Sensex slips 209 points; Tata Steel, SBI down ahead of Q2 nos

Equity benchmarks lost ground for the sixth consecutive session on Tuesday with the Sensex falling more than 200 points, weighed down by weak rupee.

Experts still believe this is just due to profit booking because the market has seen a substantial rise from 5100 level about 90 days ago to 6300, but they feel the momentum remains positive.

"It is a bit of a breather that market is taking before moving ahead," Sanjoy Datta, Head-Capital Markets at JM Financial said.

He sees strong interest coming through in terms of ETF flows. "Investors remain interested in India, but they are becoming extremely stock selective. Favourite sectors are healthcare, IT, private banks and to some extent autos," Datta added.

The Sensex slipped 209.05 points or 1.02 percent to 20,281.91 while the Nifty closed at one-month low of 6,018.05, down 60.75 points or 1 percent from previous close. Declining shares outpaced advancing ones by a ratio of 1467 to 975 on the BSE.

In last six sessions, both benchmarks lost 5 percent each while Bank Nifty crashed more than 9 percent. CNX Midcap and BSE Smallcap dropped 3 percent each.

In case of today's action, Tata Motors was the biggest loser among largecaps in the Sensex, shedding another 4.5 percent on top a 2 percent fall in previous session. Brokerage houses CLSA and Nomura on Monday downgraded the stock despite strong second quarter earnings.

Ahead of September quarter earnings on Wednesday, shares of State Bank of India, Tata Steel, Coal India and ONGC slipped between 1.4-2 percent while Sun Pharma gained 0.2 percent. Tata Power, which will declare earnings on Thursday, lost 2.7 percent.

Hindalco Industries slipped 0.2 percent on disappointing set of numbers in the quarter gone by. Net profit declined marginally to Rs 357 crore from Rs 358.9 crore year-on-year, dented by higher finance cost. Analysts had expected it at around Rs 425 crore.

Among others, ICICI Bank, Sesa Sterlite, HDFC, HDFC Bank and L&T fell 1-3 percent whereas ITC and M&M bucked the trend with gains of over 0.7 percent.

Meanwhile, the rupee weakened further, losing 41 paise to 63.65 against the US dollar.

3:40 pm Market closing: The market slumped for the sixth day in a row. Nifty sheds over 60 points to close at its lowest level (6018.05) in a month. The Sensex tanks 209 points to end at 20281.91. About 972 shares have advanced, 1471 shares declined, and 125 shares are unchanged.

Rupee hits two-month lows against the US dollar but the Finance Minister says foreign investors remain bullish on India.

3:30 pm  Results boardroom: Fertilisers and pesticides manufacturer Coromandel International expects demand to be good and margins to remain stable or improve slightly going forward, says MD Kapil Mehan. Due to the fall in the raw material prices over the past few months, the company was able to neutralise the impact of the depreciating rupee in Q2, he adds.

Speaking to CNBC-TV18 on Q2 earnings, Mehan says the non-fertiliser business is likely to continue performing well. ''Our export order book on agrochemical is very healthy as of now, so we do not see any dip in our non-fertiliser businesses going forward whether it is agrochemicals or specialty nutrients or our retail business,'' says Mehan.

3:20 pm Results: Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) today reported an 86 percent drop in second-quarter profit after it received lower fuel subsidy and refining margins dropped.

Net profit fell to Rs 318.92 crore in July-September from Rs 2,372.09 crore a year earlier, HPCL director (finance) K V Rao told reporters here.

State-owned HPCL lost Rs 8,234 crore on selling diesel, domestic cooking gas (LPG) and kerosene at rates set by the government in Q2. To make up part of the shortfall, upstream oil firms such as ONGC chipped in Rs 3,909 crore and the government gave a cash subsidy of Rs 4,127 crore.

3:10 pm Forex data: The Finance Ministry expects inflows of USD 25 billion by November end through forex swap windows opened by the Reserve Bank to attract deposits from non-resident Indians and allow banks to borrow overseas. "Till November 30, our (FCNR-B) window is open. We might even touch USD 25 billion," economic affairs secretary Arvind Mayaram told reporters here today.

Until yesterday, the RBI had received USD 17.5 billion through the special windows for swapping foreign currency non-resident (bank) deposits and overseas foreign currency borrowings by banks. Both were started on September 4 to prop up the rupee, which had fallen almost 30 percent between April and August.

