Sensex soars 388 points; Bank Nifty up 4%, BHEL gains 5%

3:40 pm Market closing: Dalal Street snapped three-day losses on hopes that lower crude prices after Iran deal may ease inflation and current account deficit. The Sensex ended up 387.69 points or 1.92 percent at 20605.08, and the Nifty closed at 6115.35, up 119.90 points or 2 percent. About 1420 shares have advanced, 1004 shares declined, and 165 shares are unchanged.

The rupee also strengthened against the dollar

Crude prices eased after Iran clinched a historical nuclear agreement with the US and other big nations. Under the interim arrangement, Iran will be allowed USD 7 billion in relief from sanctions, in exchange for a curb on its nuclear programme.

3:30 pm Alert: Lupin , India's No. 4 drug maker by revenue, may come from the land of cheap generics but it is betting on high-margin branded drugs in the United States to drive growth, reports Reuters.

It also wants to expand beyond its core US, Indian and Japanese markets into Latin America, Eastern Europe and China, and is prepared to spend as much as USD 1 billion to buy brands and companies in coming years.

3:20 pm Alert: Nine companies have shown interest at the request for qualification (RFQ) stage in the Beda-Bahal 4,000 megawatt (mw) ultra-mega power project (UMPP). Technical bids of these companies will soon be evaluated.

The bidders are a mix of companies that are keen on the space - Larsen and Toubro (L&T), Tata Power , Adani, JSW Energy , Jindal Power, Sterlite and NTPC , plus a consortium that includes NHPC , BHEL and southern coal fields.

The Indian market maintains momentum in the expiry  week. The Sensex is up 385.70 points or 1.91 percent at 20603.09, and the Nifty is up 119.30 points or 1.99 percent at 6114.75.

About 1340 shares have advanced, 991 shares declined, and 147 shares are unchanged.

The Bank Nifty outperforms with a 4 percent gain with ICICI Bank and SBI leading the charge. BHEL (up 5 percent), L&T (up 4 percent), ONGC (up 4 percent) and SBI (up 3.5 percent) are top gaienrs in the Sensex.

The rupee strengthened while bonds prices rose as the new 10-year 8.83 percent paper sees strong demand.

Most of Asia ended positive. The Nikkei is at a 6-month high as the yen nears 102 level.

03:00pm Market Update
The market rallied further as Sensex is up 364.89 points or 1.80 percent at 20582.28, and the Nifty is up 112.35 points or 1.87 percent at 6107.80.

BSE Capital Goods and Bank indices surged over 3.5 percent while FMCG, PSU and Realty jumped over 2 percent.

Auto, Power and Oil & Gas indices gained more than 1.6 percent while IT index is flat.

02:55pm Jim Rogers to CNBC-TV18

Market expert Jim Rogers prefers China over India at this point. He suggests buying stocks in sectors China promised reforms.

"China's recent reform steps are positive for pharma, agri sectors," Rogers adds.

He remains bullish and invested in US dollar. He does not see Fed starting quantitative easing taper until March 2014.

02:52pm Reliance Industries shuts units for maintenance

Reliance Industries ( RIL ) has shut a secondary unit for planned maintenance at its 580,000 barrels per day (bpd) Jamnagar refinery, part of the world's largest refining complex, industry sources said on Monday.

It shut a desulphuriser unit around two or three days ago for planned maintenance on heat exchangers, two of the sources said. The capacity of the unit was not immediately clear, reports Reuters.

The unit, which removes sulphur to produce fuels such as diesel, is expected to be back online in one to two weeks, the sources said.

02:42pm DIC India rallies 20%
Shares of DIC India are locked at 20 percent upper circuit on Monday after the parent company DIC Asia Pacific Pte Ltd decided to delist its Indian subsidiary.

DIC Corporation of Japan, world's largest manufacturer of printing Inks and allied material, holds 71.5 percent stake in DIC India through DIC Asia Pacific Pte Ltd, Signapore.

