Sensex falls 75 points, Nifty ends below 8450; Tata Motors dips

03:30 pm Market closing: After a steady day, the market ended in red. The Sensex was down 75.07 points or 0.3 percent at 27945.80, and the Nifty slipped 8.15 points or 0.1 percent at 8444.90. About 1499 shares advanced, 1271 shares declined, and 153 shares were unchanged.

Tata Motors, Hindalco, Cipla, ONGC and Vedanta were major laggards in the Sensex. Among the gainers were M&M, Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Auto, Hero MotoCorp and Axis Bank.

03:12 pm RBI reference rate: The Reserve Bank of India fixed the reference rate of rupee at 63.5705 against the US dollar and at 70.3535 for the euro as against 63.6223 and 70.7671 respectively yesterday.

According to an RBI statement, the exchange rates for the pound and the yen against the rupee were quoted at 99.2018 and 51.52 per 100 yen, respectively, based on reference rates for the dollar and cross-currency quotes at noon.

The SDR-rupee rate would be based on this rate, the statement added.

03:00 pm Market Update: The Sensex declined 22.26 points to 27998.61 and the Nifty rose 3.45 points to 8456.50. About 1461 shares have advanced, 1218 shares declined, and 171 shares are unchanged on the BSE.

02:45 pm Ramco hits multi-year highs: Shares of Ramco Systems hit multi-year high, rising 17.2 percent intraday on order from Australian coffer manufacturer and supplier, FreshFood. The stock touched Rs 915 level for the first time since November 2000.

FreshFood Management Services has signed pact with Ramco, a global enterprise software vendor, to replace its legacy system with a mobile-based postmodern ERP, said the company in its filing.

FreshFood manufactures and supplies brands like The House of Robert Timms, Bushells Coffee, Cafe-Bar and Picco.

The Australian company will be implementing a comprehensive ERP suite including finance, supply chain, production, maintenance, sales & shipping and CRM. In addition, it also plans to implement Equipment Rental Management software from Ramco to manage and keep track of large number of coffee machines - rented/leased to business partners.

"This partnership underscores Ramco's ongoing commitment to developing intuitive, user-centric enterprise management solutions that transform businesses, on a global level, said Virender Aggarwal, CEO, Ramco Systems.

02:25 pm V-Mart to enter e-commerce: Retail chain V-Mart is gearing up to join the fast growing e-commerce sector by next year with a mobile app-based platform to sell products. It has 108 stores and plans to use its existing outlets as delivery hubs for online customers in the initial stage. "We will have an offline and online combined strategy, where offline would feed the online demand.

We need at least a year to start online retail and it will be around next Diwali," V-Mart Retail Chairman and MD Lalit Agarwal told PTI. "Initially we are planning to use our existing stores as the delivery hubs. We are in the process of finalising the details," he said.

The company would roll out in a phased manner in selected cities and later extend to other places. It would start the pilot project by June 2016. V Mart will first develop an app for android, followed by Apple's iOS, Agarwal said, adding "we will offer our entire stock online.

02:00 pm Market Check
The market continued to see consolidation with the Nifty holding 8450 level while the broader markets' outperformance sustained, rising more than half a percent.

The Sensex fell 6.97 points to 28013.90 and the Nifty rose 5.70 points to 8458.75. About 1493 shares have advanced, 1152 shares declined, and 170 shares are unchanged on the BSE.

Tushar Pradhan of HSBC says the market is currently being driven by Greek related news. However, all eyes are on earnings season which is expected to be a mixed bag this quarter, he adds.

Chinese market recovered from a 6 percent drop but still remained down over 3.5 percent despite the government easing margin funding rules. The rest of Asian markets closed higher with the Nikkei rising to a near 1-week high. European markets rallied 1-2 percent.

Auto sales were a mixed bag in June. While Bajaj Auto reacted to a good sales numbers that increased 8 percent after the 2 percent drop last month. Improvement is seen in both domestic and export markets and Ashok leyland reported good growth in MHCV sales. Hero Motocorp and Tata Motors reported subdued numbers.

Pantaloons Fashions, Reliance Industries, NBCC, HPCL, Eicher Motors, Axis Bank, HDFC and ICICI Bank are the most active shares on exchanges.

1:50 pm Market news: To safeguard capital markets from outside risks, regulator Sebi will soon issue a new set of guidelines to govern outsourcing by stock exchanges and other key entities in the marketplace.

