Sensex, Nifty end lower; HDFC & Coal India down, Maruti up

26 Oct 2015

3:30 pm Market clossing: The market ended lower with the Nifty ending below 8300 mark. The 50-share index was down 34.90 points or 0.4 percent at 8260.55. The Sensex slipped 108.85 points or 0.4 percent at 27361.96.

BHEL, Vedanta, Bajaj Auto, Tata Steel and GAIL were top gainers while HDFC, Coal India, Bharti Airtel, Reliance and Lupin were among losers. Maruti ended up 0.4 percent ahead of Q2 results.

3:15 pm Results: Amusement parks operator Wonderla Holidays has reported a solid performance in July-September quarter with profit rising 86.6 percent year-on-year to Rs 11.94 crore boosted by strong operational performance and revenue growth. It was also aided by other income and marginally lower finance cost but impacted by higher tax expenses.

Revenue increased 26 percent to Rs 43.2 crore during the quarter compared to Rs 34.3 crore in same period last year.

Operating profit (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) jumped 36.7 percent year-on-year to Rs 15 crore and margin has seen expansion of 260 basis points at 34 percent in the quarter gone by.

2:59 pm Market check: Equity benchmarks extended fall in late trade. The Sensex fell 114.94 points to 27355.87 and the Nifty declined 36.30 points to 8259.15.

About 926 shares have advanced, 1704 shares declined, and 157 shares are unchanged on the BSE.

2:50 pm Sterlite profit doubles: Power and telecom gear maker Sterlite Technologies said its standalone net profit has more than doubled to Rs 29.39 crore for the quarter ended September 30.

The company's net profit stood at Rs 12.56 crore in the year-ago period, Sterlite Technologies said in a statement.

Its total income increased to Rs 1,056.15 crore during the period under review from Rs 592.07 crore in the July-September 2014 quarter, a growth of 78.3 percent.

"We had an excellent quarter amidst a not so encouraging macro backdrop. We continue to be positive and optimistic on the developments within the company as well as in the markets we operate," Sterlite Technologies Vice Chairman Pravin Agarwal said.

2:40 pm Maruti's new launch: Maruti Suzuki today launched its global premium hatchback, Baleno, with a price point beginning from Rs 5.23 lakh for its petrol version in Kolkata.

"Baleno is a global product and we will export the car in 100 global markets like Europe, Latin America, Peru and Japan from January 2016," Maruti Suzuki CGM (marketing) Sanjeev Honda said while launching the car in city.

With Baleno, for the first time Maruti will be exporting a model from India to Japan.

The premium hatchback category which has been clocking growth of about 22 percent in first half of this fiscal, has seen strong interest from automobile manufacturers in the last few months.

2:20 pm Earnings: HDFC has posted better-than-expected net profit in September quarter, up 18.2 percent at Rs 1605 crore from Rs 1357.5 crore in year-ago period. During the period, its total income also rose 12.5 percent to Rs 7466 crore.

The company's provision stood at Rs 52 crore versus Rs 50 crore Q-o-Q and Rs 35 crore, Y-o-Y.

The country's largest housing finance company was expected to report a 16.4 percent year-on-year growth in profit at Rs 1,579.4 crore for July-September quarter. Net interest income, the difference between interest earned and interest expended, may increase 17 percent to Rs 2,197.2 crore in quarter ended September 2015 compared to Rs 1,878.4 crore in same quarter last year.

2:00 pm Market Check
The market continued to consolidate with a negative bias in afternoon trade with the Sensex falling 42.50 points to 27428.31. The Nifty declined 16.40 points to 8279.05. The broader markets also remained under pressure with the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices down 0.4 percent each.

The market breadth was negative as about 1605 shares declined against 959 advancing shares on the BSE.

BHEL, Vedanta, Bajaj Auto, Tata Steel, Maruti Suzuki and HCL Technologies topped buying list, up 1-4 percent. However, Asian Paints tanked 5 percent lower-than-expected earnings. Coal India, Bharti Airtel, Lupin, HDFC (the most active stock on NSE), Yes Bank and Reliance Industries declined 1-2 percent.