According to a release, DIC Asia is willing to accept the equity shares of the company tendered in the delisting offer at a price of Rs 260 per share (indicative offer price).

The floor price for the offer has been fixed at Rs 174 a share.

02:32pm Pfizer at record high
Shares of both Pfizer and Wyeth jumped as the much awaited merger of both the companies is firming up. Pfizer hit a record-high at Rs 1648 (up 15 percent) while Wyeth was locked at upper circuit of 20 percent in intraday day on Monday.

The amalgamation between the companies is formalised with a swap ratio of 7:10 in favour of Wyeth shareholders. As part of the deal, Pfizer will see huge equity dilution of nearly 35 percent.

Pfizer also announced a special interim dividend of Rs 360 per share. "The board of directors of the company at their meeting held on November 23, 2013 has approved the payment of interim dividend of Rs 360 per equity share of Rs 10/- each (3600 percent) to the shareholders of the company. The said interim dividend will be paid on December 17, 2013," Pfizer said.

02:22pm Equity benchmarks climbed further in afternoon trade with the Nifty surpassing the 6200-mark on broadbase buying. ICICI Bank took the lead among major largecaps rising more than 5 percent.

The Sensex rose 333.83 points or 1.65 percent at 20551.22, and the Nifty jumped 101.95 points or 1.70 percent at 6097.40, but the number of advances fell.

Advancing shares outpaced declining ones by a ratio of 1.3:1 as against 3:1 in morning trade.

"The Sensex rebounded strongly due to a nuclear deal with Iran that would lift sanctions on the country," Raghu Kumar, cofounder of RKSV said.

"Crude oil prices fell sharply after the sanctions were eased on Iran, which would benefit India's economy as it would cut down on its growing CAD (Current Account Deficit) by reducing the import costs on crude oil. By lifting the sanctions on Iran, Iran in return agreed to curb its nuclear program. Although the deal is an interim deal, it shows promise that crude oil prices might remain low for the foreseeable future, a positive sign for the Indian economy that relies heavily on Iran for its crude oil needs," he elaborated.

Shares of L&T, HDFC, ITC , HDFC Bank , Tata Motors , State Bank of India , ONGC and Hero Motocorp rallied 2-3.5 percent.

However, the laggards are Infosys , Bharti Airtel and NTPC , which fell more than 0.5 percent.

2:00 pm Gold check: Exports of gold jewellery from India fell 6.9 percent on month in October to USD 608.95 million, an industry body said on Monday, reports Reuters.

India, which is fighting hard to reduce its current account deficit, has brought in measures to restrict imports of gold - its second-biggest import item after oil -  which has affected the jewellery sector.

The measures included a rule that said 20 percent of all the gold shipped in must be turned around and exported as jewellery.

1:50 pm Alert: Reliance Industries has shut a secondary unit for planned maintenance at its 580,000 barrels per day (bpd) Jamnagar refinery, part of the world's largest refining complex, industry sources said, reports Reuters.

It shut a desulphuriser unit around two or three days ago for planned maintenance on heat exchangers, two of the sources said. The capacity of the unit was not immediately clear.

The unit, which removes sulphur to produce fuels such as diesel, is expected to be back online in one to two weeks, the sources said.

1:40 pm Interview: Biocon has received approval to market Roche's cancer drug clone. Roche, the Swiss innovator firm, markets Trastuzumab in India under the name Herceptin. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, CMD, Biocon says the nod is for India marketing rights but opens up huge opportunities as the cancer drug has a market of USD 6 billion worldwide.

Biocon is developing this biosimilar in partnership with Mylan and expects to begin marketing the cancer drug clone by FY 2014-end. Shaw insisted that the company's growth is dependent on all its verticals and insulin, small molecules and research services businesses are seeing robust growth.

1:30 pm Buzzer: Shares of both Pfizer and Wyeth jumped as the much awaited merger of both the companies is firming up. Pfizer hit a record-high at Rs 1648 (up 15 percent) while Wyeth was locked at upper circuit of 20 percent in intraday day on Monday.

