Sensex, Nifty end flat; Tata Power gains 4% on tariff hike

03:45 pm Global markets: The Japanese yen, Swiss franc, gold and German government bonds all rose in early European trade after what has been a subdued session in Asia.

Elsewhere, the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 fell 0.3 percent. Mixed earnings reports and Wednesday's gains - the biggest in three months - bred caution among investors.

The new U.S. sanctions effectively shut off medium and longer-term dollar funding for companies close to Vladimir Putin. The EU also expanded its punishments for certain firms and said it would ask two of its development banks to halt their lending in Russia.

The jitters gave safe-haven assets a broad lift amid concern about potential retaliation from Moscow and further escalation of the situation.

03:35 pm Market closing: The market was ranged in today's trade with metals and pharma attracting good buyers. The Sensex ended up 11.44 points at 25561.16 and the Nifty was up 16.05 points at 7640.45. About 1731 shares have advanced, 1200 shares declined, and 111 shares are unchanged.

Tata Power was up 4 percent while Hindalco, Tata Steel, Coal India and NTPC were major gainers in the Sensex.

Among the losers were M&M, Bajaj Auto, ONGC, GAIL and Maruti.

03:20 Big power boost: Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) has approved tariff hike of 8.32 percentfor all three discoms Reliance ADAG-owned discom BSES Yamuna Power (BYPL), BSES Rajdhani Power Limited (BRPL),  Tata Power Delhi Distribution Company Ltd (TPDDL). The regulator has increased tariff hike of 9.52 percent for NDMC.

03:10 pm Interview: In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Benoit Anne of Societe Generale says the Russian sanctions will only have a short-term impact on the international markets. Furthermore, he remains neutral on India.

"I would say it is going to be a short-term reaction, nothing is fundamentally going to change but the problem with those headlines is they are used by global investors to reshuffle their portfolios, make profit and so on and that does have an impact on the markets," he said.

03:00pm Tata Group stocks in focus: Tata Motors gained 1 percent while Tata Investment Corporation, Tata Elxsi and Tata Steel rallied 3-4 percent.

Tata Sponge jumped 12.5 percent and Tata Metaliks shot up 17.5 percent. Trent rose 0.5 percent.

02:50pm Events tomorrow: Zee Entertainment, CRISIL, SKF India, Tata Elxsi, Clariant Chemicals, Sabero Organics, Info Edge India and Greenply Industries will announce April-June quarter earnings.

Pantaloons Fashion's board will meet tomorrow to consider fund raising, including rights issue and Ujaas Energy's board members will meet for fund raising plans.

02:40pm Q1 Earnings: Gruh Finance's first quarter net profit grew 24.3 percent to Rs 42 crore from Rs 33.8 crore and total income rose 31.9 percent to Rs 241.6 crore from Rs 183.2 crore year-on-year.

Net interest income shot up to Rs 86.7 crore from Rs 67.4 crore during the same period. Asset quality improved with the gross NPAs falling to 0.44 percent from 0.46 percent and net NPAs declining to 0.04 percent from 0.05 percent Y-o-Y.

02:30pm Cyient (earlier known as Infotech Enterprises): Its Q1 consolidated net profit declined to Rs 68.5 crore from Rs 69.8 crore while net sales rose to Rs 621.7 crore from Rs 595 crore on sequential basis.

Operating profit plunged to Rs 87 crore from Rs 107.5 crore and margin dropped to 14 percent from 18.1 percent Q-o-Q.

02:20pm SEZ issue: As many as 27 special economic zone developers, including Gulf Oil Corporation, Navi Mumbai SEZ and DLF Info Park have sought more time from the
government to execute their projects.

These proposals will be taken up for consideration by the Board of Approval (BoA), headed by Commerce Secretary Rajeev Kher in its meeting on July 24. The BoA is a 19-member
inter-ministerial body that deals with Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and the issues related to them.

Some developers have cited reasons like imposition of minimum alternate tax (MAT), poor response of entrepreneurs for setting up unit due to global economic slowdown, problems
of land acquisition and environmental clearances for delay in implementing the projects, reports PTI.

02:10pm Bajaj Auto falls 3%: Itdisappointed the street with the April-June quarter operating margins coming in below estimates to 17.6 percent. Weak earnings and a big operational knock led to a bottomline miss.

