Sensex ends up over 200 points, Nifty at kissing distance from 9900; ITC up 3%

3:30 pm Market at Close: Equity benchmarks witnessed a strong trading session, with the Nifty closing above 9800-mark for the second consecutive session. In fact, it closed at kissing distance from 9900-mark.

The Sensex closed up 232.56 points at 32037.38, while the Nifty ended 75.60 points higher at 9891.70. The market breadth was narrow as 1,287 shares advanced against a decline of 1,432 shares, while 163 shares were unchanged.

Midcaps continued to trade steady, while FMCG and banks boosted the indices.

ITC, Bharti Airtel and Yes Bank gained the most on both indices, while ONGC, Asian Paints and IOC lost the most.

3:15 pm Buzzing: ITC shares gained more than 3 percent intraday as the stock remained CLSA's high conviction buy after price cut.

While retaining buy call with a target price of Rs 417, the research house said channel checks indicated that ITC has cut cigarette prices by 1-2 percent in states with high VAT.

In these markets, cigarette prices were also higher, hence, with the cuts, retail prices are in-line with those where the VAT was lower.

"On the face of it these appear to be cuts but we see these as mere adjustments as ITC is moving towards uniform prices for its brands," CLSA said.

The price revisions also signal that further cuts are less likely now, according to the research firm.

It feels no price cut would boost FY18 earnings but it will revisit earnings estimates post-Q1FY18 results given lack of clarity on GST rollout for the quarter ahead.

3:00 pm Global IT spends: Global IT research firm Gartner today further lowered its 2017 IT spending growth estimate to 2.4 percent from the 2.7 percent earlier on worries on digitisation.

The downward revision in growth estimates comes amid growing anxieties over the future of the IT industry, with concerns surrounding automation and rising protectionism that is being blamed for job losses in the country.

The USD 155-billion Indian IT sector depends majorly on exports and industry lobby Nasscom had last month pegged a lower growth forecast of 7-8 per cent in exports in FY18.

"Digital business is having a profound effect on the way business is done and how it is supported," its vice president John-David Lovelock said in a statement.

He added digital business is giving rise to new categories like the the convergence of 'software plus services plus intellectual property'.

2:35 pm 52-week high stocks: Not only largecap but lot of mid & smallcaps participated in the rally. More than 140 stocks hit 52-week highs today, including 58 stocks that touched all-time highs.

Recently listed AU Small Finance Bank continued its rally, trading near Rs 700 level against issue price of Rs 358. The stock shot up 95 percent in four consecutive sessions since listing on Monday.

Housing & Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO), which listed in May, also continued to surge for fourth consecutive session, which gained more than 10 percent to move near triple digit mark.

Largecaps like IndusInd Bank, Maruti Suzuki India and Power Grid Corporation of India were trading at all-time highs today while Grasim Industries, ICICI Bank, Tata Steel and Hindustan Unilever traded at fresh 52-week highs.

Eris Lifesciences, Bharat Rasayan, Bodal Chemicals, Carborundum Universal, Dalmia Bharat, Garware Wall Ropes, GNA Axles, Dilip Buildcon, Future Consumer, Future Retail, L&T Finance Holdings, Mangalam Cement, Navin Fluorine, Shankara Building Products, Somany Ceramics and Uflex also touched new highs today.

Other well known names like Tata Global Beverage, Rico Auto, Goa Carbon, Marico, Bajaj Finance, Interglobe Aviation, NBCC (India), United Spirits, GRUH Finance, Aditya Birla Money, Jindal Steel & Power, PTC India, KEC International also hit fresh 52-week highs.

2:10 pm Market Check: Equity benchmark indices extended their gains from the morning session, with the Nifty hovering around 9900-mark.

The Sensex was up 270.08 points at 32074.90, while the Nifty was up 73.70 points at 9889.80. The market breadth was narrow as 1345 shares advanced against a decline of 1262 shares, while 152 shares were unchanged.

ITC, ICICI Bank and Yes Bank gained the most on both indices, while ONGC, Coal India, IOC and Bharti Infratel lost the most. FMCG stocks continued to gain; midcaps too posted gains.