The amalgamation between the companies is formalised with a swap ratio of 7:10 in favour of Wyeth shareholders. As part of the deal, Pfizer will see huge equity dilution of nearly 35 percent.

Pfizer also announced a special interim dividend of Rs 360 per share.

The market treads with strong spirit fuelled by positive global cues and a sharp fall in global crude oil prices. Banks, real estate, and capital goods stocks lead the way.

The Sensex is up 219.54 points or 1.09 percent at 20436.93, and the Nifty is up 69.55 points or 1.16 percent at 6065.00.

About 1248 shares have advanced, 988 shares declined, and 155 shares are unchanged.

ICICI Bank (up 4 percent) followed by  BHEL, L&T, SBI and Hero Motocorp are top gianers in the Sensex. Among the top losers are Bharti Airtel, Infosys, Sesa Sterlie, NTPC and Dr Reddy's Labs.

Crude oil prices head for their biggest fall in three weeks as Iran blinks for the first time in almost 10 years. The country has agreed to limit its nuclear programme in exchange for relief from some sanctions.

Sugar stocks are rallying as mill owners hope for a breakthrough with the UP government at a meeting on Tuesday. According to CNBC-TV18 sources mill owners hope to get the government to commit on a direct subsidy payment to farmers and adoption of the Rangarajan committee recommendations. However, the market is skeptical.

12:59pm Market Update
The market remained in bull grip as the Sensex is up 231.20 points or 1.14 percent at 20448.59, and the Nifty is up 71.95 points or 1.20 percent at 6067.40.

Brokerage house UBS is making a bullish case for state-owned NMDC , citing better ore prices as the key triggers. It has upgraded the stock to 'buy' from 'neutral' and raised target price to Rs 145 from Rs 114.

NMDC shares rose 0.7 percent to Rs 129.05 in afternoon trade.

12:49pm Movers & Shakers
Capital goods stocks are on fire with the L&T and BHEL rising 3 percent each. ITC , Tata Motors , State Bank of India , ONGC and Hero Motocorp surged over 2 percent.

Infosys and Bharti Airtel are under pressure, falling around a percent.

12:39pm Market Expert
Rakesh Arora of Macquarie feels the market has turned a bit cautious ahead of the election results due on December 8. "Also USD 3-4 billion of fresh supply of paper should hit the market in December which could also limit gains," he adds.

According to him, the strategy now is to sit on cash. He recommends buying Coal India .

12:29pm Info Edge gains
Shares of Info Edge rallied 5.6 percent on Monday as Hitesh Oberoi, CEO and MD says collections in its jobs space ( Naukri .com) have been rising faster than earlier and the market share of the space also increased further.

Operating profit margin (EBITDA margin) jumped 500 basis points year-on-year to 35.5 percent in the quarter ended September 2013. Oberoi sees EBITDA expansion to happen only if Naukri picks up.

Real estate portal 99acres.com, which contributes 15-17 percent to total revenues, has been consistently growing 50 percent in last two years and current year it grew 55 percent so far.

Oberoi expects the share of its real estate portal in total revenues to be higher than jobs portal in next five years.

12:19pm UP Sugar companies in focus
The UP sugar mill owners will once again meet chief minister Akhilesh Yadav to resolve the stand-off between the government and the sugar industry. Sources told CNBC-TV18's Shereen Bhan that the mill owners will meet the CM on Tuesday after having a meeting with him earlier on Sunday, which failed to see any sort of a resolution.

12:09pm The market maintained its strong momentum in noon trade supported by financials, capital goods, FMCG and oil & gas stocks.

The Sensex is up 239.30 points or 1.18 percent at 20456.69, and the Nifty is up 74.55 points or 1.24 percent at 6070. Advancing shares outnumbered declining ones by 1268 to 857 on the BSE.

According to Dhirendra Tiwari, head of Research, Antique Institutional Equities, the fall in crude is positive as it is one of the key constituents of inflation. The fall will have a positive impact not only on prices of petroleum products by anybody who is using oil in a major way.

