Sensex falls 251points, Nifty ends below 8250; oil & gas drags

03:30 pm Market close
The market ended lower dragged mostly by infra and oil & gas stocks. The Sensex ended down 251.33 points or 0.9 percent at 27350.68 and the Nifty was down 68.80 points or 0.8 percent at 8224.10.

About 931 shares advanced, 1982 shares declined and 102 shares were unchanged.

Maruti, Infosys, Sun Pharma, Bharti Airtel and HUL were top gainers in the Sensex. Among the gainers were GAIL, Tata Steel, Sesa Sterlite, ONGC and BHEL.

03:15 pm Recapitalisation for SpiceJet
Troubled airline SpiceJet is looking to seek time till January for recapitalisation plan, sources tell CNBC-TV18.

The company is expected to come up with a recapitalisation plan and submit it by December 15. The management is learnt to have met investors in the US and Middle East. However, the investors are said to be concerned about the regulatory hurdle and growth prospects in the aviation sector.

The promoters, Marans, are unwilling to sell their complete 53.4 percent stake. They are looking to raise at least Rs 1,200 crore via sale and in case an investor backs out, they have may pump in the additional capital themselves.

03:00pm IEA cuts 2015 oil demand estimates
International Energy Agency (IEA) has cut 2015 oil demand growth estimates by 2.3 lakh barrels oil per day (bpd) to 9 lakh bpd following sharp fall in crude oil prices. It is the fourth time cut in oil demand in last 5 months.

According to IEA, oil price rout will not hit production.

Brent crude hit a five-and-half-year low of USD 63 a barrel on a supply glut, down 1 percent compared to previous trading session and down 45 percent compared to USD 115 a barrel level in June.

Meanwhile, on December 10, Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) also had cut 2015 world oil demand growth forecast by 70,000 bpd to 1.12 million bpd.

Even it reduced forecast of 2015 demand for its crude by 280,000 bpd to 28.92 million bpd due to slower global demand and higher non-OPEC supply. However, it raised forecast for 2015 non-OPEC supply growth by 120,000 bpd to 1.36 million bpd.

OPEC said if current oil price fall continued over a longer period, that will impact non-OPEC supply in 2015.

Saudi Arabia told OPEC that it trimmed crude production in November by 80,000 bpd to 9.61 million bpd.

02:55pm Finance Minister says
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley says the government will introduce Goods & Services Tax bill in next session of parliament. "We will try to pass Insurance Amendment Bill next week. In fact, we are working overtime to push reforms in Insurance, Coal Bill," he adds.

India needs series of reforms for economic growth. He expects economy to grow 6-6.5 percent next fiscal (FY16).

02:45pm Market Check
Equity benchmarks slid further with the Sensex shedding 242.30 points to 27359.71 and the Nifty falling 64.45 points to 8228.45 due to profit booking in oil & gas, capital goods, metals, financials and auto stocks.

About 931 shares have advanced, 1878 shares declined, and 102 shares are unchanged.

02:35pm Pharma drugs
India has capped the prices of 52 more drugs, including painkillers and antibiotics, the pricing authority said in a notice.

The additional drugs join a list of nearly 400 essential medicines that have so far been placed under price control in India, where a majority of the people live on under USD 2 a day and health insurance is scarce.

The new drugs to come under price control include commonly-used antibiotics and painkillers as well as medicines used for treating cancer and skin disorders, a notice on the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) website said, reports Reuters.

02:25pm Watch out for CPI data
Kotak Mahindra Bank expects November CPI in the range of 4.2-4.3 percent as the ''core hasn't changed much in the downside'' and October IIP at 1.5 percent. Both numbers will be announced later in the day today.

Inflation based on consumer price index (CPI) for November is expected to soften further led by favorable base. A CNBC-TV18 poll of analysts estimates the inflation to come in at 4.4 percent as against 5.5 percent on a month-on-month basis.

According to estimates, on a sectoral basis the biggest decline will be led by food, beverage and tobacco inflation, which constitute 50 percent of CPI. Even fuel inflation is expected to continue softening.