2:00 pm Results: HDFC has posted better-than-expected net profit in September quarter, up 18 percent at Rs 1605 crore from Rs 1357.5 crore in yaer-ago period. During the period, its total income also rose 12.5 percent to Rs 7466 crore.

The company's provision stood at Rs 52 crore versus Rs 50 crore Q-o-Q and Rs 35 crore, Y-o-Y.

1:45 pm Boardroom: Financial performance in second half of this fiscal is likely to be better than the first half, Vivek Gambhir, Managing Director, Godrej Consumer Products , tells CNBC-TV18. Gambhir says the imporved performance will be driven by new product launches. He says rural growth has been hit by high inflation and deficient rains. But the overall impact for Godrej Consumer could be cushioned because of its geographical mix as 70 percent of sales comes from urban markets and only 30 percent from rural markets. Godrej Consumer has launched a new health and wellness platform, which should help growth, says Gambhir.The company has also launched a henna based hair colouring product named Nupur.

1:30 pm Results: Bharti Airtel , the country's largest telecom operator by subscriber base, has reported a 2 percent sequential degrowth in consolidated net profit Rs 1,522.7 crore for July-September quarter. Profit was impacted by slow revenue growth, weak operational performance and slight increase in finance cost but aided by exceptional gain and lower tax cost. Revenue increased by 0.7 percent to Rs 23,852 crore in quarter ended September 2015 compared to Rs 23,680.8 crore in preceding quarter. Earnings were slightly higher than analysts' expectations. Profit was estimated at Rs 1,174 crore on revenue of Rs 23,743 crore for the quarter with operating profit at Rs 8,176 crore and margin at 34.43 percent.

The market is flat with the benchmark indices struggling. The Sensex is down 21.71 points at 27449.10 and the Nifty is down 12.40 points at 8283.05.
About 947 shares have advanced, 1578 shares declined, and 147 shares are unchanged.

BHEL, Vedanta, Bajaj Auto, Tata Steel and Maruti are top gainers while Coal India, Bharti, Lupin, Reliance and NTPC are among losers.

Meanwhile, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, praised as an adept listener and consensus builder, may need to adopt a stronger tone at this week's policy meeting if she expects to keep a December interest rate rise in play.

Janet Yellen's inclusive style has been tested recently by two fellow governors who publicly appeared to disagree with her view, shared by Vice Chair Stanley Fischer, that the Fed will probably need to raise interest rates this year.

12:59 pm Market Update: Equity benchmarks remained under pressure as the Sensex fell 69.06 points to 27401.75 and the Nifty declined 25.95 points to 8269.50.

About 897 shares have advanced, 1562 shares declined, and 161 shares are unchanged on the BSE.

Asian Paints (-5 percent), Coal India (-2 percent), Bharti Airtel (-2 percent) and Yes Bank (-2 percent) were the big losers in the Nifty. Other laggards in index were TCS (-1 percent), UltraTech Cement (-1 percent), Cairn India (-1 percent) and Reliance (-1 percent).

Gainers included BHEL (3 percent), Tata Steel (2 percent), Bajaj Auto (2 percent) and Vedanta (2 percent).

JSW Energy (-5 percent), Just Dial (-3 percent), Jaiprakash Associates (-3 percent), Cadila Health (-3 percent) and Oil India (-3 percent) were big losers in midcap space. Other notable laggards included HDIL (-2 percent), M&M Financial (-2 percent), Strides Arcolab (-2 percent), Gujarat Pipavav (-2 percent) and Power Finance (-3 percent).

12:50 pm Force Motors rallies: Shares of Force Motors today surged 7.5 percent after the company posted a 65.35 percent rise in net profit for the second quarter ended September 30.

Force Motors on Saturday posted a 65.35 per cent rise in its net profit at Rs 42.48 crore for the second quarter. It had posted a net profit of Rs 25.69 crore during the same period of the previous fiscal.

