Sensex ends up 150 points, Nifty at 8275; RIL, Infy gain 2-5%

3:30 pm Market closing: The market has ended with some gains led by support in IT, oil & gas and pharma stocks. The Sensex was up 150.32 points or 0.5 percent at 27364.92 and the Nifty was up 36.90 points or 0.4 percent at 8275.05. About 1555 shares advanced, 1163 shares declined, and 159 shares were unchanged.

Reliance, Bharti, Infosys, Sun Pharma and Dr Reddy's Labs were top gainers while ONGC, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Hindalco and L&T were among laggards in the Sensex.

3:15 pm LIC cuts stake: State-owned Life Insurance Corp (LIC) has reduced stake in commercial vehicle manufacturer Ashok Leyland by 2 percent by selling 5.71 crore shares in the open market.

LIC, which had 7.31 percent stake earlier, brought down its shareholding in the company to 5.30 percent by selling shares between November 4, 2014, and October 16, 2015, Ashok Leyland said in a BSE filing.

3:00 pm FII view: India has been lucky to not witness a sell-off like other emerging markets and it is clearly among the best of all EMs, says Pankaj Vaish, head-markets and securities at Citi South Asia. However, China, according to him is quite weak despite its GDP growing 6.8 percent year-on-year (YoY) in the third quarter. That is the thing with China, the real numbers is much lower than the data released, he told CNBC-TV18.

On the brighter side, he says the US Federal Reserve inaction in the last policy boosted flows.

Coming back to China, he says the debt situation there is problematic.

2:45 pm UltraTech in News: Aditya Birla Group company UltraTech Cement's second quarter standalone profit declined 3.9 percent year-on-year to Rs 394 crore, impacted by higher tax expenses and lower other income despite better operational performance. Revenue increased 4.7 percent to Rs 5,681.6 crore in the quarter ended September 2015 compared to Rs 5,426.5 crore in same quarter last year.

Topline and operational performance beat analysts' expectations but bottomline was below estimates. Profit was expected at Rs 430 crore on revenue of Rs 5,550 crore for the quarter, according to average of estimates of analysts polled by CNBC-TV18.

During the quarter, Ultratech has commissioned 3.2 million tonne per annume (MTPA) cement grinding capacity and 2 MTPA cement packaging terminal in Maharasthra along with 5 MW waste heat recovery system.

The company said combined cement and clinker sales was 11.51 million tonne, increased from 11.17 million tonne in year-ago period while it was 3.22 LmT (against 2.99 LmT) for white cement and wall care putty during the quarter.

Domestic cement sales volume in Q2 increased by 5 percent as compared to same quarter last year.

2:30 pm Rajan to IMF: Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan urged the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Monday to stop "sitting on the sidelines" and instead play an active role in questioning the easy money policies adopted by developed economies.

Raghuram Rajan, a former chief economist of the IMF, said countries were putting these policies in place without consideration for the negative impact they have on the global economy.

"Extreme" measures had steered volatile capital flows to emerging markets, while exchange rate intervention risked spurring competitive devaluations, he said in a speech ahead of a G20 summit in Turkey next month.

"The IMF has been sitting on the sidelines and applauding these kinds of policies right from when they have been initiated, ?and hasn't really questioned the value of these kinds of policies," he told a G20 consultation meeting.

2:15 pm Earnings: Petronet LNG beat analysts' expectations on bottomline and operational front but topline was lower than forecast. Profit in September quarter fell 5.3 percent year-on-year to Rs 248.9 crore on lower revenue and operational income.

Revenue plunged 31.3 percent to Rs 7,545 crore in second quarter of current financial year 2015-16 compared to Rs 10,980 crore in same quarter last year.

According to a CNBC-TV18 poll, profit was estimated at Rs 213 crore on revenue of Rs 8,158.5 crore for the quarter.

2:00 pm Market Check
The market continued to see buying interest in afternoon trade with the Sensex rising 122.26 points to 27336.86 and the Nifty up 27 points to 8265.15. The broader markets too traded in-line with benchmarks; the BSE Midcap gained 0.4 percent and Smallcap rose 0.6 percent.