Also Read: Why you should make a balanced mutual fund a part of your portfolio

1:55 pm SEBI order: Markets regulator Sebi has asked Goldmine Agro Ltd (GAL) and its directors to refund investors' money that the Kolkata-based company had raised illegally by issuing securities.

Besides, Sebi imposed a ban on the firm and its directors from accessing the capital markets for four years from the completion of refund. Goldmine Agro mobilised funds illegally through issuance of non-convertible redeemable debentures (NCDs).

According to Sebi, Goldmine Agro had raked in Rs 35.62 crore by issuing NCDs to investors during 2009-10 and 2011-12. However, the company had not given details about the number of allottees.

1:35 pm Buzzing Stock: Shares of Ramco System gained more than 4 percent intraday Thursday as it received order from a Chinese firm.

"Ramco Systems announced an order win from China Southern Airlines General Aviation (CSAGA), the 2nd largest offshore helicopter operator in China for integrating its organization-wide maintenance and engineering operations," as per company release.

The Zhuhai-based company, which operates Asia's largest fleet of Sikorsky helicopters will implement Ramco Aviation Maintenance & Engineering Suite 5.8, enabling its staff across China to automate and manage fleet data in real time.

1:20 pm Market Outlook: The Sensex touched the psychological 32000 mark on July 13 aided by expectations of a rate cut (post the low CPI and IIP numbers announced on July 12), good monsoons and overcoming the fears of disruption due to introduction of GST.

The latest 1000-point rally in the Sensex was driven by Reliance, large pharma stocks, Bharti Airtel, ITC and Maruti. Unlike in the past, banks & IT stocks did not contribute meaningfully to the latest rise.

Deepak Jasani, Head – Retail Research at HDFC Securities said the rise in the markets has been aided by the risk-on sentiments prevailing across the globe.

He feels valuations look stretched going by historical parameters; however some more upside is possible in the coming few weeks.

According to him, retail investors may use this rise to reweight their broad asset allocation, relook at the stocks that they own and clean/shrink their bulging portfolios of stocks.

They may avoid chasing stocks that are at steep valuations but keep hunting for opportunities in the small/midcap space where promoters show genuine interest in improving shareholder value by restructuring their businesses/companies, he advises.

For investors who are under-invested in stocks, SIP in select equity stocks may be looked at, according to him.

1:05 pm Buzzing: Rico Auto shares added another 12.5 percent gains intraday, taking total gains to 32 percent in two consecutive sessions after the management met with investors on Wednesday.

The stock touched a fresh 52-week high of Rs 83.90 today. In last one month, it rallied 39 percent and 75 percent in one year.

In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Arvind Kapur, Chairman, CEO & MD said change in product mix and tech adoption would aid margin improvement.

The company, which has been in the business of automotive components & assemblies, has also entered into defence segment.

It earned revenue around Rs 5 crore from the defence segment that it aims to hit Rs 100 crore mark in next 3-4 years, he said while expecting defence margin to be above 15 percent.

Profit of the company in last financial year grew by 63 percent to Rs 48.5 crore with revenue growth of 7 percent at Rs 1,079 crore compared with previous year.

12:52 pm Europe opening: European stock markets opened higher as investors eye new earnings reports and look ahead to more comments from US Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen who will testify to Congress for a second day.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 was 0.12 percent higher with most sectors moving in positive ground.

12:32 pm Earnings: Goa Carbon shares rallied nearly 5 percent intraday to touch fresh 52-week high of Rs 383 after reporting stellar performance in the quarter ended June 2017.

Profit during the quarter jumped more than 7-fold to Rs 5.7 crore from Rs 0.8 crore in year-ago quarter on strong revenue as well as operational growth.

Revenue grew by 22.9 percent year-on-year to Rs 89.3 crore while operating profit shot up 84 percent to Rs 9.8 crore.

Margin growth, too, was solid at 11 percent in June quarter 2017 compared with 7.3 percent in corresponding quarter of last fiscal.