Net sales of the company rose to Rs 755.97 crore as against Rs 592.37 crore during the same period last fiscal, Force Motors had said in a regulatory filing. The Pune-based firm sells a range of vehicles, including small commercial vehicles, multi-utility vehicles (MUVs), light commercial vehicles, sports utility vehicles (SUVs) and agricultural tractors.

12:40 pm Boardroom: VIP Industries posted a 35 percent rise in its net sales during the quarter to Rs 296 crore. Speaking to CNBC-TV18, Dilip G Piramal, chairman of VIP Industries, says he expects sales growth of 20 percent going forward.

Profit has seen a four-fold jump to Rs 15.7 crore during the quarter. This is a bit of an aberration due to low advertising and other expenses, he says, adding VIP will grow sub-10 percent in its margin for H2FY16.

The company will now focus on consolidating its current brand portfolio and increase its ad spends to build all the big brands, Piramal adds.

12:20 pm Earnings Poll: Airconditioning and commercial refrigeration company Blue Star will announce its quarterly earnings today. According to a CNBC-TV18 poll, profit is expected to increase a whopping 60 percent year-on-year to Rs 14 crore during July-September quarter.

Revenue may rise 6.7 percent to Rs 680 crore with operating profit (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) surging 57.16 percent to Rs 32 crore and margin expansion of 153 basis points at 4.8 percent year-on-year.

The company shut its Thane plant on August 10, which helped it reducing fixed cost but it can get a one time hit in employee cost due to VRS. Blue Star Infotech got merged with Blue Star on September 30.

Factors to watch out for would be execution of EMP orders; ability to sustain EBITDA margin, and closure of low margin legacy orders.

12:00 pm Market Check
The market saw some profit booking despite strong global cues. The 30-share BSE Sensex fell 29.55 points to 27441.26 and the 50-share NSE Nifty declined 17.85 points to 8277.60 after rising nearly half a percent in early trade.

The broader markets also fell in line with benchmarks; the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices declined 0.4 percent each. The market breadth was negative as about 1508 shares declined against 856 advancing shares on the BSE.

Globally, Asian stocks extended rally after another rate cut in China fueled risk appetite but the markets came off day's high.

Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan feels that it is unrealistic to expect China to grow at high single digits for so long while Mark Mobius of Templeton EM Group says that a 6 percent GDP growth in China is still enormous.

Asian Paints plunged 4.5 percent after its results missed street expectations. Jeferries downgraded stock to hold from buy and slashed price target to Rs 823 per share from Rs 843 and also cut FY16-18 EPS by 5-8 percent.

Bharti Airtel lost 2 percent lower as consolidated numbers are largely in line with street estimates. Africa was slightly better than estimates while India business was impacted by seasonality. Street is concerned by the voice and data realisation decline and slower growth in data volumes.

11:55 am China outlook: What is happening in China is just a bump on the road, but the country will still grow at 5-6 percent, which is an additional USD 600 billion, says Jamie Dimon, Chairman & CEO, JPMorgan. He feels investors need to weigh in China's growth outlook and not panic. "When you look at China, you have look at the bigger picture. 20 years of unbelievable growth, no one's ever seen growth that consistent. They hit a bump in the road and are still growing at 6-7 percent. A 5-6 percent growth in China is USD 600 billion of global GDP which is bigger than most countries on the planet," he told CNBC-TV18.

11:45 am Market outlook: Midcap companies have broadly fared better than their large cap counters in the current earnings season so far, Nilesh Shah, Managing Director, Kotak Mahindra Asset Management tells CNBC-TV18. Shah is not upbeat on FMCG companies as he sees rural distress and competition from unlisted players hurting margins. He is more bullish on consumer durables because of the juicy discounts being offered by e-commerce companies and likelihood of increased demand from the Seventh Pay Commission report when it takes effect. He is bullish on the IT sector, but more on niche midcap IT players which focus on newer segments.

11:30 am Downgrade: Shares of Cadila Healthcare slipped over 2 percent intraday on Monday after Credit Suisse downgraded it to underperform from neutral. The brokerage sees a 19 percent downside on expensive valuations and pricing in upside from the clearance of the Moraiya facility.

