Sensex ends flat, Nifty below 10,600; pharma gains

3:30 pm Market at Close: The market began the week on a good note, but have ended flat now. The Nifty managed to breach 10,600-mark.

The Sensex is up 35.19 points at 34450.77, while the Nifty is up 20.70 points at 10584.70. The market breadth was narrow as 1391 shares advanced, against a decline of 1290 shares, while 165 shares are unchanged.

IndusInd Bank and Mahindra & Mahindra were the top gainers, while HDFC Bank, Hero MotoCorp, Indiabulls Housing, and Hindalco were the top losers.

3:15 pm Rupee reference rate: The Reserve Bank of India today fixed the reference rate of the rupee at 66.2177 against the US dollar and 81.2690 for the euro.

The corresponding rates were 66.0167 and 81.4580, as on friday April 20.

The according to an RBI statement, the exchange rates for the pound and the yen against the rupee were 92.8438 and 61.40 per 100 yens, respectively, based on reference rates for the dollar and cross-currency quotes at noon.

2:50 pm Europe Trade: European markets edged lower as investors reacted to fresh corporate earnings, while keeping an eye on geopolitics and oil.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 was 0.2 percent lower with different sectors moving in opposite directions.

2:45 pm Market Update: Benchmark indices were off their day's high due to depreciation in the rupee and weak global cues.

The sharp depreciation in the rupee for sixth consecutive day pushed technology stocks higher, but kept the market volatile.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 121.09 points at 34,536.67 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 47.80 points to 10,611.80, backed by IT and Pharma stocks.

Nifty IT and Pharma indices gained 1.6 percent each whereas ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and metals stocks were under pressure.

2:32 pm Deccan Gold Mines hits 20% upper circuit: The gold mining company said the Ganajur ML application file has been cleared by the

Principal Law Secretary, Law Department, Government of Kamataka, positive in nature, on compliance of the file with the provisions of the Mines and Minerals (Development & Regulation) Act, 1957 (MMDR), provided by the Deputy, Additional and Special Secretaries in the normal course ofprogression ofthe file within the Law Department.

The file has been forwarded to the Secretary, Commerce & Industries Department, Government of Kamataka (C & I) for further action with regard to the issuance of the Grant Notification Letter, it added.

2:18 pm Results Date: Cera Sanitaryware said a board of directors of the company will be held May 3 to approve standalone and consolidated audited financial results for the quarter and year ended 31st March 2018, and to recommend dividend, if any.

2:11 pm Gold Slides: Gold fell by Rs 140 to Rs 32,310 per ten gram at the bullion market owing to tepid demand from local jewellers amid a weak global trend.

Silver also went down by Rs 150 to Rs 41,350 per kg due to reduced offtake by industrial units and coin makers.

Traders said easing demand from local jewellers as well as retailers at domestic spot market fulled the downtrend in gold prices.

This was aided by a weak trend in global markets where gold prices slipped to their lowest level in nearly two weeks as the dollar rose on the back of climbing US Treasury yields and as global political concerns eased, reports PTI.

2:05 pm Rupee Update: The Indian rupee extended its correction, falling 24 paise to 66.34 against the US dollar.

1:50 pm Infra lending may take back seat: With the Reserve Bank giving no

relaxation to its February 12 framework on resolution of stressed assets, banks are likely to become more cautious and risk-averse to long-term funding, especially to the infrastructure sector, say lenders.

On February 12, the central bank had come out with revised framework for resolution of stressed assets. The new set of rules aim at quick reporting of defaults, coming out with resolution plans for defaulting companies and time-bound referrals of defaulting firms to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).

Owing to certain stringent criterion in the new framework, which includes one-day reporting of defaults, lenders have asked for some leniency but the apex bank has not granted any relaxation to its February 12 circular.

"The RBI is very clear that they are not going to give any relaxation (on the February 12 framework). Now, I think banks will become very cautious and risk averse, particularly on the long-term funding in sectors such as power, road and ports," said a senior banker.

