Sensex ends up 359 points, Nifty above 8100; RIL, BHEL gain

03:30 pm Market close: The market ended with style making some smart moves. The Sensex ended up 359.25 points or 1.4 percent at 26840.50, and the Nifty was 102.05 points or 1.3 percent at 8124.45. About 1705 shares advanced, 949 shares declined, and 151 shares were unchanged.

BHEL, Wipro, Bajaj Auto, Reliance and L&T were top gainers in the Sensex.

02:55pm CCEA nod to road projects: The government approved Rs 4,720.92 crore highways projects in Madhya Pradesh and Telangana under its flagship highways building programme NHDP.

Both the projects were approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, an official statement said.

The CCEA "has given its approval for development of the four laning of the Guna-Biaora and Biaora-Dewas section of National Highway- 3 in Madhya Pradesh with an estimate cost of Rs 2,815.69 crore", the statement said.

This will be done under the National Highways Development Project (NHDP) Phase-IV in Design, Build, Finance, Operate and Transfer (DBFOT) basis in BOT (Toll) mode.

The statement said the cost is estimated to be Rs 1,081.9 crore for Guna-Biaora including land acquisition, resettlement and rehabilitation and other pre-construction activities. The total length of the road will be approximately 93.5 kms.

02:25pm Sugar in focus: The government today approved Rs 6,000 crore interest-free loan to sugar mills to help them partly clear cane price arrears to farmers that have touched about Rs 21,000 crore. The decision, which will cost the exchequer about Rs 600 crore, was taken in a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) held here today. "Mills have been unable to make payment to farmers because of high production and lower domestic prices.

Cane arrears have reached Rs 21,000 crore," Union Minister Nitin Gadkari told reporters after the meet. "The government has sanctioned interest-free loan of Rs 6,000 crore for farmers. Sugar mills will prepare the list of farmers.

And on the basis of that, the amount will be directly transferred by banks into the Jan Dhan accounts of farmers," he said. The Centre will bear the interest burden of Rs 600 crore from the Sugar Development Fund (SDF), he said, adding that the arrears outstanding till June will be cleared. "CCEA has provided a 1-year moratorium on this loan, and will bear the interest subvention cost to the extent of Rs 600 crore for the said period," an official statement said.

02:00pm Market Check: The market strengthened further in afternoon trade, supported by short covering in banking & financials, oil, technology and capital goods stocks. The rupee also extended gains, up 12 paise to 63.80 a dollar.

The Sensex climbed 420 points to 26907 and the Nifty surged 121 points to 8144.

Shares of Reliance Industries, Infosys, L&T, ICICI Bank, Sun Pharma, M&M and Wipro rallied more than 2 percent.

1:30 pm FII view: While Chinese stocks will have to wait to join the MSCI EM Index, there are still quite a few positives for China. Tai Hui, MD and chief market strategist for Asia at JPMorgan AMC, says China still has room for monetary easing and interest rate cut. Over a tactical short-term, China looks better positioned, he adds. According to him, India has the upper hand from a longer-term perspective on reforms and from a fiscal standpoint as there is still more upside for the Indian economy over the next 12-18 months compared to China. Hui sees cautious inflows into emerging markets over the medium term. He says current valuation of the Chinese market looks fair.

The market is charging ahead with capitals goods, banks, auto and pharma stocks support. The Sensex is up 298.24 points or 1.1 percent at 26779.49, and the Nifty is up 83.85 points or 1 percent at 8106.25. About 1618 shares have advanced, 772 shares declined, and 146 shares are unchanged.

BHEL, Tata Power, Reliance, L&T and Bajaj Auto are top gainers in the Sensex.

Meanwhile, Indian data to be released in the coming week is likely to show factory output growth sank to a six-month low in April, dragged by sluggish infrastructure activity and weak exports, while consumer inflation rose slightly in May, a Reuters poll found.

A weak output performance would reinforce doubts over the health of the economy, which also faces prospects of a weak monsoon hobbling both farm output and demand in rural areas, where most Indians live.

To support the economy, the central bank cut interest rates last week and reiterated its mistrust of a new way used to measure gross domestic product that shows India among the world's fastest growing economies.

12:57pm Road and Sugar Ministries: Road and transport minister Nitin Gadkari said the cabinet has cleared 2 road projects worth Rs 5,000 crore. On sugar sector, he said the government will give Rs 6,000 crore interest free loan to sugar industry.