He says the move (Iran deal) is definitely positive as it will have implications on the overall economy. If crude continues to be soft, we will have some more upside in the market, adds Tiwari.

The Brent crude prices fell by more than 2 percent today following a key deal between world powers and Iran on its controversial nuclear programme.

This led to a rise in the share price of state-run oil marketing companies. BPCL rallied 5 percent and HPCL surged 6 percent followed by IOC with 2.6 percent gains.

11:50 am Analysis: Countries like India would have to continue reducing oil imports from Iran despite a deal with the world powers over its controversial nuclear programme, according to a US fact sheet which also said Tehran would get a relief of USD 7 billion under the agreement, reports PTI.

Under the agreement reached in Geneva, Iran has committed to halt enrichment above five per cent, neutralise its stockpile of near-20 per cent uranium and halt progress on its enrichment capacity, to halt progress on the growth of its 3.5 per cent stockpile and committed to no further advances of its activities at Arak and to halt progress on its plutonium track.

11:40 am Opinion: Stressing that the market may consolidate at current levels, Sandeep Bhatia of Kotak Institutional Equities sees modest foreign fund inflows in near term . He is bearish on infrastructure, consumer goods and real estate shares. Bhatia sees oil sector offering good value, and expects stable long term crude oil prices because of Iran agreeing to the nuclear deal.

In the pharmaceutical sector, he is bullish on Glenmark Pharma. From the auto space, he likes Maruti and Bajaj Auto. He is neutral on the banking sector because of rising interest rates, but is positive on banks that have overcome their balance sheet problems.

11:30 am Alert: A Deputy Managing Director of State Bank of India, a former AGM of the bank and a businessman have been named by CBI in a case of alleged graft in disbursal of loan of above Rs 400 crore, reports PTI.

CBI sources said its Economic Offences Wing in Mumbai has registered a case against Deputy MD of SBI Shyamal Acharya who is also the head of Mid-Corporate wing of the Bank, former SBI official KK Kumarah and Chairman of Worlds Window Group Piyoosh Goyal for alleged graft.

11:20 am Buzzer: Shares of Dabur India rallied over 3 percent in intraday trade on Monday on increasing foreign institutional investors (FIIs) limit in the company. Its board of directors approved increasing the investment limit for FIIs in the company to 30 percent from 24 percent at present.
 
"With increased participation by FIIs in the Indian capital market, we have decided to increase the FII investment limit to 30 percent for investment in company's capital under the Portfolio Investment Scheme (PIS)," its Group Director  PD Narang said.

The Sensex is up 269.84 points or 1.33 percent at 20487.23, and the Nifty is up 83.30 points or 1.39 percent at 6078.75. About 1226 shares have advanced, 502 shares declined, and 84 shares are unchanged.

Banking stocks seem to be on fire today, led by ICICI Bank (up 4 percent), HDFC Bank (up 2 percent), SBI (up 2 percent), Axis Bank (up 3 percent). Other gainers in the Sensex are L&T, Hero Moto Cotp, ONGC and Tata Motors gainign around 2 percent each.

With the rupee adding muscles, technology stocks are getting wea dragged by Infosys. Bharti Airtel and Dr Reddy's Labs are other losers in the Sensex.

Asian markets kicked off the week higher after a historic deal over Iran's nuclear programme bolstered risk appetite with the Nikkei hitting a new 6-month peak.

In currencies, dollar index holds sub 81 levels, the euro trades at 1.35 and the yen started the new week at a four-month low against the dollar.

Brent crude prices slipped over 2 percent to USD 108/ oz levels on the back of the deal with Iran and Nymex too tested USD 94/bbl. Gold prices were also weak near 4-month lows on fears of an early end to US stimulus measures.

11:00am Market Update
The market continued to trade higher as the Sensex is up 272.77 points or 1.35 percent at 20490.16, and the Nifty is up 85.55 points or 1.43 percent at 6081.