2:55 pm Result poll: Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group-owned company Reliance Communications will declare its second quarter (July-September) results on Tuesday. Second quarter is a seasonally weak quarter for telecom company, hence analysts expect around 2 percent degrowth in volumes. Its peers Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular reported a 3 percent decline and 5.8 percent fall in volumes for the quarter, respectively.

Seasonality will also result in muted revenue growth for the company. According to a CNBC-TV18 poll, total revenues are expected to go up 1.2 percent sequentially to Rs 5,475 crore and profit after tax is likely to be flat at Rs 108 crore in the quarter gone by, compared to Rs 108.4 crore in June quarter.

2:45 pm Interview: P Dwarakanath, CMD, BEML is confident that in the third and fourth quarter , the company will perform better than the quarters gone by aided by good sales growth and reduction in losses. The company has already clocked 33 percent sales growth for first half of FY14.

Speaking to CNBC-TV18, he says that its interest costs will reduce drastically going forward. The company was able to narrow its losses in second quarter ending September 2014 to Rs 40 crore compared to a loss of Rs 62 crore in the same quarter last year. It also saw a good topline growth.

BEML's current order book stands at Rs 6500 crore. "We have bid for major tenders from coal companies and are hopeful of bagging contracts," adds Dwarakanath.

The market remains under pressure amid volatility in afternoon trade, weighed down by financials, oil & gas, metals and power stocks. Tata Motors is the biggest loser with more than 3 percent loss, continuing downward journey for the second consecutive session.

The Sensex is down 87.91 points at 20403.05, and the Nifty is down 20.95 points at 6057.85. Declining shares outnumbered advancing ones by a ratio of 1261 to 1054 on the BSE.

Shardul Kulkarni of Angel Broking, says the way the market has panned out, it justifies taking a short position on the Nifty, especially since the Nifty has breached the important support level of 6079. This level is going to cause a lot of pain for the bulls, he adds.

So he suggests traders to go short on Nifty Futures. The levels for Nifty spot are 6170, 6180 but accordingly one can trade on Futures segment. These levels can be used as stop losses on the upside, and as long

Hindalco Industries' shares lost ground after second quarter earnings. The stock declined 0.3 percent, which was up more than 2 percent ahead of results.

Numbers except margin were lower than analysts' expectations. Net profit declined to Rs 357 crore from Rs 358.9 crore while net sales increased to Rs 6,245 crore from Rs 6,114.7 crore year-on-year.

Bottomline was supported largely by other income, otherwise profit would have much lower than currently reported. Other income, which included Rs 161 crore non-recurring income, rose to Rs 280 crore from Rs 132.4 crore whereas finance cost jumped to Rs 183 crore from Rs 28 crore Y-o-Y.

2:00 pm Exclusive: SpiceJet, which has been struggling at the back of high aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices and competition from players like Indigo, has been on the lookout for potential investors.

The promoters of SpiceJet are not looking at divesting any stake directly from the company, say sources. The Promoters of SpiceJet, Sun Group, currently hold 52 percent stake in the company, of which a majority share is held by Kalanithi Maran.

1:50 pm Macro outlook: Exuding confidence about India's potential, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia today said the economy will get back on the targeted growth trajectory of 8 percent after two years, reports PTI.

"I think we can hit what we thought was our trajectory two years later because of the slowdown that we have,"Ahluwalia told reporters at the 34th SKOCH Summit here.

The economy expanded at a decade-low rate of 5 percent in the first year of the 12th Plan (2012-17) period, during which the government has targeted an annual average growth rate of 8 percent.

In the April-June quarter of the current financial year, economic growth slowed to 4.4 percent, compared with 4.8 percent during January-March. Growth was 5.4 percent in the April-June period of the previous financial year.

1:40 pm Brokerage report: Kotak Institutional Equities cuts MCX India from 'add' to 'reduce' with fair value of Rs 500.

Increased oversight from the commodity market regulator Forward Markets Commission, removal of additional margin requirements, reduced Financial Technologies India Ltd.'s involvement in MCX functioning (FTIL directors resigned from the board) are positive but factored into estimates and valuations, it says.