The new guidelines will ensure that exchanges, clearing corporations and depositories do not outsource their core and critical activities to third-parties, while they would need to put in place a robust system to monitor outsourced activities on a real-time basis.

The outsourcing policy for stock exchanges and clearing corporations has been discussed by Sebi's Technical Advisory Committee (TAC), while its Depository System Review Committee has also given its recommendations on the need to regulate outsourcing by the depositories, a senior official said.

1:30 pm Buzzing: Shares of Ramco Systems hit multi-year high, rising 17.2 percent intraday Thursday on order from Australian coffer manufacturer and supplier, FreshFood. The stock touched Rs 915 level for the first time since November 2000.

FreshFood Management Services has signed pact with Ramco, a global enterprise software vendor, to replace its legacy system with a mobile-based postmodern ERP, said the company in its filing.

FreshFood manufactures and supplies brands like The House of Robert Timms, Bushells Coffee, Cafe-Bar and Picco.

After making some smart gains, the market is consolidating on Thursday. The Sensex is up 11.69 points at 28032.56, and the Nifty is up 7.90 points at 8460.95. About 1435 shares have advanced, 1050 shares declined, and 173 shares are unchanged.

Bharti Airtel, M&M, Bajaj Auto, Hero Motocorp and Wipro are top gainers in the Sensex while Tata Motors, Hindalco, Coal India, HDFC Bank and Infosys are laggards.

Recovering from its initial losses, the rupee was trading higher by 5 paise at 63.56 against the American currency in late-morning deals amid bouts of dollar selling by banks and exporters as well as stronger equities.

The local unit moved in a range of 63.66 and 63.56 in morning deals. Overseas, the US dollar stayed flat in early Asian trade as the market geared up for a flurry of US data that could bolster expectations that the Fed would lift rates sooner than later.

12:58 pm Market Update: The Sensex advanced 41.69 points to 28062.56 and the Nifty gained 17.50 points at 8470.55. About 1422 shares have advanced, 1049 shares declined, and 166 shares are unchanged on the BSE.

12:50 pm Irrigation stocks rally: Shares of Jain Irrigation and Shakti Pumps rallied more than 5 percent intraday after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the government will spend Rs 50,000 crore on new irrigation scheme. The

said amount will be spend for the next five years, which will be a big boost for agriculture sector say experts.

Cabinet on Wednesday has approved Krishi Sinchai Yojana, the irrigation scheme. While addressing press conference, Jaitley today said the new irrigation scheme will ensure water does not get wasted and water conservation & recycling will be part of irrigation scheme.

States will announce individual irrigation plans, he added. "Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair a National Steering Panel on irrigation and executive panel headed by NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya will coordinate with states," said FM.

12:35 pm Rupee Update: Recovering from its initial losses, the rupee was trading higher by 5 paise at 63.56 against the American currency in late-morning deals amid bouts of dollar selling by banks and exporters as well as stronger equities.

Earlier, the rupee opened lower at 63.64 per dollar at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (forex) as against 63.61 previously. It slide further to 63.66 on bouts of dollar demand from importers before quoting at 63.56 at 1201 hours.

The local unit moved in a range of 63.66 and 63.56 in morning deals. Overseas, the US dollar stayed flat in early Asian trade as the market geared up for a flurry of US data that could bolster expectations that the Fed would lift rates sooner than later.

12:20 pm Arvind in News: Subsidiary Arvind Lifestyle Brands entered into a license agreement with Aeropostale Inc, said Arvind.

New York-based Aeropostale Inc, the specialty retailer of casual and active apparel for young women and men, boasts of over 1,000 locations across the US, Canda and through licensing partnerships in the Middle East, Asia etc.

The license agreement covers brick and mortar retail locations as well as e-commerce, said the company in its filing. Arvind Lifestyle is expected to open 30 standalone stores and 25 shop-in-shop locations over the next three years, beginning of March 2016, it added.

Arvind will also launch e-commerce selling of Aeropostale products in India.

12:00 pm Market Check
The market remained rangebound in noon trade with the Sensex hovering 28000. FMCG stocks gained while metals and capital goods stocks declined. However, the broader markets maintained uptrend for the third consecutive session with the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices rising 0.6-0.8 percent.

The Sensex declined 13.26 points to 28007.61 and the Nifty rose 5.50 points to 8458.55. About 1447 shares have advanced against 914 shares declined on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Globally, China's Shanghai has doubled losses to retreat nearly 6 percent in the afternoon session, with news of easier margin rules doing little to lift trading sentiment. The rest of Asian markets continued to gain with the Nikkei leaping to a near 1-week high.