Pfizer rallied 7 percent and Wyeth rose 13 percent after Pfizer board approved merger of Wyeth with self.

Pfizer shareholders will get seven shares of company for every 10 shares held of Wyeth and the merger with Wyeth will be completed in around 9 months.

10:55am Market Expert
The market could consolidate at current levels and grind higher as the macro-economic environment improves, says Sandeep Bhatia of Kotak Institutional Equities. He says the worst of declining GDP growth is behind, though inflation may take another six months to cool.

Bhatia sees modest foreign fund inflows in near term, and is bearish on infrastructure, consumer goods and real estate shares. He sees oil sector offering good value, and expects stable long term crude oil prices because of Iran agreeing to the nuclear deal.

10:50am DIC India locked at 20% upper circuit

DIC India received a letter from its promoter DIC Asia Pacific Pte Ltd proposing to make a voluntary delisting offer at a price of Rs 260 per share (indicative offer price).

DIC Asia Pacific holds 71.75 percent stake in the company as of September 2013.

10:45am Biocon Boardroom
Biocon has received approval to market Roche's cancer drug clone. Roche, the Swiss innovator firm, markets Trastuzumab in India under the name Herceptin.

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, CMD, Biocon says the nod is for India marketing rights but opens up huge opportunities as the cancer drug has a market of USD 6 billion worldwide. Biocon is developing this biosimilar in partnership with Mylan and expects to begin marketing the cancer drug clone by FY 2014-end.

Shaw insisted that the company's growth is dependent on all its verticals and insulin, small molecules and research services businesses are seeing robust growth.

10:35am Axis Bank rises
Shares of Axis Bank gained more than 2 percent in morning trade on Monday as the country's third largest private sector lender will replace Jindal group-owned Jindal Steel in S&P BSE Sensex.

The changes will be effective from December 23. With the addition of this fourth bank, banking weightage in the benchmark index will increase.

Meanwhile, Reserve Bank of India says more FIIs buying into Axis Bank shares is allowed only with prior approval as foreign shareholding in the bank has reached the trigger limit. As per shareholding pattern on September 30, 2013, foreign institutional investors hold 49.34 percent stake in the bank.

10:25am MRPL Boardroom
PP Upadhya, MD of MRPL said lifting of a European Union ban on insuring tankers carrying Iranian crude is a positive step but he does not expect any fall in crude prices in the near-term.

Brent crude dropped more than USD 2 a barrel on Monday as supply fears eased following a breakthrough nuclear deal between world powers and Iran over the weekend.

Tough sanctions against Iran in the past two years have slashed exports from the OPEC member by more than half and cost Tehran billions of dollars in revenue losses a month, keeping Brent above USD 100 a barrel despite weak global demand.

10:15am The market extended its early trade gains on account of positive global cues, tracking Iran deal. The Sensex is up 299.93 points or 1.48 percent at 20517.32, and the Nifty is up 91.35 points or 1.52 percent at 6086.80 on broadbased buying.

More than three shares advanced for every share declining on the BSE.

Technical Analysts Sudharshan Sukhani says at the moment one has missed the bus for intra-day trade. He places Bank Nifty targets at 1000-1200 and says one can look at buying bank stocks if consolidation happens.

He says the oil marketing companies, too, offer buying opportunities but intra-day trade is not adviaable. He suggests staying away from the refineries. Tata Steel is another stock one should look to buy.

ICICI Bank is the biggest gainer among largecaps in the Sensex, rising 3.65 percent followed by HDFC Bank , L&T, ITC , Tata Motors , Sesa Sterlite and Hero Motocorp with 2-2.8 percent gains.

Index heavyweights Reliance Industries and HDFC climbed over 1 percent. However, Infosys is the only loser, falling 0.3 percent.

Meanwhile, the rupee gained 39 paise to 62.47 against the US dollar on strong equity markets.