Meanwhile, the index for industrial output (IIP) for the month of October is seen at 2.1 percent against 2.5 percent on a month-on-month basis.

In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Indranil Pan, Chief Economist at Kotak Mahindra Bank, said he sees a rate cut from RBI in Q1CY15 and expects rupee to touch 63 against dollar by March-end.

02:00pm Market Check
The market extended fall in afternoon trade with the Sensex losing 158.69 points to 27443.32 and the Nifty slipping 42.10 points to 8250.80 weighed by profit booking in oil & gas, capital goods, banking & financials and metals stocks.

This has turned out to be a week of profit booking with the Nifty shedding 3.5 percent for the week at current reckoning.

The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices declined 0.5 percent each. About 1031 shares have advanced, 1716 shares declined, and 106 shares are unchanged on the Bombay Stock Exchange.
 
Raamdeo Agarwal of Motilal Oswal says the Indian markets have risen 100 times in the last 30 years and there is nothing stopping India from seeing exponential growth in the next 25 years. He advises holding onto quality names as quality and growth together will lead to exponential gains.

Gail topped the selling list in the Sensex, falling nearly 6 percent on slump in crude oil prices. Shares of TCS, Reliance Industries, ONGC, HDFC, Tata Steel, Sesa Sterlite, BHEL, Hindalco, M&M and Axis Bank declined 1-3 percent. However, Infosys, Sun Pharma, Bharti Airtel, HUL, ITC, Maruti, Hero Motocorp and Coal India gained 0.2-1.3 percent.

Global markets are a mixed bag today. European markets like CAC and DAX fell more than 1 percent while in the commodity space, Brent crude hit a five-and-half-year low of USD 63 a barrel on a supply glut. The sentiment was dampened in Asia after Chinese industrial output hit 3-month low of 7.2 percent.

Meanwhile, the government sources indicated most issues with regard to Goods and Service Tax (GST) is likely to be resolved within a week. Expectations are that GST Constitutional Amedment Bill could be tabled in the winter session of the parliament.

1:50 pm Market outlook: All indications point to the fact that the market is in a multi-year bull run, says Lalit Nambiar, fund manager at UTI Mutual Fund. The market is like 2003-08, backed by macroeconomic recovery, he adds. He believes corrections are a buying opportunity. On crude oil price fall, he says it is a good opportunity for India Inc. From a stock perspective, he adds that the oil price fall won't have a major impact considering it wasn't taken into account even six months ago.

1:30 pm Corporate interview: The festive season was a disappointment and the outlook for the automobile industry is likely to remain grim for this year, says RC Bhargava, chairman, Maruti Suzuki . According to the auto industry veteran, the worst is not yet over for the sector. He, however, admits that the growth in November picked up though whether it will be sustainable or not is yet to be seen.

Bhargava adds that though exports have increased substantially, they may not salvage the growth for the entire sector as the total volume of exports is still a very small part of the production.

The market is flat as the Sensex is down 48.47 points at 27553.54. The Nifty is down 11.05 points at 8281.85. About 1201 shares have advanced, 1421 shares declined, and 115 shares are unchanged.

Bharti Airtel, Sun Pharma, Coal India, Maruti and Tata Power are top gainers in the Sensex. Among the top losers are GAIL, Sesa Sterlite, TCS, BHEL and Tata Steel.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will start talks with the government for an "appropriate timeline" to ensure the economy is within a medium term inflation target of 2-6 percent, Governor Raghuram Rajan.

"Going forward, we will discuss an appropriate timeline with the government in which the economy should move to the centre of the medium term inflation band of 2-6," Rajan said. Rajan added "a glide path" towards lowering inflation to those levels worked best for India by ensuring moderate economic growth.

Oil's slide to the lowest price in more than five years is carving a divide between US shale drillers who heavily hedged future production and those who didn't. Oil producers typically hedge against lower prices by locking in some of their future production at favorable prices through swap transactions sold by banks, or by buying options as insurance against lower prices.

12:50pm Panacea Biotec
Shares of Panacea Biotec climbed 7 percent on signing strategic alliance with Apotex, the largest Canadian-owned pharmaceutical company.