Bankers said most of the restructuring happens in long

term projects in the infrastructure sectors, reports PTI.

1:38 pm Market Update: The market extended gains in afternoon, with the Sensex rising nearly 200 points following further upmove in technology stocks.

Infosys extended gains to 3 percent following value buying in TCS, HCL Technologies, Tech Mahindra. The Nifty IT index was up 2.5 percent followed by Pharma and Realty.

1:31 pm Maithan Alloys to consider Dividend: Maithan Alloys said a meeting of the board of directors of the company will be held on April 30 to approve and take on record the standalone & consolidated financial results of the company for the quarter and year ended on March 31, 2018 and to recommend payment of dividend for the year 2017-18, if any.

1:22 pm Market Outlook: Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, continues to have a conservative view on the market. His one-year forward view on the Nifty is 10,450 which is based on 15 percent earnings growth compared to the street’s 20 percent.

1:12 pm Expansion: Berger Paints informed exchanges that the board of directors has approved installation of an integrated paint plant with water and solvent based decorative, industrial and protective coatings, resin, putty, emulsion and construction chemical manufacturing capabilities at an investment of about Rs 200 crore at Sandila Industrial Area in Uttar Pradesh.

Subject to all required consents and approvals, the project is likely to be completed by the end of the financial year 2019-20, it said.

1:01 pm SME IPO: SoftTech Engineers, a software product innovation company, will open its initial public offering (IPO) on EMERGE Platform of National Stock Exchange of India on April 27.

The issue will close on May 3. The price band is fixed at Rs 78-80 per share.

The offer consists of initial public offer of up to 28,51,200 equity shares of SoftTech Engineers, comprising of a fresh issue of upto 23,71,200 equity shares and an offer for sale of upto 4,80,000 equity shares by Rajasthan Trustee Company Private Limited A/c SME Tech Fund RVCF Trust II.

12:50 pm GG Engineering in focus: GG Engineering informed exchange that it is going to commence the manufacturing of plastic bottle crushing machines known as Reverse Vending Machine (RVM) for empty plastic bottles and aluminium can.

Above machines are used to crush PET bottles. After crushing, these bottles will be recycled and used to manufacture various products, such as yarn etc, it said.

12:40 pm M&M launches Diesel Generator: Mahindra Powerol, a business unit of the USD19 billion Mahindra Group, announced the extension of its higher kVA diesel generators (DG) range with the launch of the 400/500/625 kVA DG powered by Perkins 2000 series engines.

Designed at its R&D hub at Mahindra Research Valley in Chennai and manufactured at its Chakan plant near Pune, this new range of Generator sets with 12.5 Litre to 18 litre Perkins engine is the latest addition to Mahindra Powerol’s higher kVA product series, it said.

12:30 pm Drug Approval:  Pharma major Lupin has received final approval for its Tetrabenazine tablets, 125 mg and 25 mg from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to market a generic version of Valeant Pharmaceuticals North America, LLC's Xenazine tablets.

12:25 pm Market Update: Benchmark indices continued to trade higher in afternoon, with the Sensex rising 146.18 points to 34,561.76 and the 50-share NSE Nifty gaining 55.40 points at 10,619.40.

Technology was the leading sector as the Nifty IT index rallied 2 percent followed by Realty, Pharma and PSU Bank indices that gained between 1 percent and 1.8 percent.

TCS was the leading contributor to Nifty's gains, up 3 percent and was the first company to hit USD 100 billion in market capitalisation. HCL Technologies, Tech Mahindra and IndusInd Bank also gained 3 percent each.

Reliance Industries, Bajaj Finance, M&M, Yes Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, IOC and HPCL were up 1-2 percent whereas HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, HUL, Grasim Industries, Bharti Infratel and Hindalco were under pressure.

The Nifty Midcap outperformed frontliners, rising 0.7 percent on positive market breadth. About 1,325 shares advanced against 1,073 declining shares on the BSE.