Credit Suisse has raised concerns about Cadila's Moraiya facility in Gujarat as it feels that the unit may not get clearance before the end of the fiscal year. "Cadila had a face-to-face meeting with the FDA in 1Q16 and post that, it has been sending monthly updates. Given the time lapsed, it's possible in our view that the clearance of the facility may require a re-inspection in which case, the facility may not get clearance before the end of the fiscal year," it says in a note.

The market is unable to sustain gains and wobbly as the day progresses. The
Sensex is down 15.78 points at 27455.03 and the Nifty is down 14.75 points at 8280.70. About 874 shares have advanced, 1286 shares declined, and 126 shares are unchanged.

BHEL, Bajaj Auto, Maruti, Hero and Tata Motors are top gainers while Bharti, Coal India, Reliance, Cipla and ICICI Bank are among losers. Besides Auto, Capital Goods index is up 0.6 percent. Oil & Gas, Metals are struggling in red.

Gold steadied after a three-day losing streak on Monday, but was hovering close to its lowest in nearly two weeks, hurt by a strong dollar and fears the Federal Reserve could raise US interest rates this year. A rally in global equities also kept buying interest subdued for the metal, which has been weighed down all year by uncertainty over the timing of a US rate hike.

Investors initially bet the Fed would be compelled to delay a rate hike given the fragility of the global economy, but buying soon evaporated on views that the Chinese stimulus and upbeat US data made a Fed rate hike more likely this year.

10:58 am Market Update: Equity benchmarks remained flat after erasing early gains. The Sensex rose 10.04 points to 27480.85 and the Nifty fell 6.85 points to 8288.60.

About 886 shares have advanced, 1266 shares declined, and 124 shares are unchanged on the BSE.

10:45 am IEA on oil prices: Countries shouldn't bank on oil prices remaining low when formulating their energy policies, as supplies could tighten from mid-2016 due to a drop in investment and falling US output, a senior industry official said on Monday.

Global oil prices LCOc1 have more than halved since June 2014 on rising US shale oil output and as members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) decided not to cut production and instead defend market share.

"It will be a great mistake to index our attention to oil security to the oil price trajectory in the short term," Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), said at the Singapore International Energy Week.

Oil investment was likely to decline again in 2016 after sliding this year by more than a fifth, mainly in North America and Brazil, said Birol, who took over the top post at the Paris-based IEA in September.

"If it comes true, this will be the first time in two decades we will see oil investments declining for two consecutive years," he said.

10:30 am Earnings Poll: Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC), the country's largest housing finance company, is expected to report a 16.4 percent year-on-year growth in profit at Rs 1,579.4 crore for July-September quarter. Dividend income, which was defferred last quarter, from HDFC Bank may drive profitability.

Net interest income, the difference between interest earned and interest expended, may increase 17 percent to Rs 2,197.2 crore in quarter ended September 2015 compared to Rs 1,878.4 crore in same quarter last year.

Other parameters such as spreads (around 2.3 percent), gross non-performing loans and loan growth (around 14-16 percent) may be stable in September quarter.

10:15 am Gold Update: Gold steadied after a three-day losing streak today, but was hovering close to its lowest in nearly two weeks, hurt by a strong dollar and fears the Federal Reserve could raise US interest rates this year.

A rally in global equities also kept buying interest subdued for the metal, which has been weighed down all year by uncertainty over the timing of a US rate hike.

Spot gold was little changed at USD 1,164.05 an ounce. The metal had dropped to USD 1,158.77 on Friday, its lowest since Oct. 13, after earlier rising 1 percent in the session, following China's move to cut interest rates for the sixth time in less than a year.

Also read - Bharti Q2 profit falls 2%; Africa biz improves, India down 1%

10:00 am Market Check
The market erased some of its early gains with the Sensex rising 31.13 points to 27501.94 and the Nifty falling 2.60 points to 8292.85. Index heavyweights Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank and ITC dragged market in morning trade, down 0.2-0.8 percent.

The market breadth was slightly negative as about 1058 shares declined against 935 advancing shares on the BSE.