"Banks will pay Rs 6,000 crore interest free loan for one year to sugar industry for payment to farmers and interest on Rs 6,000 crore loan will be paid by government,"said Gadkari, adding sugar mills will submit list of unpaid sugarcane farmer.

After one year, banks and mills will work out interest repayment, he said.

Gadkari further said, "We are working on a long term solution for the sugar sector. Sugar relief package is for state and private mills. Current dues to sugarcane farmers stand at Rs 21,000 crore."

12:25pm Interview: Leading watchmaker Titan  will add about 100 more outlets across its retail formats of World of Titan, Fastrack and Helios this fiscal to increase its presence in small towns, a top executive said.

''We currently have about 650 stores of World of Titan, Fastrack and Helios. We will add about 100 more this fiscal,'' HG Raghunath, chief executive officer, watches and accessories at Titan told PTI.

Over the last three years, the company has focused its retail expansions in tier II & III places with the increase in consumer spending, he added. Quoting a recent Nielsen report, he said, there are 400 booming small towns in the country and ''we have put our expansion strategy in those towns. We will focus on 200 of these.''

''Our expansion will be mostly in towns where there is not much consumer experience available of our brand. We are seeing the aspiration of the middle India consumer in every store that we have opened in these towns so far,'' he added.

12:00pm Market Check: The market extended rally in noon trade, supported by further short covering in banks, auto, pharma, capital goods and select oil stocks. The Sensex climbed 286.68 points or 1.08 percent to 26767.93 and the Nifty rallied 82.95 points or 1.03 percent to 8105.35.

The market breadth continued to be positive. About 1582 shares have advanced against 714 shares declined on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

BHEL topped the buying list on Sensex, up 3 percent. Reliance Industries, Larsen & Toubro and ICICI Bank were biggest contributors to Sensex's gains, up more than 2 percent.

11:45 am Breaking: Sugar stocks rallied 5-15 percent intraday Wednesday on getting interest free loan from the government. Bajaj Hindusthan , Balrampur Chini , Mawana Sugars etc rallied more than 11 percent today. Cabinet committee on economic affairs (CCEA) has approved interest free loan worth Rs 6,000 crore to the sugar sector. Additionally, CNBC Awaaz reports quoting unnamed sources said that Maharashtra government may also give Rs 2,000 crore interest free loan for 5 years to farmers. Current cane arrears stand about Rs 20,000 crore, sources added.

11:30 am Buzzing: Shares of Bharti Airtel jumped over 2 percent intraday. CLSA maintains high conviction buy rating on the stock with a target price of Rs 480 per share. It states that Bharti's higher market share, profitability and superior spectrum/utilisation add upsides to forecasts of 17 percent India Ebitda, 18 percent consolidated earnings CAGR by FY18.

CLSA believes Bharti's superior margins in the mobile business are driven by operating leverage given its wider market-share and lower network operating costs driven by a higher share of 900MHz spectrum enabling Bharti have 10 percent higher subscribers/cell site versus Vodafone.

The market is still holding up its early gains. The Sensex is up 253.64 points or 0.9 percent at 26734.89, and the Nifty is up 72.60 points or 0.9 percent at 8095.00. About 1518 shares have advanced, 533 shares declined, and 117 shares are unchanged.

BHEL, L&T, Reliance, Bharti Airtel and ICICI Bank are top gainers in the Sensex. Among the losers are Vedanta, ITC, HUL and Infosys.

Meanwhile, Oil futures extended gains in Asian trade as US crude and gasoline inventories fell more than expected and the Energy Information Administration (EIA) raised its 2015 oil demand growth forecast. The gains came after prices for crude oil, gasoline and diesel jumped more than 3 percent on Tuesday as bullish investors made bets across the oil complex for another weekly drop in US stockpiles.

10:45am May auto sales data: Domestic passenger car sales grew 7.73 percent to 1,60,067 units in May, from 1,48,577 units in the year-ago month.

Motorcycle sales last month declined 3.04 percent to 9,53,322 units, from 983,210 units a year earlier, according to data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM).

Total two-wheeler sales in May slumped 1.25 percent to 13,80,950 units.

However, sales of commercial vehicles grew 3.95 percent to 48,841 units in May, SIAM said.

Vehicle sales across categories registered a decline of 0.58 percent to 16,83,962 units, from 16,93,740 units in May 2014, it added.

10:20am IIP forecast: Indian data to be released in the coming week is likely to show factory output growth sank to a six-month low in April, dragged by sluggish infrastructure activity and weak exports, while consumer inflation rose slightly in May, a Reuters poll found.