The market breadth remained in favour of advances. About 1484 shares advanced against 1089 declining shares on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Reliance Industries was top contributor to Sensex' gains, up 4.8 percent post strong earnings in Q2. Bharti Airtel soared nearly 4 percent in afternoon trade. Infosys, Sun Pharma, HUL, Dr Reddy's Labs, Cipla and Hero Motocorp gained 1-1.8 percent.

However, ONGC, Tata Steel, ICICI Bank, L&T and Tata Motors topped selling list on Sensex, down 1-2 percent.

1:55 pm Call on telecom stocks: The TRAI rule requiring telecom operators to pay one rupee for every dropped is good in theory, but hard to implement because of practical issues, says Suresh Mahadevan, MD and Head of Asia Telecom & Media Research at UBS AG. He is keeping his estimates for telecom companies Bharti Airtel and Idea unchanged. In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Mahadevan says that in the top 15 cities, there is genuine shortage of spectrum during peak hours. Also, for call drops when the call is made between two different operators, there will always be a dispute as to which operator was to blame. Mahadevan feels telecom operators are likely to contest the TRAI ruling.

1:45 pm Subsidy? Under recovery for kerosene and LPG (cooking gas) for the quarter ended Sepetmber is seen around Rs 8000 crore, reports CNBC-TV18, quoting oil ministry sources. Of this, the government's share of the subsidy bill is around Rs 7300 crore. ONGC's share is seen at approximately Rs 600 crore, and OIL India's contribution is seen below Rs 100 crore. Government will pay Rs 12 per liter of kerosene subsidy, with ONGC and OIL India to pay the rest.

1:30 pm Buzzing: Shares of Lanco Infratech gained 9.8 percent intraday Monday as the power company will get income tax refund post Supreme Court's favourable order. Lanco Infratech said it got a favourable order from the Supreme Court on October 16 for its subsidiary Lanco Kondapalli Power (LKPL). The court has dismissed appeals filed by Andhra Pradesh Power Coordination Committee & AP Discoms and upheld orders passed by APTEL & APERC in favour of LKPL. As a result of this favourable order, LKPL is entitled for reimbursement of income tax of about Rs 175 crore paid for financial year 2001-2012. It is along interest till the date of payment after adjusting adhoc amount of Rs 70 crore already received.

The market is surging ahead as IT, oil, pharma and FMCG stocks support. The Sensex is up 162.92 points or 0.6 percent at 27377.52 and the Nifty is up 37.40 points or 0.4 percent at 8275.55. About 1517 shares have advanced, 990 shares declined, and 149 shares are unchanged.

Reliance, Bharti Airtel, Sun Pharma, Infosys and Cipla are top gainers in the Sensex. Among the losers are ONGC, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, L&T and Bajaj Auto.

Gold prices on Monday eased below the Rs 27,000-mark by falling Rs 178 to Rs 26,972 per 10 grams in futures trade amid a weak global trend.

Analysts attributed the fall in gold futures to a weak global trend where it retreated from three-month high as signs of a buoyant US economy revived expectations that the Federal Reserve may raise interest rates and data showed that China expanded quicker than economists forecast in the third quarter.

12:56 pm Indigo IPO soon: While addressing press conference, IndiGo's president and whole-time director Aditya Ghosh said Indigo has been able to deal with all the aviation industry issues.

Company, which enjoys 37 percent market share in India, has filed 97 airplanes currently, he added.

The issue, which will open for subscription between IPO October 27 and 29, has size of Rs 3,077-3,245 crore, representing 11.8-12.2 percent post issue paid capital. The price band for IPO is at Rs 700-765 per share, he said.

12:50 pm Market Update: Equity benchmarks extended gain in afternoon trade. The Sensex rallied 155.78 points to 27370.38 and the Nifty climbed 36.20 points to 8274.35.

About 1494 shares have advanced, 960 shares declined, and 161 shares are unchanged on the BSE.

12:40 pm Europe opens: European markets opened lower today after Chinese growth figures confirmed slowing growth in the world's second-largest economy.

All major European indices were all lower.

China's gross domestic product (GDP) growth slowed to 6.9 percent in the third quarter of 2015 from a year earlier, according to official data, higher than many expected but still the slowest growth since the credit crisis.