Bajaj Auto reacted to its June sales numbers, up 1.6 percent. After the 2 percent drop in May, the two wheeler maker has posted an 8 percent growth in overall sales with traction seen in both domestic and exports in June.

Motorcycle sales, too, have risen 10 percent compared to last year.

11:50 am Buzzing: Shares of Shrenuj & Co surged 18 percent intraday on Thursday after it won a jewellery order worth USD 30 million from the US. This is a significant order given its FY15 revenues stand at Rs 2711 crore.

During the March 2015, the gold and diamond jewellery posted a net profit of Shrenuj Q4 consolidated net profit stands at Rs 4.5 crore on a total income at Rs 996.7 crore.

Soon after announcing its fourth quarter results, Shreyas Doshi, CMD of the company said that this year will see a big turn around and profitability will be restored.

11:30 am Rural irrigation scheme: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that the cabinet has approved Krishi Sinchai Yojana or rural irrigation scheme which will ensure water does not get wasted. The government will spend Rs 50,000 crore over 5 years on the scheme. PM Modi will chair a national steering panel on irrigation while executive panel headed by NITI Aayog Vice Chairman will coordinate with states. Water conservation & recycling will be part of irrigation scheme. Online platform for farm products will increase farmers' market reach. There will be e-auction of farm products for better price discovery.

The market is gradually inching towards 8500-mark. The 50-share index is up 17.35 points at 8470.40 and the Sensex is up 58.64 points at 28079.51. About 1437 shares have advanced, 719 shares declined, and 134 shares are unchanged.

Bajaj Auto, M&M, Hero, Sun Pharma and Bharti Airtel are top gainers in the Sensex. Among the losers are HDFC Bank, Coal India, Infosys and Tata Motors.

The dollar stayed bid early in Asia as the market geared up for a deluge of US data that could back expectations for the Federal Reserve to lift interest rates sooner rather than later.

The euro, meanwhile, remained under a cloud with Greece's debt crisis unlikely to be resolved before Sunday's referendum. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras urged Greeks to reject an international bailout deal, souring hopes of any breakthrough. Investors will be fed a heavy diet of US data from durable goods to nonfarm payrolls ahead of a holiday on Friday, in observance of the July 4 Independence Day.

10:58 am Market Update: The Sensex rose 43.94 points to 28064.81 and the Nifty gained 13 points at 8466.05. About 1434 shares have advanced, 716 shares declined, and 130 shares are unchanged on the BSE.

10:50 am Bharti in focus: Bharti Airtel said it's ready to launch full mobile number portability (MNP) from Friday, which will allow customers to retain their numbers across the country. The government has fixed July 3 as the deadline for a national rollout of MNP. The company said with national MNP, mobile customers across the country can now easily shift between states without having to change their mobile number.

In a statement, Airtel said its customers can enjoy special offers like processing requests for porting within Airtel's network within 24 hours and free incoming on roaming until the portability request is processed.

The users can also avail the option of transferring their balance in pre-paid or carrying forward their unbilled/billed amount in the case of postpaid while porting their number to the new city, it added.

10:35 am Interview: The company's managing director, Umesh Revankar expects non performing loans (NPLs) to decline by the second half of this year.

As the economy grows, rural and urban transport demand will also pick-up, which will improve the company's operational efficiency, he told CNBC-TV18.

The company sees higher rural demand for commercial vehicles than tractors, he said, adding that the cement and steel segments are yet to show any activity on the ground level.

Recent schemes of the government like Smart Cities mission will lead to growth in the infrastructure sector in 2015-16, he said.

10:20 am WB to fund railways: The World Bank said it had cleared a USD 650 million loan for a huge Indian freight rail corridor that will span 1,840 kms (1,140 miles) across the northern heartland of the country.

Construction of the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor will help speed up the carrying of goods between Ludhiana in the west of India and Kolkata in the east, and is part of a series of new freight lines the World Bank says India needs to ease congestion on its network.

"The Indian Railways urgently needs to add freight routes to meet the growing freight traffic in India, which is projected to increase more than 7 percent annually," Ben L. J. Eijbergen, the Task Team Leader for the project, said in a statement.

The loan is the third from the World Bank to help fund the freight corridor. Last year the bank approved a USD 1.1 billion outlay and in 2011 USD 975 million.