A weak output performance would reinforce doubts over the health of the economy, which also faces prospects of a weak monsoon hobbling both farm output and demand in rural areas, where most Indians live.

To support the economy, the central bank cut interest rates last week and reiterated its mistrust of a new way used to measure gross domestic product that shows India among the world's fastest growing economies.

The poll of 28 economists predicted India's industrial production (IIP) increased 1.6 percent year-on-year in April, slowing from 2.1 percent growth in March.

10:00am Market Check
The market rebounded sharply led by short covering in banking & financials, capital goods, auto and select oil stocks after falling for previous seven sessions. The Sensex gained 234.15 points or 0.88 percent at 26715.40 and the Nifty climbed 70.40 points or 0.88 percent to 8092.80.

The broader markets outperformed benchmarks with the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices rising 1.2 percent and 1 percent, respectively. About 1307 shares have advanced, 427 shares declined, and 96 shares are unchanged on the BSE.

Ridham Desai, Morgan Stanley group's MD and India Equity Research head, said the near term is seasoned with skepticism. ''Funnily, the skepticism existed even last year when the market was euphoric,'' he added while reiterating India still remains the only game in town for investors with three-five year view.

Acknowledging that people want confirmation from the ground, "and it will come despite the presence of risks like monsoon and rate cut," Desai suggested the time now is good to enter Indian market.

9:55 am FII view: With May US non-farm payrolls pushing the 3-month moving average for jobs above 200,000, Sakthi Siva of Credit Suisse believes Fed tightening is back on the agenda with Credit Suisse Economics team looking at September for the first rate hike.

According to her, the key question for markets though is whether this is already priced in. ''The answer appears to be 'No', as MXASJ (MSCI Asia ex-Japan) has corrected 7 percent from its highs versus corrections of 14 percent during the Fed taper in 2013, 21 percent during the 2004 tightening & 25 percent during the 1994 episode,'' Siva explained.

Sunil Garg, JPMorgan said Nifty's bearish hue now faces a crucial 8000 test. The index has traced out a 'head & shoulders' top with an 8000 'neckline' - a break below this has a measuring implication of around 1,100 points downside, he added.

9:45 am Market check: The market is on a steady run as the Nifty touched 8100. The 50-share index is up 74.85 points or 0.9 percent at 8097.25. The Sensex is up 258.32 points or 0.9 percent at 26739.57. About 1195 shares have advanced, 348 shares declined, and 88 shares are unchanged.

Vedanta, Tata Steel, HUL and GAIL are major losers in the Sensex.

9:30 am Market check: The Sensex is up 241.36 points or 0.9 percent at 26722.61, and the Nifty is up 70.30 points or 0.9 percent at 8092.70. About 907 shares have advanced, 222 shares declined, and 81 shares are unchanged.

SBI, Bharti and Sun Pharma are up 2 percent while L&T and BHEL are top gainers in the Sensex.

The market has opened flat but soon gained strength. The Sensex is up 127.64 points or 0.5 percent at 26608.89 and the Nifty is up 39.40 points or 0.5 percent at 8061.80. US index provider MSCI has out on hold including China A shares in one of its key benchmarks, but expects them to be included once outstanding market accessibility issues are resolved.
About 541 shares have advanced, 142 shares declined, and 64 shares are unchanged. This may be seen as positive for India. According to Kotak, India could have seen selling worth USD 3.8 billion on China-A shares inclusion.

Tata Power, BHEL, Bharti, SBI and Axis Bank are top gainers while Tata Motors, Cipla and GAIL are among laggards in the Sensex.

Globally, the US markets ended flat following recovery in bond yields and as investors await clearer signals on the timing of a US interest rate rise. European market closed lower while Asia is mixed in morning trade.

In other asset classes, the dollar steadies helped by a rise in US bond yields and expectations that a Federal Reserve interest rate hike may come as early as September.

Crude prices rose more than 3 percent yesterday as higher seasonal demand in developed economies and expectations of falling US shale production reduced the impact of a large global supply overhang. Brent crude rose above USD 64 per barrel.

And precious metal gold prices marginally rose as commodities picked up across the board, but gains were capped by caution as investors awaited clearer signals on the timing of a US interest rate rise.

Back home, PVR Cinemas has acquired DLF's DT Cinemas for Rs 500 crore. The company operates 29 screens in the national capital region (NCR) and Chandigarh.