Asian stock markets had a mixed reaction to the news, with the Shanghai Composite up slightly but both the Nikkei and the Hang Seng down, as the GDP data included worse than expected industrial production figures.

12:33 pm HCL Acquisition:  HCL Technologies has under a definitive agreement acquired a Bengaluru-based privately held engineering services firm, Concept to Silicon Systems (C2SiS), for an undisclosed sum.

"C2SiS on Monday is empowering strategic change in a broad range of industries with its specialisation in system-on-chip and system design services and its client list includes Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 companies", HCL Technologies said in a BSE filing.

 It further said: "With this strategic acquisition, HCL will be able to leverage C2SiS' technical prowess in areas such as System-on-Chip, Physical design etc and will further extend its leadership position in the semiconductor industry."

12:20 pm China growth: China's economic growth dipped below 7 percent for the first time since the global financial crisis on Monday, hurt partly by cooling investment, raising pressure on Beijing to further cut interest rates and take other measures to stoke activity.

The world's second-largest economy grew 6.9 percent between July and September from a year ago, the National Bureau of Statistics said, slightly better than forecasts of a 6.8 percent rise but down from 7 percent in the previous three months.

That hardened expectations that China would avoid an abrupt fall-off in growth, with analysts predicting a more gradual slide in activity stretching into 2016.

"Underlying conditions are subdued but stable," said Julian Evans-Pritchard, an analyst at Capital Economics in Singapore. "Stronger fiscal spending and more rapid credit growth will limit the downside risks to growth over the coming quarters."

12:10 pm Rajan on economy: Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan said the government needed to put conditions in place for sustainable growth, without resorting to populist policies.

Raghuram Rajan also warned of the difficulties in achieving quick growth, noting India would not be able to expand at 9 percent levels overnight. He was speaking at an event in Mumbai.

12:00 pm Market Check
The market remained in a positive terrain in noon trade, supported by index heavyweights Reliance Industries and Infosys. The 30-share BSE Sensex gained 103.28 points at 27317.88 and the 50-share NSE Nifty advanced 18.25 points to 8256.40.

The broader markets continued to outperform benchmarks. The BSE Midcap gained 0.35 percent and Smallcap rose 0.51 percent. The market breadth was supportive as about 1450 shares advanced against 934 shares declining on the BSE.

Samir Arora, founder and fund manager of Helios Capital is bullish on the market but not the index.

Reliance Industries rallied 4.4 percent after a beat on profit that increased 3.8 percent Q-o-Q and gross refining margin that came in at USD 10.6 a barrel (against USD 10.4 a barrel Q-o-Q) in Q2FY16.

11:55 am Boardroom: A 15 percent fall in realisations led to Tata Sponge Iron logging a 75 percent fall in second quarter profit to Rs 5.75 crore but MD DP Deshpande says he does not expect the company to clock a loss in the third quarter. "Our realizations have fallen but costs have fallen too though realizations have fallen more," he told CNBC-TV18, after the company declared its earnings. "But that is now balancing out." Deshpande also spoke about the company's Rs 180-crore investment into a coal block that was cancelled by the Supreme Court last year and whether he expects to recover some of that money.

11:45 am Amtek Auto is looking to reduce its debt by around Rs 6500 crore in the near term, John Flintham, Vice Chairman and Global CEO of Amtek Auto told CNBC-TV18 in an exclusive interview. The company plans to get there by selling out its smaller businesses, and is targeting a 25 percent reduction in its international business, Flintham said. Amtek Auto currently has Rs 16,500 crore of debt on its books, and its international business is worth around USD 2 billion, Flintham said.

11:30 am Big bull: With the onset of new technology, traditional businesses will be impacted negatively, says Samir Arora, founder and fund manager of Helios Capital. Keeping that in mind, he is bullish on the market but not the index. He says not just in the short-term, but in the long-term too, the overall confidence in 10-20 years stories will reduce. Further, he does not expect small banks such as DCB Bank to create value for shareholders.

He explains this by saying scalability is important. "There is a need for big ideas. No money can be made by betting on companies that have too many competitors," he told CNBC-TV18. According to him, the market has given around 20 percent returns to anybody who is not invested the metal companies and other highly-leveraged ones. He says the market is divided into two groups, companies with 2-4 year visibility and the others where there is no hope.