Bajaj Auto, Maruti Suzuki, BHEL, ONGC and Hindalco Industries were top gainers on Sensex, up 1-2 percent.

9:55 am China: Liberalizing China's interest rates is a key element of financial reform, the country's central bank said on Monday, adding that cutting borrowing costs and lowering the amount of cash banks must keep as reserves do not equate to quantitative easing.

The comments come after the central bank cut interest rates on Friday for the sixth time in less than a year, and again lowered the reserve requirement ratio (RRR) for banks in a bid to jump start growth in China's stuttering economy.

Lowering interest rates and cutting RRR are "normal monetary policy" practice, the bank said in a statement published on its website on Monday.

The PBOC cut the one-year benchmark bank lending rate by 25 basis points to 4.35 percent while the one-year benchmark deposit rate was lowered by 25 basis points to 1.50 percent. The RRR was cut by 50 basis points for all banks, taking the ratio to 17.5 percent for the biggest lenders.

9:45 am FII view: Whether it is the European Central Bank (ECB) talking about extending quantitative easing (QE) or extending the size of it or the Chinese central bank lowering interest rates with the aim of infusing stimulus are all signs of growth slowing down, is the word coming in from Arvind Sanger of Geosphere Capital Management. But, on the brighter side, it will ease liquidity pressures, he adds. Viktor Shvets of Macquarie too broadly concurs with Sanger's view on these being signs of slow growth. He, however, feels there will a contraction in liquidity from hereon. Sanger says, as far as India is concerned, he is buying what he likes, but is being patient on valuations. "Liquidity will be plentiful, but growth will be rare," he told CNBC-TV18. He is looking for companies with comfortable growth trajectory.

9:30 am Alibaba in soup? Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's second-quarter revenue growth is likely to have slumped to half the year-earlier rate, undermining hopes consumer spending will temper a slowdown in the world's second-biggest economy.

Beijing is hoping that private consumption will pick up the slack as exports fall and it tries to rebalance the economy - now heading for its slowest full-year growth in 25 years - away from a reliance on trade and government spending.

But Alibaba's second-quarter results due on Tuesday are expected to cloud the increasingly grim outlook for consumer spending, which accounted for 60 percent of China's economic growth in the first half of 2015.

9:20 am Results: Bharti Airtel's second quarter earnings beat analysts' expectations on all parameters Monday with consolidated profit falling 2 percent sequentially to Rs 1,522.7 crore. Revenue increased by 0.8 percent to Rs 23,852 crore in quarter ended September 2015 compared to Rs 23,670.9 crore in preceding quarter.

The market kickstarted on a fim note but soon turned flat. The Sensex is up 147.33 points or 0.5 percent at 27618.14. The Nifty is up 20.50 points at 8315.95. About 462 shares have advanced, 149 shares declined, and 37 shares are unchanged.

Vedanta, Hindalco, Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto and Dr Reddy's Labs are top gainers while Lupin, HDFC, GAIL, ONGC and M&M are among losers in the Sensex. Bharti Airtel is up 1 percent after it announced better-than-expected Q2 results.

The Indian rupee opened lower by 17 paise at 65 per dollar against previous close of 64.83. Agam Gupta of Standard Chartered said, "The 'risk on' sentiment from equities will translate into some USD supply from FPIs. Exporters will also be looking to hedge their forward receivables on upticks."

Euro slipped, hitting a low against the dollar not seen since early august after ECB Chief Mario Draghi signalled further monetary easing could be on deck for the euro zone.

Asia markets opened in green in early morning trade as investors welcome the Chinese Central Bank's (PBoC) interest rate cut for the sixth time in the past 11 months.

Japan's Nikkei rallied 1 percent to reclaim the 19,000 mark for the first time in more than two months

The US markets ended with solid gains on Friday with the Nasdaq closing at a two-month high post China's rate cuts. Investors also digested a new batch of earnings, including reports from tech giants alphabet, Amazon and Microsoft, all of which beat analysts' expectations.

Brent crude is trading around USD 48 per barrel while Nymex declined to USD 44 mark.

Precious metal, gold, meanwhile, was trading around USD 1160 an ounce.