Asian markets continued to trade higher with the Nikkei and Taiwan Weighted gaining 1 percent each after Iran agreed to limit nuclear program in exchange for relief from some sanctions. The European Union ban on insuring tankers carrying Iranian crude has been lifted and this will ease crude flow into India.

10:00 am Buzzer: Shares in Axis Bank rose more than 2 percent on Monday after exchange operator BSE said it will include the lender in its benchmark BSE Sense starting on December 23.

Axis will replace Jindal Steel And Power Ltd in the index, according to its statement late on Friday.

9:50 am Alert: Cairn India , oil and gas unit of London-listed Vedanta Resources, is set to spend about USD 1 billion to buy back shares, reports Reuters quoting media reports.

The share purchase will include buying back Cairn Energy Plc's 10.3 percent stake in the company, Bloomberg said citing one of the sources.

Mining conglomerate Vedanta, controlled by billionaire Anil Agarwal, acquired a majority stake in Cairn India for almost USD 9 billion in 2011. Since then, Cairn India played a pivotal role in boosting revenue and production even as Vedanta's mining business in India faced regulatory hurdles and mining restrictions.

9:40 am FII view: Rakesh Arora of Macquarie feels that the market has turned a bit cautious ahead of the election results due on December 8."Also USD 3-4 billion of fresh supply of paper should hit the market in December which could also limit gains. The strategy now is to sit on cash", he says. Arora recommends buying Coal India .

Prabhat Awasthi of Nomura, says the wedge between stock prices and rupee-denominated metal prices has now largely closed following sector outperformance. "We are closing our overweight recommendation on metal sector and suggest taking profits at current levels. Our March-end 2014 Sensex target remains at 22,000. Our top five strategy stock ideas are ICICI Bank , HCL Technologies , Dr Reddys Labs , Reliance Industries and NTPC ," he adds.

9:30 am Buzzer: Pharma stocks are rallying on expectations of relexing FDI norms. The Cabinet is expected to take a decision today on relaxing FDI norms for the housing sector and reducing foreign direct investment cap to 49 percent in critical areas of the pharma segment.

Several departments including the DIPP have raised serious concerns over continuous acquisitions of Indian drug makers by global multinational firms.

"The Cabinet will review the FDI policy in pharmaceutical and housing tomorrow," an official said.

The market has kickstarted the week on a roaring note. The Sensex is up 168.49 points at 20385.88, and the Nifty is up 41.65 points at 6037.10. About 323 shares have advanced, 55 shares declined, and 8 shares are unchanged.

Banking, pharma, capital goods, oil & gas, metals, auto, FMCG and realty stocks are adding strength to the indices. With a gain of 2 percent each HDFC Bank , ICICI Bank, ONGC , Tata Motors and ITC are top gaienrs in the Sensex. 

The rupee opened higher by 21 paise at 62.65 per dollar on Monday as against Friday's closing of 62.86 per dollar.

Agam Gupta of Standard Chartered says globally, equities were positive and the Iran nuclear accord will add to positive sentiment. According to him, the range for the day is seen between 62.40-62.80/USD.

The yen starts the week at four-year lows versus the euro and a four-month trough on the dollar, still very much the funding currency of choice in a trend that is likely to continue in this US hliday-shortened week.

The Dow was up 0.4 percent, Nasdaq up 0.6 percent, S&P 500 up 0.5 percent on Friday with S&P 500 finishing record high above1800 and is now up 27 percent this year.

In commodities space, gold was marginally higher due to weak dollar. However, the yellow metal still saw its sharpest weekly drop in more than 2 months, down 3.4 percent for the week. Gold is currently trading at USD 1245 per ounce, hitting fresh 4.5 month low.

Brent crude rose 1 percent on Friday to 111 dollar per barrel. Crude oil is headed for biggest drop in three weeks after Iran struck a nuclear deal on Sunday. Iran agreed to limit nuclear program in exchange for relief from some sanctions. The EU ban on insuring tankers carrying Iranian crude has been lifted ad this will ease crude flow into India.