Goa Carbon is in the business of manufacture and marketing of calcined petroleum coke.

12:20 pm Market Check: Bulls retained full charge over Dalal Street as the 30-share BSE Sensex was up 227.29 points at 32,032.11 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 59.60 points to 9,875.70.

The broader markets gave up some morning gains, but were still trading higher with half a percent gains. About 1,352 shares advanced against 1,076 declining shares on the BSE.

12:00 pm Cadila's new MD: Sharvil Patel, new Managing Director of Cadila Health told CNBC-TV18 that he sees huge opportunity for company in the R&D department and the company has been working on new emerging vaccine portfolio.

His vision is to build a research-based pharma company, which is almost the same as his father Pankaj Patel's.

He feels the R&D spends will be at 6-8 percent of revenue going ahead.

He said the company has done well this year w.r.t regulatory compliance as it undertook a lot of initiatives at Moraiya unit w.r.t automation and quality.

It is focussing on operational efficiency improvement to combat pricing pressure, he added.

He said, "We have been filing 40-50 ANDAs a year and see healthy pipeline going ahead. We also have been getting almost 5-6 approvals every week."

11:35 am What key things that Goldman expects from Infosys' results: "There could be downward pressure to Infosys' annual guidance particularly constant currency USD revenue growth of 6.5-8.5 percent for FY18. We are forecasting 6.8 percent currently," Goldman Sachs said.

Investors would be keenly looking for details on the share buyback plan announced during the Q4FY17 results including exact quantum, buyback dates and any ceiling price.

Any disappointment on either guidance or buyback plans, Goldman believes, could lead to a downward reaction in the stock price. See inside for further details.

11:15 am Market Check: Equity benchmark indices extended their gains from the morning session, with the Nifty and Sensex both holding to their fresh milestones. In fact, the Nifty was seen heading towards 9900-mark.

The Sensex was up 234.95 points at 32039.77, while the Nifty was up 66.60 points at 9882.70. The market breadth was narrow as 1,450 shares advanced against a decline of 868 shares, while 135 shares were unchanged.

The gains on the index were led by ITC, ICICI Bank and Indiabulls Housing, while the top losers were ONGC, Tata Motors, IOC and Bharti Infratel.

Midcaps registered strong gains, while FMCG and banking stocks too followed suit.

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10:55 am Interview: Oil marketing majors gained following the Oil Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan's assurance that the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation-Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (ONGC-HPCL) merger, to create a mega oil public sector undertaking (PSU), will be completed in FY18.

In an interview to CNBC-TV18, RS Sharma, Former Chairman of ONGC said, "This deal is likely to happen in the month of July itself, let us wait and watch," said Sharma.

According to Sharma, all the three stakeholders that is the government, ONGC and HPCL will be immensely benefited. "For ONGC, this is the best transaction to happen," he added.

10:33 am Market Outlook: Even as the market soars to new highs with every passing day, there are voices from the space that see the momentum slowing down.

DSP BlackRock Investment Managers believes that the market will now remain rangebound going forward.

''In terms of valuations, we are at the upper level of it. Making a case now for a big upside from this point is difficult,'' Atul Bhole, VP & Fund Manager, DSP BlackRock Invst Managers told CNBC-TV18.

Having said that, Bhole does not expect a big correction in the market as macros are falling in place and interest rates have come down. So, how does one play this market? Bhole believes there is a lot of scope for stock selection. ''If the stock selection is right in the large cap space, there is good money to be made in 2-3 years,'' he told the channel.

10.11 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks continued to trade at record highs, with the Sensex holding its 32,000 level, backed by banking & financials, infra and FMCG stocks.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 223.29 points at 32,028.11 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 63.40 points to 9,879.50.

The broader markets also continued to trade in line with benchmarks, with the BSE Midcap up 0.7 percent as about two shares advanced for every share falling on the exchange.

Jayant Manglik, President, Retail Distribution, Religare Securities has reiterated bullish view on markets and suggests maintaining buy on dips approach.