Margins dragged during the quarter due to lower gross margins and higher employee costs. Due to competition, the company could not raise prices and pass on costs to consumers.

The two-wheeler maker's net profit rose marginally to Rs 740 crore compared to Rs 737.7 crore in same quarter last year, dented by weak operational performance and higher depreciation charge.

02:00pm Equity benchmarks remained in tight range from morning trade. The Sensex slipped 16.84 points to 25532.88 while the Nifty rose 6.95 points to 7631.35. The broader space continued to be in demand with the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices rising over a percent.

About 1619 shares have advanced, 1155 shares declined, and 96 shares are unchanged.

Coal India gained more than 2.5 percent after power and coal minister, Piyush Goyal said the ministry appealed to environment ministry and also asked state governments for allowing extra mining.

"The government is taking all necessary measures to hike coal production. We hope to ramp up coal production in 1-2 years with states' help," he added.

ONGC lost nearly 2 percent after the companyy opposed stake sale by the government before issues are resolved. It wants fuel subsidy sharing and natural gas pricing resolved before stake sale. In a letter to oil ministry, the company said divestment now may not realise true value.

2:00 pm Crude price: Price of brent crude fell almost USD 10 despite crisis in Iraq. Edward Morse, Global Head-Commodities at Citi says when the Iraq crisis broke out, crude prices started rising and now it is back to where it was before the crisis broke out. This is because people investing or buying oil realized that there wasn't going to be a big disruption, atleast not in the short run, and they had to sell out in their positions, perhaps a little too much. He believes that demand for crude will now go up and brent price in the current quarter will be pricing USD 2-3 higher.

1:50 pm Inflation: Stronger deceleration in inflation especially the core inflation print plus conscious fiscal policy response to the adverse impact of monsoons on food prices may result in a rate cut in the last quarter of 2014 itself, says Tanvee Gupta Jain of Macquarie.

As a base case, Jain however not see rate cuts happening before FY15, but if inflation, monsoon and fiscal measures support, then Jain assigns 30 percent chance to a rate cut in Oct-Dec 2014. She estimates full FY15 exports to average between 6 and 8 percent versus 3.9 percent growth in previous fiscal.

1:40 pm Interview: In an interview to CNBC-TV18, N Sivaraman, President & Whole-Time Director, L&T Finance Holdings said that the Reserve Bank of India's recent move to ease infrastructure loans is a positive. Sivaraman hopes to larger participation by retail and institutional investors now.

Also, he sees better evolution of capital market as a fallout of RBI norms. Meanwhile, speaking about the latest happenings in the company, he said that the company's pipeline of restructured assets is likely to start slowing down and L&T Finance will continue to invest in diversifying liability side of business.

1:30 pm Divestment: State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) wants government to resolve critical issues like fuel subsidy sharing and natural gas pricing before a planned USD 3 billion stake sale in the company to fetch better price.

The government plans to sell 42.77 crore shares, or 5 percent of its stake in ONGC worth Rs 17,400 crore at current prices, this fiscal. The first disinvestment by the new government is part of a plan to narrow budget deficit to the lowest in seven years.

Commenting on the stake sale, ONGC wrote to the Oil Ministry saying any disinvestment at this stage may not realise the true potential/value of the company shares. ONGC said its payout to help fuel retailers sell diesel, domestic cooking gas (LPG) and kerosene at subsidised rates to consumers has been steadily rising - from Rs 44,466 crore in 2011-12 to Rs 56,384 crore in 2013-14.

1:20 pm Houseview: Credit Suisse has maintained an outperform rating on TTK Prestige with an increased target of Rs 4170 per share stating that Q1 FY15 was a turning point and it is poised for a strong recovery in the second half. The stokc rallied 7 percent intraday.

The brokerage feels that recovery in TTK Prestige's revenue growth has begun, which has high operating leverage and should see an improvement in margins as sales growth returns.

''The three adverse factors that impacted FY14 are Tamil Nadu has turned positive after a reduction in power cuts Andhra Pradesh is returning to normalcy post bifurcation, and induction cooktop base is now catching up. These factors should play a much bigger role in the Y-o-Y comparison for second half, when we expect very strong 25 percent growth,'' it says in a research note.

