerate is weighing London and New York as possible listing venues for Jaguar Land Rover, it added. But the company has denied these reports saying there is no truth in the information.

JLR is the major contributor to company's topline as well as bottomline. It contributed more than 75 percent to company's total revenue of Rs 2.75 lakh crore in the year ended March 2017 against Rs 2.78 lakh crore in previous year.

2:45 pm Interview: In an interview to CNBC-TV18, PS Patel, CMD of PSP Projects said he expects revenue upwards of Rs 650 crore in FY18.

According to him, cost of material depends on consumption pattern.

He expects Rs 70-90 crore on the bottomline.

2:26 pm Market Check: Equity benchmarks continued to consolidate in afternoon trade while the broader markets were off day's high after a rally in previous session.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 14.68 points at 31,296.89 and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 1.25 points to 9,656.30.

The market breadth was negative as about 1,446 shares declined against 1,119 advancing shares on the BSE.

HDFC, Axis Bank, Lupin and NTPC fell more than 1 percent whereas Tata Motors extended rally to 4 percent followed by Infosys, ONGC and Tata Motors DVR.

1:50 pm Fundraising activity: Mortgage lender HDFC Ltd will raise Rs 775 crore by issuing bonds on private placement basis as part of arranging long term capital.

The object of the issue is to augment long term resources of the Corporation, HDFC said in a regulatory filing today.

"The proceeds of the present issue would be utilised for financing/refinancing the housing finance business requirements of the Corporation," it added.

The secured redeemable non-convertible debentures offering 7.28 per cent coupon rate are set to mature on March 25, 2019.

1:21 pm GST rollout: Ending months of debate and deliberation, the Goods and Service Tax (GST) will see the light of the day on June 30 midnight when the government rolls out the new tax regime. The official switch-over to the GST will happen at midnight of June 30, 2017, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Wednesday.

The government has scheduled an elaborate event in Parliament's Central Hall, in presence of who's-who of ministerial and political circles, to launch GST late on June 30.

The switch-over to GST will happen at midnight in the presence of President Pranab Mukherjee, Vice-President Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, Jaitley said. Former Prime Ministers Manmohan Singh and HD Deve Gowda will be present at the function, he added.

1:05 pm Market Check: Benchmark indices turned negative after consolidating through the morning session, with the Nifty trading just above 9650-mark.

The Sensex was down 3.18 points at 31308.39, while the Nifty was down 0.60 points at 9656.95. The market breadth was negative as 1,124 shares advanced against a decline of 1,346 shares, while 158 shares were unchanged.

Lupin and Axis Bank were the top losers, while Tata Motors, Tata Motors DVR and Tata Power gained the most.

12:55 pm Over 100 stocks hit 52-week high: After a strong rally seen in the previous trading session, the S&P BSE Sensex was consolidating in a narrow range of about 80 points, but there was plenty of action in individual stocks which rose up to 17 percent.

As much as 109 stocks rose to fresh 52-week highs on the BSE which include names like Disa India, Can Fin Homes, Balkrishna Industries, BEML, Bajaj Finance, UPL, Gulf Oil Lubricants, LIC Housing Finance, Godrej Industries, and GIC Housing Finance.

Stocks like Hilton Metal rose 17 percent, followed by B L Kashyap which rallied 12 percent, Bharat Bijlee rose 10 percent and Roto Pumps surged 10.4 percent on Tuesday.

12:45 pm Appointment: BNP Paribas Mutual Fund has appointed Ritesh Jain as Chief Investment Officer with immediate effect, a release from the fund house stated.

Jain will report to Deputy Chief Executive Officer and Head of Investments Anand Shah and will be responsible for leading a team of investment professionals managing a wide range of funds across different asset classes.

Prior to joining BNP Paribas, Jain was Chief Investment Officer at Tata Mutual Fund.

12:25 pm Market Check: Consolidation continued on the D-Street on Tuesday, with benchmark indices trading almost flat during the afternoon trade.

The Sensex was up 10.22 points at 31321.79, while the Nifty was up 4.20 points at 9661.75. The market breadth was negative as just 1,195 shares advanced against a decline of 1,234 shares, while 147 shares were unchanged.

Tata Motors, Tata Motors DVR and Tata Power gained the most on both indices, while Lupin and HDFC lost the most.

12:00 pm IPO on cards? The Tata Group may be considering an initial public offering (IPO) of Jaguar Land Rover, according to a report in Bloomberg.

Jaguar Land Rover is a subsidiary of Tata Motors.

The report quotes people familiar with the matter as saying that top Tata officials have held preliminary internal discussions in recent months over listing the luxury car maker, which it bought nearly a decade ago for USD 2.4 billion, on an international stock exchange. London and New York are being considered as the possible venues, the report added.