The alliance is for research, development, license and supply of two drug delivery based high barrier to entry generic products for US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

"Panacea will undertake product development and will manufacture and supply the products to Apotex, while Apotex will be responsible for regulatory affairs, Hatch Waxman litigation and commercialisation activities in the territories," said the company in its filing to the exchange.

12:30pm Market Expert
With the Nifty in a consolidation phase, the market is giving opportunities at every stage, says Deven Choksey of KR Choksey Securities. There is no fundamental weakness, the macro-economic situation is improving and corporate earnings seem fine, on the back of which he believes not just the midcaps, there is opportunity now even in large cap stocks.

Moving on to the macro-economic and political scenario, Choksey believes the government's move on GST will be a big game-changer for the economy and reduce adversities. Between now and April 2016 – when the GST is expected to rollout – a lot of changes will happen. The government at the moment is actively trying to thrash key issues that states have with GST. It will be extremely beneficial for the corporate sector, he adds. According to him, the market will discount the impact of GST a little ahead of time.

Later in the day, on Friday, the much-awaited consumer price index (CPI) data is also expected to come out. There is a lot of speculation whether it will come out at around 4.5 percent. Choksey says the market believes that the economic datas will be positive. Growth has started to come back into the economy and that is the market belief, he adds.

12:00pm Market Check
The market slipped marginally in the red in noon trade after posting gains initially. The rupee declined further, hitting a 10-month low of 62.41 a dollar, down 8 paise.

The 30-share BSE Sensex fell 51.34 points to 27550.67 and the 50-share NSE Nifty slipped 9.60 points to 8283.30 while the BSE Midcap and Smallcap outperformed, gaining marginally. About 1203 shares have advanced, 1269 shares declined, and 108 shares are unchanged on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Globally, Asian markets traded mostly in the green taking cue from the positive close from the US markets. However, oil prices continued their decline; Brent crude fell to a five and a half year low of USD 63 a barrel.

Oil stocks declined today. Gail and Cairn India topped the Nifty losers, reacting to lower oil prices. Both stocks lost 9 percent and 6 percent respectively week to date at current reckoning while today they fell 3-5 percent.

Shares of ONGC, Sesa Sterlite, Tata Steel, M&M, DLF and Zee Entertainment slipped 1.6-2.6 pecent while Sun Pharma, Bharti Airtel, Maruti Suzuki, Infosys, Cipla, NMDC, Lupin and Ambuja Cements gained 1-2 percent.

Meanwhile, the government sources indicated most issues with regard to Goods and Service Tax (GST) is likely to be resolved within a week. Expectations are that GST Constitutional Amedment Bill could be tabled in the winter session of the parliament.

RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan says "Make for India" is as important as "Make in India". He advises against an export-led policy for India. Speaking on inflation, the RBI governor says the path of disinflation cannot be very steep for India.

11:50 am Interview: From beginning of the year, the Bajaj Electricals stock saw a one-way rally till May, post which the company posted weak numbers for two consecutive quarters, which resulted in putting pressure on the stock. This at a time when its peers Havells, Crompton Greaves and TTK Prestige posted good second quarter numbers. The company is seeing rising weakness in its lighting business. EBIT margin of the segment remained weak at 2.8 percent due to a decline in CFL sales and flat luminaries sales growth.

The management expects weakness in the CFL business to continue, given increasing competition from LEDs. Prices of LEDs are falling sharply, which makes the outlook for CFLs look bleak. Bajaj Electricals CMD Shekhar Bajaj says with winter not setting in yet, sales of winter-dependent products are yet to pick up. Also, with online retailers offering such steep discounts, there is confusion in the minds of consumers. They expect discount on every product and hence wait to make a purchase. Consumers fail to see that these e-tailers offer discount on just 10 percent of their products.

11:30 am Market outlook: Crude is the big theme that will drive market trend in the near to medium term, says Raamdeo Agrawal, Joint MD, Motilal Oswal. He says that falling crude is a bigger theme than even the change of government at the centre earlier this year. ''Provided the fall in crude prices is sustainable and not just a one-quarter phenomenon,'' Agrawal added as a caveat.