1:10 pm Buzzing: Shares of Crompton Greaves, the engineering conglomerate, gained as much as 16.7 percent intraday Thursday to touch a 3-year high of Rs 216.70 after the board of directors proposed to demerge consumer product business unit into a separate listed company.

While speaking at its annual strategic review meeting on July 16 in Belgium, the board has said that such a demerger will create better growth opportunities for it's two large but significantly different businesses - power, industrial and automation which is a B2B business, and the consumer products business which is B2C.

The board also believes that this will create a more flexible capital structure for the two businesses to grow independently, allow them to pursue more ambitious strategic goals and, thus, create further value for existing shareholders. 

The Sensex is down 14.00 points at 25535.72 and the Nifty is up 4.35 points at 7628.75.
 
About 1564 shares have advanced, 1117 shares declined, and 106 shares are unchanged.

Tata Steel, Hindalco, Tata Power, NTPC and Coal India are top gainers in the Sensex. Among the losers are M&M, Bajaj Auto, ONGC, Maruti Suzuki and GAIL.

Bajaj Auto disappointed the street with the operating margins coming in below estimates at 17.6 percent. Weak earnings and a big operational knock led to a bottomline miss. Profits were flat at Rs 740 crore while revenues were up 7 percent at Rs 5,252 crore.

IT major, TCS will report its first quarter numbers today. According to a CNBC-TV18 poll, dollar revenue growth is expected to be closer to 5 percent and is likely to lead the industry but margins are seen lower by 350 basis points (bps).

12:55pm Gainers and Losers in Sensex: Tata Steel and Hindalco Industries topped the buying list, rising more than 2 percent followed by Infosys, Tata Motors, NTPC, Wipro, Tata Power, Coal India, Cipla and BHEL with 1-1.9 percent.

However, ONGC, M&M and Bajaj Auto plunged 2.5-3 percent.  ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank, ITC, Maruti Suzuki, Axis Bank and SBI fell 0.2-0.9 percent.

12:50pm Volume Buzzer: Jaypee Infratech shot up 11 percent to Rs 38.60 amid hefty volumes, in addition to 20 percent rise in previous session.

It was trading with volumes of 3,732,225 shares, compared to its five-day average of 1,552,648 shares, an increase of 140.38 percent.

12:40pm Interview: Speaking on the potential revenue the company can get from the Budget initiatives, Mahendra Agarwal, MD, GATI, said announcements on manufacturing and freight corridor are positive for the logistics sector. He expects a proper timeline on GST rollout to be the game changer for the sector.

GATI has a current delivery capability of 15,000 packages per day, compared to10,000 a year ago, due to its increasing focus on Tier I & II cities. It plans to expand its capacity to 25,000 packages per day by the year-end.

The company is also looking at expansion of its cold storage business at the capex of Rs 150 crore.

The company has already decided to entirely exit shipping business, said Agarwal, adding that they are exploring options in coastal shipping and inland waterways.

GATI is looking to grow business by over 20 percent going forward.

12:30pm NTPC in focus: Of the 34 proposals received by country's largest power utility NTPC for takeover, the company said it has found only about five offers worth considering.

"We have been offered 34 projects of 55,000 MW capacity by the private companies for takeover, only 4-5 projects are worth looking at," an NTPC official said.

The company will evaluate the quality of equipment of these projects, the level of clearances they have achieved, coal availability and sourcing the fuel in case of non-availability before buying these thermal power stations, reports PTI.

12:20pm Market Expert: Now that the Union Budget 2014 is out of the way, the market will start taking cues from the corporate Q1 earnings and foreign institutional investors' (FIIs) flows, says Sanjay Sinha, founder, Citrus Advisors.

12:10pm Q1 Earnings: Bajaj Auto, the two-wheeler maker, disappointed street with the first quarter (April-June) net profit rising marginally to Rs 740 crore compared to Rs 737.7 crore in same quarter last year, dented by weak operational performance and higher depreciation charge.

According to CNBC-TV18 poll estimates, analysts had expected net profit of Rs 821 crore on total revenue of Rs 5,214 crore for the quarter.

Total revenue grew 7 percent to Rs 5,252 crore in June quarter from Rs 4,911 crore in corresponding quarter of last fiscal. Revenue growth was higher than growth in volumes due to higher export realisation. Overall realisation went up 1 percent Q-o-Q (up 6.2 percent Y-o-Y) at Rs 53,236 per unit due to 380 basis points sequential rise in share of exports to 44.7 percent.