The market consolidats with the benchmark indices locked in a range. The Sensex is up 56.24 points at 27270.84. The Nifty is up 6.70 points at 8244.85. About 1345 shares have advanced, 817 shares declined, and 113 shares are unchanged.

Oil & gas and pharma stocks are leading while banks, capital goods, metals and autos are struggling. Reliance, Bharti, Sun Pharma, Infosys and Cipla are top gainers in the Sensex. Tata Motors, Tata Steel, ONGC, L&T and ICICI Bank are laggards.

Meanwhile,Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan called for stronger multilateral agencies that can steer global coordination in tackling economic and monetary policy issues, adding emerging markets needed to be part of that debate.

Raghuram Rajan also called on the International Monetary Fund to be more inclusive and not just driven by the needs of industrialised countries, while noting the agency needed to more closely examine "extreme" policies by global central banks.

The RBI governor also urged the need for global "safety nets," while noting one proposal could be foreign exchange swap lines mediated and backed by the IMF.

10:59 am Market Update: Equity benchmarks remained firm, majorly supported by Reliance Industries (up 4.7 percent) and Infosys (up 1.5 percent).

The Sensex rose 58.17 points to 27272.77 and the Nifty gained 6.35 points at 8244.50. The broader markets marginally outperformed benchmarks with BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices rising 0.2-0.5 percent.

About 1333 shares have advanced, 832 shares declined, and 117 shares are unchanged on the BSE.

10:50 am Interview: Amtek Auto is looking to reduce its debt by around Rs 6500 crore in the near term, John Flintham, Vice Chairman and Global CEO of Amtek Auto told CNBC-TV18 in an exclusive interview.

The company plans to get there by selling out its smaller businesses, and is targeting a 25 percent reduction in its international business, Flintham said.

Amtek Auto currently has Rs 16,500 crore of debt on its books, and its international business is worth around USD 2 billion, Flintham said.

Flintham said the company has reached an agreement with JP Morgan Asset Management, which holds Rs 200 crore of its non-convertible debentures (NCDs) through two of its schemes, and which were to be redeemed last month.

10:40 am Infosys up 1%: Infosys' board members have approved to acquire 100 percent stake in US-based Noah Consulting LLC, a leading provider advanced information management consulting services for the oil and gas industry.

This acquisition was an all cash deal, with an aggregate purchase consideration of USD 70 million.

"With this acquisition, we are uniquely positioned to offer and end-to-end data management services to oil and gas companies globally," Rajesh Murthy, EVP and Global head of Energy, Communications and Services, Infosys said.

10:30 am Earnings forecast: Non-banking finance company SKS Microfinance is expected to report healthy performance in September quarter earnings. Profit is seen rising 17.7 percent year-on-year to Rs 66.7 crore and net interest income is likely to increase 38 percent to Rs 137 crore during the quarter, according to average of estimates of analysts polled by CNBC-TV18.

Profit is expected to get support from operating profit but may get impacted by higher base (in the year-ago period) due to lower provisions. Profit in Q2FY15 jumped to Rs 56.7 crore from Rs 16.34 crore year-on-year.

Net interest income, the difference between interest earned and interest expended, may get supported by growth in advances. Loan disbursement during June quarter FY16 increased 105 percent Y-o-Y to Rs 3,850 crore.

10:20 am Tata Steel's job cut: In what could be a major blow to the UK's steel industry, Indian steel giant Tata Steel is expected to announce 1,200 job cuts at its plants in the country next week as part of "structural changes" to become more competitive, according to British media reports.

The firm is expected to significantly reduce the workforce at its Scunthorpe steel plant in the north of England, which employs 3,000 people, as well as those in Scotland. Tata has, however, declined to confirm the news of job cuts, issuing only a statement that it continues to "review" the situation.

"We've made a number of structural changes to our UK business over the last months and years to make us more competitive. Like all companies we continue to review the performance of our business," a spokesperson said.

'Sky News' quoted sources as saying that up to 400 jobs are expected to go in Scotland and the rest in Scunthorpe in the plates section and one of the coke ovens.