1:30 pm Buzzer: Public sector lender Canara Bank's second quarter (July-September) net profit fell 5.3 percent year-on-year to Rs 625 crore, but asset quality improves on sequential basis.

Net interest income rose 12 percent on a yearly basis to Rs 2,191 crore in three-month period ended September 2013.

Asset quality as well as provisions declined during the quarter compared a previous quarter. Gross non-performing advances (NPAs) slipped 27 basis points quarter-on-quarter (up 6 bps year-on-year) to 2.64 percent while net NPAs dropped 18 bps Q-o-Q (up 18 bps Y-o-Y) to 2.30 percent in the quarter gone by. The stock is up 6 percent on the BSE.

The market loses ground for the sixth straight trading session. Both the Nifty and Sensex are trading with negative bias. The Sensex is down 65.70 points at 20425.26, and the Nifty is down 15.65 points or 0.26% at 6063.15.

About 1046 shares have advanced, 1075 shares declined, and 130 shares are unchanged.

Both Tata Motors and Sesa Sterlite are down around 3 percent while ONGC , Tata Steel and Coal India are other laggards in the Sensex. Among the top gainers in the Sensex are Hindalco , Maruti Suzuki, Wipro , ITC and Sun Pharma .

Important macro data is expected today. October CPI is likely to stay elevated and consensus sees it touching double digits at 10 percent vs the 3-month high of 9.85 percentlast month. Sharp growth in the core sector is likely to boost September IIP to 3.5 percent.

The market is directionless after the weakness seen in previous five consecutive sessions, which seems like consolidation, feel experts.

"We saw strong run up in October and markets are consolidating more rather than correcting significantly because we haven't seen any significant sell off come through. It is a global phenomenon and what is running in the minds of investor is the spike up in yields which is happening and has happened in a lot of other emerging markets along with India," market expert Sandip Sabharwal explained.

The market is waiting for a trigger to get direction on either side. WPI and CPI inflation, and industrial output data are near term triggers for the market.

The Sensex is up 13.10 points at 20504.06, and the Nifty is up 7.25 points at 6086.05 while the broader markets continued to outperform benchmarks with the BSE Midcap Index gaining 0.5 percent.

Sesa Sterlite and Tata Motors are the biggest losers among largecaps, falling 2.7 percent each. CLSA and Nomura on Monday downgraded Tata Motors after second quarter earnings.

Shares of ONGC , Tata Motors, Coal India and Tata Power lost more than 1 percent while ICICI Bank and Infosys are marginally down.

However, Hindalco Industries extended gains ahead of September quarter earnings, rising over 2 percent. Sun Pharma , which will announce its numbers on Wednesday, gained 1 percent.

Shares of ITC , HDFC Bank , Larsen & Toubro and State Bank of India rose more than 0.5 percent.

Meanwhile, the rupee remained weak for the fifth consecutive session today, losing 34 paise to 63.58 against the US dollar, especially on fears of Fed tapering.

11:50 am Result poll: GMR Infrastructure will declare its second quarter (July-September) results today. According to a CNBC-TV18 poll, analysts expect net loss of the company to expand to Rs 270 crore from Rs 179 crore year-on-year due to gas unavailability and increase in interest expenses.

Total income is expected to decline 8.7 percent on a yearly basis to Rs 2,191 crore in three-month period ended September 2013.

Analysts feel revenues will be driven by commissioning of Emco power plant (300 MW) and stabilisation of Kamalanga plant (Orissa). Roads segment's performance will be driven by completion of two projects in October-March period of FY13.

11:40 am Data check: Domestic passenger car sales declined by 3.88 percent to 1,63,199 units in October this year compared to 1,69,788 in the same month of 2012.

According to the data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), motorcycle sales in last month grew by 18.05 percent to 11,05,103 units from 9,36,122 in the same month previous year.

Total two-wheeler sales in October 2013 grew by 18 percent to 15,16,291 units from 12,85,015 in the same period of previous year. Total sales of commercial vehicles were down by 19.77 percent to 53,533 units from 66,722 in the year-ago period, SIAM said.

11:30 am Results: National Aluminium Company ( NALCO ) reported strong numbers with the second quarter (July-September) net profit growing 37.3 times year-on-year to Rs 179 crore on operational performance.