12:00pm Equity benchmarks continued to consolidate in noon trade but midcaps and smallcaps remained in demand for third consecutive session. The Sensex fell 13.72 points to 25536 while the Nifty gained 5.45 points at 7629.85.

About 1549 shares have advanced, 1063 shares declined, and 101 shares are unchanged. The BSE Midcap Index rallied 1.11 percent to 9267.23 and Smallcap rose 1.03 percent to 10160.57.

Bajaj Auto lost 2.6 percent post disappointing operational performance reported by the company in Q1FY15.

Among midcaps, Crompton Greaves gained 14 percent on proposed demerger of consumer products business into separate company. Essar Ports, Balkrishna Industries, Emami and MCX India surged 6-8 percent.

In smallcap space, Savita Oil Technologies, WPIL, Indian Hume, HCL Infosystems and Paper Products gained 6-11 percent.

12:00 pm Gainer: Shares of TTK Prestige rallied 5 percent intraday on Thursday. Credit Suisse has maintained an outperform rating on the stock with an increased target of Rs 4170 per share. The brokerage feels that recovery in TTK Prestige's revenue growth has begun, which has high operating leverage and should see an improvement in margins as sales growth returns.

The kitchen appliances manufacturer reported net profit at Rs 25.81 crore in April-June quarter, unchanged compared to Rs 25.79 crore in same quarter last year, dented by higher expenses despite lower tax and finance cost.

11:50 am Result: Bajaj Auto, the two-wheeler maker, disappointed street with the first quarter (April-June) net profit rising marginally to Rs 740 crore compared to Rs 737.7 crore in same quarter last year, dented by weak operational performance.

According to CNBC-TV18 poll estimates, analysts had expected net profit of Rs 821 crore on total revenue of Rs 5,214 crore for the quarter.

Total revenue grew 7 percent to Rs 5,252 crore in June quarter from Rs 4,911 crore in corresponding quarter of last fiscal. Revenue growth was higher than growth in volumes due to higher export realisation. Overall realisation went up 1 percent Q-o-Q (up 6.2 percent Y-o-Y) at Rs 53,236 per unit due to 380 basis points sequential rise in share of exports to 44.7 percent.

11:40 am Maket outlook: Independent market analyst Ambareesh Baliga advises investors not to bet on high beta stocks at the moment. He is bullish on FMCG, IT and pharma. He believes it may be a good idea to exit infrastructure stocks to a certain extent. Baliga says upside for Nifty is 7,000-7,750 and going beyond that immediately could be a bit difficult.

11:30 am MF expert: The improving macro-economic environment augurs well for the market in the medium to long term, says Manish Gunwani, senior fund manager ICICI Prudential Asset Management Company.

In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Gunwani says the recent UnionBudget has helped improve sentiment further. He says mid-caps offer a better value proposition than large caps at this stage.

"We have been saying that while valuation obviously is a bit higher versus six months back, the improvement in macro more than makes up for that. So on a 10-year basis, for example, the price to book is at median level and you are sitting at a point where there can be reasonably significant earnings acceleration from here. So if you put that in context, I think equities is a good place to be right now," he said.

11:20 pm Results impact: Shares of Lakshmi Vilas Bank surged 7.5 percent intraday Thursday riding high on its April-June quarter earnings. The private sector lender's Q1 net profit jumped 11 percent at Rs 28.15 crore. Its total income moved up to Rs 587.12 crore from the Rs 532.45 crore in the year-ago period.

On the asset quality front, its gross non-performing assets ratio improved to 3.96 percent as against the 5.27 percent in June 2013 and 4.19 percent in March 2014. Its provisions for bad assets also declined to Rs 32.60 crore from the Rs 49.90 crore in the year-ago period.

It seems like a resting day for the bulls. The Sensex is up 19.26 points at 25568.98 and the Nifty is up 12.35 points at 7636.75. About 1512 shares have advanced, 784 shares declined, and 90 shares are unchanged.

Banks and oil & gas are dragging the indices. Infosys, Cipla, Coal India, Sesa Sterlite and Wipro are top gainers in the Sensex. Among the major losers are M&M, ONGC, SBI, Maruti Suzuki and GAIL.