10:00 am Market Check
Equity benchmarks continued to see consolidation. Auto, capital goods and metal stocks gained while technology and HDFC group stocks slipped. The broader markets outperformed benchmarks yet again; the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices rose nearly 1 percent.

The Sensex gained 14.90 points at 28035.77 and the Nifty advanced 8.90 points to 8461.95. The market breadth remained strong; more than 3 shares advanced for every share declining on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

So far the market rally has been backed by good monsoons and hope of a solution to Greece but it would be better to wait until the referendum decision on Sunday before taking a call on the market, says independent market expert, Ambareesh Baliga.

Mahindra & Mahindra, Bajaj Auto and Hero Motocorp jumped 1-2 percent post auto sales data for June. Shares of Reliance Industries, State Bank of India and ITC rose 0.5-1 percent whereas HDFC Bank, Infosys, HDFC, Tata Motors, TCS, HUL and Coal India lost 0.3-0.9 percent.

9:50 am Market outlook: So far the market rally has been backed by good monsoons and hope of a solution to Greece but it would be better to wait until the referendum decision on Sunday before taking a call on the market, says independent market expert, Ambareesh Baliga.
The only thing currently in favour of the market is a huge line-up of IPOs and history suggests that market has always held on during those periods.

Indigo, Infibeam, TeamLease, Catholic Syrian, Cafe Coffee Day, Matrix Cellular, RBL Bank, GVK Airport Developers are the IPOs slated to come out.

Going forward the prediction on rains for July, Aug, Sep are not so encouraging and is a cause for worry and  politics is likely to derail monsoon session of the Parliament, says Baliga in an interview to CNBC-TV18.

9:30 am Buzzing: Shares of Religare jumped 7 percent on buzz of possible buyers of Singh brothers' company. According to the media report, both Apollo Global Management and Baring Asia are eyeing to take over Religare Enterprises.

The report quotes sources stating that both the funds are currently conducting detailed due diligence and final bids were to be submitted on Tuesday but the deadline has now been pushed till the end of the month.

Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh have been planning to offload their entire holding or a minimum 51 percent stake in the company.  As of June 2015, the promoters hold 50.93 percent in Religare. 

After a bumper rally, the market has opened on a tepid note Thursday. The Sensex is up 28.41 points at 28049.28, and the Nifty is up 11.85 points at 8464.90. About 600 shares have advanced, 129 shares declined, and 63 shares are unchanged.

Lupin, Hero, Sun Pharma, Bharti Airtel and Hindalco are top gainers in the Sensex. Among the losers are Vedanta, Tata Motors, HDFC Bank, Cipla and L&T.

The Indian rupee slipped marginally to 63.63 a dollar in early trade compared to 63.61 a dollar in previous session. Mohan Shenoi, Kotak Mahindra Bank said strong US data continues to point towards a September Fed rate hike.

Uncertainty regarding Greece is inducing volatility in global currency markets, he added.

According to him, RBI presence on both sides of the market has kept the dollar-rupee rangebound and is expected to trade today in a range of Rs 63.50-63.80/dollar.

Euro slipped to 1.10 levels on a stronger dollar on the back of strong US data. Dollar index is above the 96-mark on the upside.

Asian markets are trading well in the green this morning. Nikkei is trading at one-week high owing to a weaker yen Kospi index edged up to a one-month high.

US markets ended higher on the back of better-than-expected economy data and hopes of a resolution between Greece and its creditors.

Crude prices are lower on the back of a dollar rally and signs that OPEC output is at three-year highs weigh on the market. Gold prices drop on stronger dollar and Greece hopes.

09:09 am: The Indian rupee slipped marginally to 63.63 a dollar in early trade Thursday compared to 63.61 a dollar in previous session.

Mohan Shenoi,  Kotak Mahindra Bank said strong US data continues to point towards a September Fed rate hike. Uncertainty regarding Greece is inducing volatility in global currency markets, he added.

According to him, RBI presence on both sides of the market has kept the dollar-rupee rangebound and is expected to trade today in a range of Rs 63.50-63.80/dollar.

Euro slipped to 1.10 levels on a stronger dollar on the back of strong US data. Dollar index is above the 96-mark on the upside.

Meanwhile, Indian macros are positive and point towards an easy monetary policy stance, he believes. However, constant shuffling between risk-on and risk-off in global markets is making Indian bond yields volatile, Shenoi said.