He sees petrochemical companies posting huge losses in the September quarter because of the steep decline in their inventory of crude. However, it will fire up the earnings of many companies whose raw material prices are linked to crude. Agrawal says it will give a big boost to the earnings of consumer companies as it will be upto them to decide how much of the benefits they would like to pass on. Commodity companies will have no such advantage as they will have to pass on the fall in commodity prices.

The market is still consolidating with positive bias. The Sensex is up 67.87 points at 27669.88 and the Nifty is up 21.05 points at 8313.95. About 1423 shares have advanced, 801 shares declined, and 98 shares are unchanged.

Bharti Airtel, Sun Pharma, Maruti, Tata Power and Infosys are top gainers while GAIL, ONGC, M&M, Sesa Sterlite and BHEL are laggards in the Sensex.

Crude oil futures plunged 2.57 percent to Rs 3,718 per barrel today as participants indulged
in offloading their positions amid a weakening trend in Asian trade where it sank below the psychological USD60-mark. At the Multi Commodity Exchange, crude oil for delivery
in current month contracts fell sharply by Rs 98, or 2.57 percent, to Rs 3,718 per barrel in 1,952 lots.

Gold slipped as the dollar rose after robust U.S. economic data but the metal was on track for its biggest weekly climb since June following gains earlier in the week from safe-haven demand. The metal has risen 2.8 percent this week, although it failed to build on strong gains that took it to a seven-week high on Wednesday.

10:55am FII View
The Indian market has gained close to 35 percent this year but is unlikely to replicate that in 2015, says Ewen Cameron Watt, Global Chief Investment Strategist, Blackrock Investment. He does not see this market correcting 15-20 percent anytime soon.

In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Watt says there is a lot of value in the midcaps and they will continue to outperform largecaps going ahead.

On current fall in crude prices, Watt says the fall is good as it will support developing economies like India.

10:40am Interview
The festive season was a disappointment and the outlook for the automobile industry is likely to remain grim for this year, says RC Bhargava, chairman, Maruti Suzuki.

According to the auto industry veteran, the worst is not yet over for the sector. He, however, admits that the growth in November picked up though whether it will be sustainable or not is yet to be seen.

Speaking to CNBC-TV18, Bhargava adds that though exports have increased substantially, they may not salvage the growth for the entire sector as the total volume of exports is still a very small part of the production.

The current fall in crude prices to below USD 65 per barrel level is a positive for the company as it reduces the cost of production significantly.

10:20am Market Expert
Crude is the big theme that will drive market trend in the near to medium term, says Raamdeo Agrawal, Joint MD, Motilal Oswal.

In an interview to CNBC-TV18, he says that falling crude is a bigger theme than even the change of government at the centre earlier this year.

''Provided the fall in crude prices is sustainable and not just a one-quarter phenomenon,'' Agrawal added as a caveat.

He sees petrochemical companies posting huge losses in the September quarter because of the steep decline in their inventory of crude. However, it will fire up the earnings of many companies whose raw material prices are linked to crude.
 
Agrawal says it will give a big boost to the earnings of consumer companies as it will be upto them to decide how much of the benefits they would like to pass on. Commodity companies will have no such advantage as they will have to pass on the fall in commodity prices.

10:00am Market Check
The 50-share NSE Nifty managed to hold the 8300 level amid consolidation, up 13.45 points at 8306.35 while the Sensex rose 35.56 points to 27637.57. The broader markets outperformed benchmarks with the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices rising more than 0.5 percent.

More than two shares advanced for every share declining on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Telecom stocks like Bharti and Idea Cellular rebounded, up 1-2 percent as the defence ministry agreed to release 5 MHZ of spectrum in the 2100 MHZ which is likely to be auctioned next year. Also a proposal to swap 5 MHZ spectrum in 2,100 MHZ band, with similar quantity in 1,900 MHZ band is currently underway. This increased supply will reduce the pressure on telecom companies bidding for 900 MHZ.