Asian currencies trading mixed against the dollar, with most stronger. Gains are also capped due to weak Asian shares. The MSCI Asia ex Japan index is down 0.1 percent. Gains are also capped due to weak Asian shares. The MSCI Asia ex Japan index is down 0.1 percent.

11:00am Adani group stocks in focus: Adani Ports has obtained environment and coastal regulation zone nod for Mundra SEZ.Macquarie said there is significant lease revenue potential from SEZ for Adani Ports and it values SEZ business at Rs 2,600 crore (Rs 13 per share).

Adani Enterprises is in focus ahead of board meeting on August 9 to consider borrowing up to Rs 2,500 crore.

10:50am Crompton to restructure business: The engineering conglomerate said the board of directors proposed to demerge consumer product business unit into a separate listed company.

While speaking at annual strategic review meeting on Wednesday in Belgium, the board said it believes that such a demerger will create better growth opportunities for company's two large but significantly different businesses - power, industrial and automation which is a B2B business, and the consumer products business which is B2C.

Consumer business, the main growth driver for company in last two-three years, contributes approximately 40 percent towards company's overall market cap that is around Rs 12,773.09 crore while it contributes around 20-25 percent towards total revenues.

Consumer products business includes manufacturing of fans, appliances, lighting products, pumps, home automation, wiring accessories and integrated security systems.

The board also believes that this will create a more flexible capital structure for the two businesses to grow independently, allow them to pursue more ambitious strategic goals and, thus, create further value for existing shareholders.

10:40am Earnings: Shares of Lakshmi Vilas Bank gained 2 percent on its April-June quarter earnings. The private sector lender's Q1 net profit jumped 11 percent at Rs 28.15 crore.

Its total income moved up to Rs 587.12 crore from the Rs 532.45 crore in the year-ago period. On the asset quality front, its gross non-performing assets ratio improved to 3.96 percent as against the 5.27 percent in June 2013 and 4.19 percent in March 2014.

Its provisions for bad assets also declined to Rs 32.60 crore from the Rs 49.90 crore in the year-ago period.

Meanwhile, the bank today announced a rights issue programme under which an investor holding six shares shall get five new shares at the rate of Rs 50 per rights equity share, it informed the BSE.

10:30am Kolte-Patil in News: Shares of Kolte-Patil Developers, the Pune-based realty company, touched a six-year-and-five-month high of Rs 170.95, up 6.8 percent intraday Thursday. The companyy received location clearance from the Urban Development Department for the first phase of its Sanjivani integrated township project in Pune located at Urse, on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway.

Phase I of the project is spread across an area of 242 acres with a saleable area of approximately 6 million square feet. The first sub-phase launch is expected in second half of FY15 and will involve the construction of villas and residential towers together with a golf course, commercial space, school and hospital.

10:20am Brokers on Kotak Mahindra Bank: Goldman Sachs recommends selling the stock but increased 12-month target price to Rs 815 from Rs 805 citing rich valuations.

According to the brokerage's estimates, the private bank is 66 percent premium to its peers, despite lower return on equity (ROE). ''The stock trades at 3.1X FY16E PBR on standalone basis, 66 percent premium to its peers, despite lower ROE. Faster loan book growth and higher returns are major risks,'' it says in a note.

10:10am Market Expert: The improving macro-economic environment augurs well for the market in the medium to long term, says Manish Gunwani, senior fund manager ICICI Prudential Asset Management Company.

In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Gunwani says the recent Union Budget has helped improve sentiment further. He says mid-caps offer a better value proposition than large caps at this stage.

10:00am Equity benchmarks remained rangebound with the Sensex rising 34.03 points to 25583.75 and the Nifty gaining 11.70 points to 7636.10 while the broader markets outperformed. The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices gained 0.8 percent each.

About 1225 shares have advanced, 636 shares declined, and 65 shares are unchanged.

Coal India, Sesa Sterlite, Cipla, Infosys, Wipro, Jindal Steel, Lupin and Grasim topped the buying list in Sensex, up 1-2 percent whereas M&M fell nearly 3 percent post large block deal 1.18 crore equity shares on BSE at Rs 1,161-1,172.70/share.

ONGC, SBI, Axis Bank, Maruti Suzuki and BPCL declined 0.6-1 percent. IDFC lost 2.5 percent on profit booking after a 9 percent rally in previous session.