Strong results were on the back of higher coal linkage in Q2, Ansuman Das, CMD said. He feels strong performance in Q2 is sustainable in October-March FY14 and falling input costs will aid margins during the same period.

Net sales of the company rose 7.8 percent to Rs 1,710 crore in three-month period ended September 2013 from Rs 1,585.9 crore in a year ago period, driven by chemicals business.

11:20 am Result poll: Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group-owned company Reliance Communications will declare its second quarter (July-September) results on Tuesday. Second quarter is a seasonally weak quarter for telecom company, hence analysts expect around 2 percent degrowth in volumes.

Its peers Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular reported a 3 percent decline and 5.8 percent fall in volumes for the quarter, respectively. Seasonality will also result in muted revenue growth for the company. According to a CNBC-TV18 poll, total revenues are expected to go up 1.2 percent sequentially to Rs 5,475 crore and profit after tax is likely to be flat at Rs 108 crore in the quarter gone by, compared to Rs 108.4 crore in June quarter.

The market is going directionless with the Nifty, once again, below the 6100. The Nifty is down 1.30 points at 6077.50. The Sensex is down 16.29 points at 20474.67. About 930 shares have advanced, 797 shares declined, and 112 shares are unchanged.

Hindalco , Wipro , Maruti Suzuki, Sun Pharma and TCS are major gainers in the Sensex. Among the top losers are Sesa Sterlite, Tata Motors , Tata Steel , Coal India and ICICI Bank .

The rupee touched fresh eight-week lows today on global dollar strength and on continued demand for dollars from foreign institutional investors (FIIs) and importers.

Government bonds also fell in fear that the consumer inflation numbers that will be announced at 5.30 pm today may be at 10 percent or higher, which may prompt the RBI to hike rates. The RBI not announcing any open market purchase of bonds also hurt sentiment

Asian markets trade mostly higher led by the near 2 percent gain in the Japanese markets, with focus turning to the last day of a key policy meeting in China.

Currencies saw the euro dollar stabilise near 1.34 levels while the dollar index continues to inch higher above 81 levels.

Commodities are trade soft. Brent is at around USD 106 levels per barrel. Tapering uncertainty also weighs on gold prices which is trading near USD 1280/oz.

11:05am Market update
The market lost its early gains as the Sensex is down 11.94 points to 20479.02, and the Nifty fell 1.30 points to 6077.50.

The rupee lost 28 paise to 63.52 against the US dollar, continuing weakness for the fifth consecutive session.

10:59am Godrej Industries up 0.6% post Q2 numbers

Adi Godrej, Chairman, Godrej Group is confident that the strength seen in performance of Godrej Industries will continue despite sluggish economic environment.

The company's consolidated Q2 PAT jumped 22.1 percent at Rs 93.6 crore versus vs Rs 76.6 crore reported a in a year ago period. Consolidated total income rose 3 percent at Rs 2,038 crore against Rs 1,978 crore, year-on-year (Y-o-Y).

Speaking at a press conference, he said Godrej Industries' performance has been commendable and the company's consolidated EBITDA has increased 46.1percent at Rs 146.5 crore versus Rs 100.3 crore (Y-o-Y).

''Godrej Properties has performed well despite the real estate sector not doing well. Godrej Agro's performance was aided by good monsoon and the strong agricultural season,'' he elaborated.

Given the strong agricultural season, both Godrej Consumer Products and Godrej Agro will benefit from rural demand in the second half of this financial year, he added.

10:50am Gainers & Losers
Country's largest lenders State Bank of India and ICICI Bank declined 0.5 percent and 1 percent, respectively while its rival HDFC Bank gained 0.6 percent.

Shares of ITC , TCS , L&T and Sun Pharma gained more than 0.5 percent while Tata Motors and Sesa Sterlite fell over 2 percent.

10:45am Results Impact
National Aluminium Company (NALCO) reported strong numbers with the second quarter (July-September) net profit growing 37.3 times year-on-year to Rs 179 crore on operational performance. The stock gained more than 2 percent.

Strong results were on the back of higher coal linkage in Q2, Ansuman Das, CMD said. He feels strong performance in Q2 is sustainable in October-March FY14 and falling input costs will aid margins during the same period.

10:27am The market continued to trade higher amid volatility with the Sensex rising 41.58 points to 20532.54. The Nifty gained 14.50 points at 6093.30.