TCS and Cyient will be in focus ahead of quarterly earnings later today.

10:00 am Earnings Estimates: According to average of estimates of analysts polled by CNBC-TV18, TCS' profit in Q1 is seen falling 6.2 percent sequentially to Rs 6,195 crore and revenue may decline 0.2 percent to Rs 29,580 crore compared with previous quarter.

Dollar revenue growth during the quarter is expected to be 2.9 percent at USD 4,581 million QoQ; and constant currency growth is estimated to be around 2-2.5 percent, which may be lower compared with 3.1 percent in Q1FY17, 3.5 percent in Q1FY16 and 4.8 percent in Q1FY15.

Seasonally June quarter is always a strong quarter for the company but that is not likely to happen this time.

The key reason is expected recovery in BFS (banking and financial services) doesn't seem to have materialised and structural challenges continued in retail, analysts said.

9:46 am Low inflation impact: Neelkanth Mishra of Credit Suisse said the decline in headline inflation has been much faster than expected.

It supports overweight call on beneficiaries of lower interest rates like mortgage providers and metals, he added.

At the same time, low food inflation could hurt consumption, according to him. The research house stayed underweight on staples, Mishra said.

9:35 am Buzzing: Shares of Specialty Restaurants, the operator of Mainland China chain of restaurants, soared nearly 5 percent intraday as investors cheered the company's expansion plans.

''The company entered into a franchise agreement on July 11 with Resolute Restaurant Management LLC, granting the right to the Franchisee to open three franchise restaurants under its brand 'Mainland China Asia Kitchen' in the United Arab Emirates within the time stipulated in the Franchise agreement,'' it told the exchanges in a notification.

Further, it added, that the restaurant will be opened in BurJuman Mall, New Wing, in Dubai, UAE.

''The Company will manage the day to day operations of restaurant and charge Franchise Fees and Management Fees, in accordance with the terms of the Franchise Agreement,'' the exchange notification added.

9:25 am FII View: Sanjay Mookim of Bank of America Merrill Lynch said MSCI India trades at a large P/E premium to Emerging Market (EM) even though earnings growth is not materially higher. This is driven by consumer facing stocks and only partly explained by higher Indian return on equities.

There is also significant 'faith' foreign investors seem to have in the Indian consumption story, he feels.

He said Indian stocks have a 'visibility premium' rather than a 'growth premium'.

"We measure this as the number of years of high return on equity built into consumer stock prices and with the recent rally that is also now at cyclical highs," he said.

He feels there is little room for further upside, while market is susceptible to reversal of the global tide.

Mookim stayed cautious on market in the near term, saying December 2017 Sensex target is at 30,000.

9:15 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks started off the session with yet another record high on Thursday, with the Sensex gaining nearly 200 points and the Nifty inching towards 9,900 level on hopes of rate cut after fall in retail inflation and on positive global cues.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 189.99 points at 31,994.81 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 56.50 points to 9,872.60 on strong breadth.

About five shares advanced for every share falling on the BSE. Vedanta, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, SBI, Infosys and GAIL were early gainers.

The broader markets also participated in the rally, with the Nifty Midcap 100 up 0.5 percent.

HPCL surged more than 6 percent on hopes of big dividend before merger with ONGC.

Sintex Industries, HUDCO, AU Small Finance Bank, CDSL and Ujjivan Financial rallied 3-6 percent while PC Jeweller, Rico Auto and Biocon fell over a percent

India's retail inflation cooled down to 1.54 percent in June from 2.18 percent in May, mainly due to goods and services tax-induced discounts. Core inflation rate was at 3.8 percent versus 4.2 percent month on month and food inflation came in at -1.17 percent versus -1.05 percent MoM.

Meanwhile, India's industrial output also fell to 1.7 percent in May from 3.1 percent in April. However, April IIP was revised to 2.8 percent from 3.1 percent.

Most Asia markets advanced as markets parsed through Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's comments during her testimony before congress. Hong Kong's Hang Seng, Australia's ASX 200 and South Korea's Kospi rallied 1 percent each.