9:55 am Big gainer: Shares of Crompton Greaves, the engineering conglomerate, gained as much as 12.4 percent intraday after the board of directors proposed to demerge consumer product business unit into a separate listed company.

While speaking at its annual strategic review meeting on July 16 in Belgium, the board has said that such a demerger will create better growth opportunities for it's two large but significantly different businesses - power, industrial and automation which is a B2B business, and the consumer products business which is B2C.

The board also believes that this will create a more flexible capital structure for the two businesses to grow independently, allow them to pursue more ambitious strategic goals and, thus, create further value for existing shareholders.

9:45 am Results poll: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) will declare its first quarter (April-June) earnings. Bottomline and operational performance is expected to be weak while dollar revenue growth may be highest in industry during the quarter, say analysts. The first quarter is a seasonally strong quarter for IT companies.

According to CNBC-TV18 poll estimates, analysts expect profit after tax of the IT company to fall 11 percent sequentially to Rs 4,713 crore, and earnings before interest and tax may fall 10 percent to Rs 5,654 crore in first quarter. EBIT margin is expected to drop 345 basis points at 25.7 percent in June quarter compared to 29.15 percent in previous quarter due to currency appreciation, wage hike and change in depreciation policy.

9:35 am Buzzing: Shares of Adani Ports & SEZ hit record high at Rs 288.70, up 3 percent intraday as it has obtained environment and coastal regulation zone nod for Mundra SEZ, removing a major overhang. Brokerages are upbeat on the stock as SEZ business will now improve leasing activity and cargo.

Macquarie has an outperform rating on the stock with a target price of Rs 259 per share. ''This removes overhang on the SEZ development, however the real upside in SEZ valuation would come on higher leasing activity as investment cycle picks up,'' it says in a research note.
 
Edelweiss also suggests buying the stock with a target for Rs 281 per share. It says that the clearance paves way for monetisation of the SEZ land.

9:25 am Market opinion: Jonathan Garner, Morgan Stanley says elections have proven a positive catalyst for reform hopes in India. ''India should experience a cyclical upswing but the recent Budget probably undershot expectations, valuations are not supportive and positioning is extreme,'' he adds.

Gautam Chaocharia, UBS says RBI reform on bank funding for infrastructure and housing is a big positive for macros, though it will play out over the long-term. ''The measure is arguably presuming fiscal consolidation in future, as otherwise this step could increase G-Securities yields given lower statutory driven demand,'' he adds.  

After the rush seen in market on Wednesday, investors seem to go slow today. The Sensex is down 10.40 points at 25539.32 and the Nifty is down 11.70 points at 7612.70. About 403 shares have advanced, 196 shares declined, and 21 shares are unchanged.

Infosys, Hindalco, TCS, Wipro and Sesa Sterlite are top gainers in the Sensex. Among the losers are M&M, SBI, Tata Motors, ONGC and NTPC.

The Indian rupee opened flat at 60.15 per dollar versus 60.12. The euro wallowed at five-month lows against the yen and held near a two-year trough on sterling, having weakened broadly overnight in a move that should provide some comfort to the European Central Bank.

Tirthankar Patnaik of Religare Capital Markets said, ''I expect the rupee to be in a reasonably tight range as global cues could see a marginal risk off going forward. However, fresh initiatives by the government and RBI should help resume capital flows into equity market. Range for the rupee is seen between 59.7-60.5 for the next 2 weeks,'' he added.

Wall Street ended higher, the Dow index posted its 15th record-high close of the year led by a rally in tech shares.

In Asia, equities are higher this morning following a record close in the US markets. Kospi is sitting close to a two-month peak as sentiment got a boost after June producer prices rose for the first time in 20 months. Nikkei is also at a two week high and is higher by 2 percent for the week.

European shares extended gains to close higher with over 1 percent gains as investors reacted to fresh growth data from China. Across Europe, the basic resources sector saw heavy buying, after strong data from china buoyed those stocks that are heavily exposed to the country. Shares of Portugal's troubled Banco Espirito Santo surged to close over 18 percent higher, after a ban on short-selling its stock was extended.

The Brent contract for September, which became the front-month contract, rose to USD 107 a barrel. From precious metals space, gold stabilised around USD 1300 an ounce.