The market may be consolidating today after seeing selling pressure last week, feels market expert Sandip Sabharwal.

He expects market to stabilise and sees it gradually trending higher towards the end of this calendar.

The broader markets outperformed benchmarks with the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices gaining over 0.6 percent. About two shares advanced for every share declining on the BSE.

Technology and FMCG stocks are seeing buying interest while metals stocks are under pressure.

Hindalco Industries gained more than 1.5 percent ahead of second quarter earnings today. According to a CNBC-TV18 poll, analysts expect profit after tax to increase 18.4 percent year-on-year to Rs 425 crore. Sales are expected to rise 11.8 percent Y-o-Y to Rs 6,839 crore in three-month period ended September 2013, driven by higher realisation in aluminum and copper segments in rupee terms (owing to weak rupee).

However, Sesa Sterlite and Tata Motors are biggest losers, falling more than 2 percent.

10:00 am Market outlook: UR Bhat, MD, Dalton Capital Advisors feels 5865 is an important support for Nifty. Stressing that Nifty not hitting all-time high was significant, he said in an interview to CNBC-TV18, that foreign institutional investors still not made money in market despite Sensex's record high.

According to him, the Nifty is likely to be in range of 5850-6350.

As an investment strategy, he prefers IT, pharma and private sector banks. Bhat does not see significant returns from power sector in near-term.

9:50 am Results: Apollo Tyres reported 44.19 percent increase in net profit at Rs 219.47 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2013, on the back of improved product mix.

The company had reported a net profit of Rs 152.2 crore in the same quarter a year ago. Apollo Tyres' net sales in the quarter under review was at Rs 3,433.46 crore, an increase of 1.73 percent as compared to Rs 3,374.82 crore in the same period last year,

Overall expenses in the quarter were at Rs 3,115.32 crore, an increase of 0.52 percent, compared with Rs 3,099.14 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.    

9:40 am Buzzer: Shares of Britannia Industries jumped over 8 percent in early trade on Tuesday. Investors are actively buying the stock on its strong September quarter results. The company's second quarter consolidated net profit grew 65.68 percent to Rs 97.64 crore from Rs 58.93 crore year-on-year.

During the period Britannia's net sales increased to Rs 1,740.48 crore, up 12.82 percent from Rs 1,542.67 crore during the same period last year.

9:30 am Macro data: All eyes today will be on key macro data- the October CPI and September IIP. The CPI is likely to stay elevated and consensus sees it touching double digits at 10 percent versus the three-month high of 9.85 percent last month, while the sharp growth in the core sector is likely to boost the September IIP data to 3.5 percent.

The market has opened on a mildly positive note. The Sensex is up 41.04 points at 20532.00, and the Nifty is up 8.45 points at 6087.25. About 241 shares have advanced, 70 shares declined, and 18 shares are unchanged.

Hindalco is up over 1 percent ahead of announcing its September quarter earnings. Other gainers in the Sensex are M&M, Wipro , NTOC and L&T. Tata Motors falls around 2 percent, followed by Sesa Sterlite, Jindal Steel , Tata Steel and Coal India in the top losers section.

The rupee slipped further in early trade on Tuesday. It opened lower by 18 paise at 63.42 per dollar as against previous closing of 63.24 per dollar.

Indranil Sengupta of Bank of America Merrill Lynch feels the rupee market has begun to look ahead at tapering of the RBI's swaps with oil companies. "We continue to expect the rupee to stabilize at 60-65/USD if the euro-dollar trades in a 1.20-1.30 range. Not surprisingly, the rupee remains among the weakest of the BRIC currencies," he adds.

Sengupta expects the rupee to end around 63/USD levels by December-end.

Globally, Dow Jones extended its record rise yesterday, with the US markets ending marginally higher on low volumes ahead of key earnings. European markets closed with gains led by the healthcare sector.

Asian markets followed the suit today with all eyes on the key policy meet in China.

Brent crude prices rise, after Iran and six world powers failed to reach a deal on Tehran's nuclear program, but Nymex slipped below USD 95 per barrel.

From precious metals space, gold traded lower after a surprise surge in US jobs growth reignited speculation the Federal Reserve could soon start scaling back its monetary stimulus program, denting bullion's appeal.