Onmobile Global gained 5 percent as the board approved a buyback of upto Rs 49 crore worth of shares at a maximum price of Rs 86 per share which is a 20 percent premium to current price.

Exide Industries climbed over 1.5 percent as Citi upped target price to Rs 200 from Rs 193 earlier, citing decline in lead costs.

Bharat Electronics gained 1 percent as Russia and India signed pact to manufacture nuclear and defence parts in India.

IL&FS Engineering shot up 10 percent after its subsidiary Maytas Infra Saudi Arabia bagged an order worth Rs 464 crore contract in Saudi Arabia with a completion period is 32 months.

Pricol climbed over 7 percent as it proposed to acquire 99.99 percent stake in a Brazil-based auto component manufacturing company through its wholly-owned subsidiary in Spain. This acquisition will help to make it enter the Brazilian auto component industry. Pricol said the acquisition is expected to be completed by the end of January 2015.

9:50 am SBI: With the government indicating that it won't continue to fund public sector banks (PSBs), SBI chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya said they could look at issuing shares with differential voting rights to raise funds to meet the Basel-III capital adequacy norms.

"The writing on the wall is very clear...they (PSBs) have to think of differential voting rights. It is time to lay out some kind of road map on how much the banks need to do and how much support it would get," she said while talking to reporters on the sidelines of a conference.

The government yesterday allowed PSBs to raise up to Rs 1.60 lakh crore from markets by diluting government holding to 52 percent in phases so as to meet Basel III norms. Pitching for consolidation in the banking sector, Bhattacharya said that it was important to have three-four major banks.

9:30 am Buzzing: Investors queued up to buy more shares of OnMobile Global after board members announced buyback price of equity shares. The stock is locked at 5 percent upper circuit at Rs 72.60 on the Bombay Stock Exchange and there were pending buy orders of 225,992 shares, with no sellers available, at 9:30 hours IST.

"The board of directors of the mobile technology and services provider on Thursday decided on buyback of company's equity shares of Rs 10 each from open market through stock exchange mechanism," said the company in its filing.

The company will buyback shares at a price not exceeding Rs 86 per equity share payable in cash for an aggregate amount not exceeding Rs 49 crore.

After the deep cut seen on Thursday, the market has opened marginally higher today. The Sensex is up 33.58 points at 27635.59 and the Nifty is up 9.10 points at 8302.00. About 400 shares have advanced, 164 shares declined, and 26 shares are unchanged.

Hindalco, Tata Power, Infosys, BHEL and Bharti Airtel are top gainers in the Sensex. Among the losers are Tata Motors, Dr Reddy's Labs, GAIL, HDFC and Sesa Sterlite.

The Indian rupee opened lower by 11 paise at 62.44 per dollar against 62.33 Thursday.
The dollar was firmer against most of its major peers thanks to upbeat US retail sales data, while nervousness over falling oil prices kept the Canadian dollar pinned near a five-year low.

Pramit Brahmbhatt of Veracity said, "We expect the local equity market to trade sideways and take cues from global markets for further direction. Any upper movement in the dollar will keep rupee under pressure. Expect the rupee to trade in a range of 62-62.70/dollar."

Asian equity markets made gains, as a positive lead from Wall Street overnight offset concerns about a further decline in oil prices.

In the US, stocks advanced, cutting weekly losses, but euphoria over increased retail sales in November faded as oil fell to another five-year low and renewed worries of a government shutdown. Crude dropped below USD 60 a barrel.

In Europe, shares close mixed even as data showed that the uptake of a low-rate loan programme by the ECB met market expectations. The loans have been less than the ECB originally hoped for when the scheme was first announced.

Central banks outside the ECB were also in focus. The Swiss central bank kept policy on hold but Norway's bank decided to cut interest rates in a surprise move. The central bank of Russia raised its key interest rate by 1 percent.

In commodities, crude slide continues, Nymex crude falls below USD 60 a barrel, the first time in five years that it breached the psychologically-important support level, as oil markets extended this week's losses on oversupply concerns. Brent too slips below USD 64. From the precious metals space, gold prices remained flat, retreating from seven-week high as the dollar extended gains.