11:50 am Buzzing Stocks: Shares of non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) rose between 2 and 4 percent intraday on Tuesday on the back of developments around farm loan waivers.

Satin Creditcare, Bharat Financial Inclusion, Equitas Holdings, Mahindra and Mahindra Financial Services as well as Bajaj Finance all reacted positively to the farm loan waiver cap of Rs 1 lakh in Maharashtra and Rs 2 lakh in Punjab. Management commentary by these firms indicate very little or no hit on their finances.

Bharat Financial Inclusion also rose on the back of buzz around its merger. Its management told CNBC-TV18 that an announcement on its merger is likely in the next few months.

11.12 am Market Check: Benchmark indices continued to consolidate in morning trade, with the Nifty trading in a range of 20 points due to lack of global and domestic cues.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 38.98 points at 31,350.55 and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 9.25 points at 9,666.80.

HDFC, HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Lupin and TCS were under pressure while Infosys and Tata Motors continued to be leading contributor to Sensex' gains.

10:50 am FII View: Credit Suisse does not feel so. ''I don't expect earnings to improve in the next 3-4 quarters. The momentum is weak and broader economy is unlikely to pick up any steam,'' Neelkanth Mishra, MD & India Equity Strategist at Credit Suisse told CNBC-TV18. He added that the economy was going through structural transitions and this period could last longer.

Having said that, Mishra said that the market moves were largely driven by PE ratio. Any correction in this market would only be if a global liquidity fall is seen, he added.

10:17 am Buzzing: Tata Power shares gained as much as 4 percent in morning trade as the company is expected to dilute its stake in India Energy Exchange through initial public offering.

The company is one of shareholders of Indian Energy Exchange that has filed draft red herring prospectus with capital markets regulator SEBI to float an IPO.

Existing shareholders including Tata Power Company, private equity arm of Aditya Birla Group, Madison India Capital and Renuka Ramnath-led Multiples Alternate Asset Management will sell 60.65 lakh shares in the company via IPO.

Besides, AF Holdings, Kiran Vyapar Ltd, Golden Oak (Mauritius) Ltd and IEX's former chief executive Jayant Deo, will also offload shares in the public issue, according to the draft red herring prospectus (DRHP).

10:00 am Market Check: Benchmark indices continued to trade higher amid consolidation in morning trade.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 47.64 points at 31,359.21 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 10.50 points to 9,668.05.

About 1006 shares advanced against 836 declining shares on the BSE.

Tata Power gained more than 3 percent after India Energy Exchange filed IPO papers with SEBI. It is one of shareholders in the exchange.

9:44 am Buzzing: ICICI Bank recouped opening losses, to trade higher with nearly a percent gains after the stock price adjusted for bonus shares issue.

The country's largest private sector lender, on May 3, announced issue of bonus shares in the ratio of 1:10 i.e one equity share of Rs 2 each for every ten fully paid-up equity shares held (including ADS holders) as on the record date.

The record date for issue of bonus shares is fixed as June 21.

"The post-bonus paid-up share capital is expected to be around Rs 1,281.62 crore, consisting of 640.8 crore shares of Rs 2 each," the bank had said in its filing on May 4.

The actual number of bonus shares to be issued will be determined based on the paid-up share capital as on the record date as well as the adjustments which will need to be done to the outstanding unexercised grant of stock options on the record date, it added.

9:32 am FII View: Bharat Iyer of JP Morgan said the sharp 18 percent rally since the beginning of the year has taken the Nifty past 2017 base case target of 9,300 and tracking around bull case target of 9,600 set in December 2016.

The rally has been driven by global risk-on and local policy support, including a 100 bps cut in lending rates, the BJP's positive showing in state elections and progress on implementation of the GST, he reasoned.

He feels equity markets appear fully valued on a near-term basis. "We have been calling for the markets to pause for a breather over the last two months. We continue to call for consolidation," Iyer said.

9:15 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks extended gains in opening despite mixed Asian cues on Tuesday.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 34.09 points at 31,345.66 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 9.10 points to 9,666.65 amid consolidation.

Tata Power, Tata Motors, Infosys, Tata Motors DVR, ICICI Bank, L&T and Bharti Infratel were strong in early trade whereas TCS, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Lupin, Bajaj Auto and SBI were losers.

Bharat Financial Inclusion, NBCC and Fortis Healthcare were early gainers among midcaps. Amtek Auto, Bhushan Steel and Lanco Infratech fell further, down 5-8 percent.

The Indian rupee opened marginally lower at 64.48 per dollar against previous close of 64.43.

Bhaskar Panda of HDFC Bank expects the USD-INR pair to trade in a range of 64.40-64.60/dollar today.

Asian indexes turned mixed as markets awaited MSCI's decision on the potential inclusion of mainland Chinese stocks, even as the dollar strengthened.