10:00 am Market Check
The market is holding gains as the Nifty is hovering around 8250. The 50-share index is up 9.20 points or 0.11% at 8247.35. The Sensex is up 67.27 points or 0.25% at 27281.87.

Reliance, Vedanta, Sun Pharma, GAIL and Lupin are top gainers in the Sensex. Among the losers are Tata Motors, Tata Steel, L&T, Maruti and ONGC.

Oil prices slipped, wiping out some of the previous session's gains, as investors waited for China's third quarter gross domestic product figures. China's GDP figures, due later, are expected to show growth in the world's second largest economy slowed to below 7 percent for the first time since the global financial crisis.

Data from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) last week showed US crude inventories rose by 7.6 million barrels even as the US rig count fell for a seventh week in a row last week fueling concerns over global oversupply.

9:50 am Job cut: In what could be a major blow to the UK's steel industry, Indian steel giant Tata Steel is expected to announce 1,200 job cuts at its plants in the country next week as part of "structural changes" to become more competitive, according to British media reports.

The firm is expected to significantly reduce the workforce at its Scunthorpe steel plant in the north of England, which employs 3,000 people, as well as those in Scotland. Tata has, however, declined to confirm the news of job cuts, issuing only a statement that it continues to "review" the situation.

"We've made a number of structural changes to our UK business over the last months and years to make us more competitive. Like all companies we continue to review the performance of our business," a spokesperson said.

9:40 am Earnings: Drug firm Unichem reported a 3.49 per cent rise in its standalone net profit at Rs 23.09 crore for the September quarter.

The company had posted a net profit of Rs 22.31 crore in the same period of the previous fiscal, Unichem Laboratories said in a filing to BSE.

Standalone total income from operations of the company also rose to Rs 305.55 crore for the quarter under review as against Rs 278.15 crore a year ago.

Unichem Laboratories manufactures a range of formulations and active pharmaceutical ingredients.

9:30 am Upcoming IPO: Low-cost airline IndiGo's parent InterGlobe Aviation has fixed the price band for its initial share sale at Rs 700-765, through which it could raise up to Rs 3,268 crore.

The initial public offer would open on October 27 and close on October 29, with the allotment for anchor investors scheduled for October 26.

Under the offer, InterGlobe would have fresh issue worth Rs 1,272.2 crore as well as an offer for sale of little over 2.61 crore shares. The price band has been fixed at Rs 700-765 per share having a face value of Rs 10 each, according to a public announcement.

9:20 am Results: HCL Technologies marginally missed analysts' expectations with first quarter consolidated profit declining 3.2 percent sequentially to Rs 1,726 crore and revenue rising 3.3 percent to Rs 10,097 crore. Dollar revenue rose half a percent to USD 1,545 million in July-September quarter compared to USD 1,537.5 million in same quarter last year and 1.2 percent in constant currency. The IT services provider failed to match expectations that scaled down by analysts immediately after company's profit warning before end of September quarter.

The market has opened marginally higher on first day of week. The Sensex rose 79.13 points to 27293.73 and the Nifty advanced 15.20 points to 8253.35, led by Reliance Industries.

Reliance Industries rallied 4 percent after better than-expected earnings in the quarter ended September 2015. Infosys, Hindalco, Sun Pharma, SBI, Vedanta, Wipro and Lupin were other gainers in early trade.

However, Tata Motors, Dr Reddy's Labs, ITC, M&M, GAIL, HCL Tech and ONGC dropped.

The Indian rupee opened with a marginal gains of 4 paise at 64.77 per dollaragainst Friday's closing value of 64.81 a dollar.

Agam Gupta of Standard Chartered expects a range of 64.65-64.95/dollar for the day. "Upticks will attract selling interest from exporters as they hedge their future receivables. On the lower side it is most likely that we see dollar buying interest come in from local government banks on account of their regular demand," Gupta said.

Dollar gained as traders reckoned the Federal Reserve might raise interest rates later this year and the European Central Bank may provide more stimulus to help the euro zone economy.

Asian shares outside Japan recovered early losses , after China's third-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) beat market expectations.

GDP for the world's second-biggest economy grew 6.9 percent percent on-year in the July-September quarter, compared with 7 percent in the previous three months, official data showed on Monday.