12:15 pm Buzzing: KP Energy share price rallied 7 percent after it incorporated project specific special purpose vehicle (SPV) for sharing rights of 1200MW transmission line infrastructure to be constructed under BoP contracts for wind power projects at Kutch, Gujarat.

12:05 pm Results Date: Tamboli Capital said a meeting of the board of directors will be held on May 15 to consider and take on record audited quarterly financial results of the company for the 4th quarter and to consider recommendation of dividend on equity shares for the financial year 2017-18 ended on March 31, 2018.

11:55 am Asia Update: Asian stocks dipped as investors braced for a bevy of earnings from the world's largest corporations, while keeping a wary eye on US bond yields as they approach peaks that have triggered market spasms in the past.

Traders were also anxiously awaiting surveys on global manufacturing for April to see if economic softness in the first quarter was just a passing phase linked to poor weather and the Lunar New Year holidays.

The first reading from Japan was tentatively upbeat with its PMI firming to 53.3 in April as output and domestic demand picked up.

On the geopolitical front, US President Donald Trump said on Sunday the North Korean nuclear crisis was a long way from being resolved, striking a cautious note a day after the North pledged to end its nuclear tests.

11:45 am Bid for Bhushan Steel: The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) asked the lenders of Bhushan Power & Steel, led by PNB, to consider the bid submitted by UK-based Liberty House for the debt-ridden company.

Allowing the plea of Liberty House, the tribunal has directed the committee of creditors (CoC) to complete its resolution proceedings by June 23.

A two-member NCLT bench, headed by President Justice M M Kumar, said that Liberty House bid cannot be disqualified only on the ground of being submitted after the deadline of the resolution professional (RP).

"We hope that CoC takes an appropriate commercial decision as per the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC)," said NCLT.

11:35 am Recommendation: Reliance Securities expects Coal India to report good numbers led by price hike, higher e-auction realisation and higher growth in fuel supply agreement (FSA) volumes. It’s PAT is expected to increase by 84 percent YoY to Rs 5,000 crore in Q4FY18, it said.

It feels improvement in the policy environment and infrastructure spend coupled with manufacturing activities will aid in reviving the demand environment for the power sector thereby higher coal demand

Reliance Securities believes that CIL's off-take would continue to improve amid improving e-auction realisation. As the full impact of grade slippage is largely over, we believe FSA realisation should recover hereon. Moreover, linkages auctioning may lead to more profitable e-auction volume.

Looking ahead, it expects CIL’s RoE & RoCE would improve on the back of higher realisation, improvement in margins and optimum utilisation of assets.

"We maintain Buy recommendation on the stock with target price of Rs 339, it said.

11:25 am Earnings: Reliance Nippon Life Insurance Company, a subsidiary of Reliance Capital, said total premium in the fiscal year 2017-18 increased to Rs 4,042 crore; and renewal premium rose to Rs 3,154 crore, a YoY increase of 6 percent.

The business made a profit of Rs 1 crore vis-a-vis a loss in FY17.

As on March 31, 2018, assets under management stood at Rs. 19,096 crore, a YoY increase of 11 percent.

As on March 31, 2018, embedded value was at Rs 3,220 crore, a YoY increase of 6 percent.

11:15 am Board Meeting: Majestic Research Services and Solutions said a meeting of the board of directors of the company is scheduled to be held on April 27 to consider the issuance of equity shares to Sarang Panchal (MD &

promoter) on preferential basis.

11:05 am Greenfield Project: Gujarat Ambuja Exports informed exchanges that the commercial operations of first phase of its 1000 MT per day green field Maize processing plant set up at Chalisgaon in Maharashtra has commenced.

"This marks the completion of its first phase, comprising of starch and liquid glucose manufacturing facility put up at an estimated cost of Rs 260 crore. With this additional facility, the installed capacity for maize grinding has reached to 3000 MT per day which is the highest capacity in the country," the company said.

10:55 am Acquisition: California Software, on May 2, will consider the signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to acquire a majority stake in UAE based Solutions MiddleEast DMCC providing software development and solutions.

This acquisition makes Calsoft as global leadership in the space of software development and digital solutions.

"Consideration for the acquisition might be in cash or share or combination of both and thereby making SME as Calsoft's subsidiary," the company said.

Currently SME operates in over 12 countries including Middle East, Africa, South Asia and South-East Asia regions. SME has consolidated revenue of 25 million USD as on 31 December 2017.

10:48 am Market Update: The market gained strength, with the Sensex rising more than 100 points and the Nifty reclaiming 10,600 levels.

TCS is the leading gainer, rising more than 4 percent to become the first company to hit USD 100 billion in market cap after healthy earnings and management commentary.

10:40 am Shilpa Medicare in News: Shilpa Medicare gained more than 2 percent after the company has received EU-GMP certification from Austrian Agency, AGES for its two API manufacturing plants located at Raichur, Karnataka and formulation facility located at Jadcherla, Telangana.

Austrian Agency, AGES carried out audit of said API plants between January 16 and January 24, 2018 and formulation facility between January 25 and January 31, 2018.

10:10 am Buzzing: Phoenix Mills gained over a percent after Island Star Mall Developers (ISMDPL), the strategic investment alliance owned by the company and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), acquired a prime land parcel in Hebbal, Bengaluru for a total consideration of Rs 650 crore.

The site has a development potential of approximately 1.81 million square feet.

10:05 am Stake Sale: Tata Sons sold over Rs 9000 crore (representing 1.6 percent of paid-up equity) worth of TCS shares in March.

After the stake sale, Tata Sons still holds 72 percent stake in TCS.

9:59 am Rupee Trade: Falling for the sixth consecutive session, the rupee weakened by 12 paise to 66.22 against the US dollar at the interbank foreign exchange market, amid foreign capital outflows.

Forex dealers said, sustained demand for the American currency from importers and dollar strength against other currencies overseas, bolstered by rising US bond yields, weighed on the domestic unit.

On Friday, The rupee had crashed below the key 66 level to close at a 13-month low of 66.12 against the US currency, hit by a resurgent dollar, firming crude prices and a more hawkish tone of the Reserve Bank.

9:50 am TCS in Focus: TCS continued its run, rising nearly 3 percent and becoming the first company to hit a USD 100 billion in market capitalisation.

The IT major has crossed even its competitor Accenture (USD 98 billion) in market cap.

9:35 am USFDA Approval: Unichem Labs rallied 7 percent after the US Food and Drug Administration completed Ghaziabad plant inspection and has not issued any observations.

9:29 am Buzzing: Indiabulls Housing Finance share price gained more than 2 percent after its Q4 consolidated net profit grew by 22.6 percent YoY to Rs 1,030.4 crore, revenue 25.9 percent to Rs 3,689.7 crore and net interest income rose 22.1 percent to Rs 1,661 crore.

9:20 am HDFC Bank in focus: HDFC Bank share price remained flat in trade after its Q4FY18 profit grew by 20.3 percent YoY to Rs 4,799.3 crore and net interest income was up 17.7 percent to Rs 10,657.7 crore; the board of directors recommended a dividend of Rs 13 per equity share of Rs 2 each.

9:15 am Market Check: Benchmark indices were off their opening highs amid global weakness. Investors after digesting HDFC Bank numbers look for more corporate earnings to get further market direction.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 53.42 points at 34,362.16 and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 9.10 points to 10,554.90.

ICICI Bank, Infosys, Bajaj Finance, SBI, Axis Bank, Adani Ports, Hero Motocorp and Bharti Airtel fell up to 2 percent while TCS, Reliance Industries, L&T, HDFC, Indiabulls Housing, IOC and HPCL were early gainers.