Sensex up 214 points, Nifty ends at 8430; HUL & L&T gain 3-4%

03:30 pm Market close: After a volatile session, the market has ended with handsome gains with major support by banks and capital goods stocks. The Sensex ended up 214.09 points or 0.8 percent at 27890.13, and the Nifty was up 51.95 points or 0.6 percent at 8429.70. About 1379 shares have advanced, 1379 shares declined, and 180 shares are unchanged. Even after a weak monsoon forecast, HUL gained 4 percent. Other top gainers in the Sensex were Axis Bank, L&T, Hero and Dr Reddy's Labs. Wipro lost 6 percent post poor Q1FY16 guidance. ONGC, SBI, Hindalco and Infosys also slipped.

03:20 pm Rupee bonds: Indian Railways Finance Corp, the finance arm of Asia's largest rail network, plans to raise up to $1 billion through offshore rupee bonds, making it the first domestic issuer to eye so-called "masala" debt to diversify its source of funds.

The Reserve Bank of India gave Indian companies the green light to raise bonds offshore in rupees earlier this month, a move seen as a small step towards full rupee convertibility, one of the objectives set by Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan when he took charge in 2013.

Rajan has since said full capital account convertibility, which would allow foreign investors to repatriate money at will, could happen in "a short number of years".

03:10 pm Market update: It has been a roller coaster ride on Dalal Street. The Nifty is tad below 8450-level, up 51.80 points or 0.6 percent at 8429.55, at 8430. The Sensex is up 197.46 points or 0.7 percent at 27873.50.

02:59pm Mastek in Focus: Smallcap IT firm Mastek disappointed street with its fourth quarter earnings. Profit after tax dropped 26 percent sequentially to Rs 6.44 crore on account of weak operational performance and lower other income.

Revenue grew 2.8 percent to Rs 276.1 crore during January-March quarter from Rs 268.6 crore in December quarter and increased 4.7 percent in constant currency terms.

Operating profit (EBITDA) slipped 20 percent quarter-on-quarter to Rs 16.24 crore and margin declined 167 basis points to 5.88 percent in the quarter gone by.

Other income during March quarter was Rs 1.23 crore, down 72.2 percent compared to Rs 4.43 crore December quarter.

The bottomline was also impacted by increase in products research and development expenses that increased to Rs 17.1 crore in March quarter (6.2 percent of operating revenue) from Rs 14.3 crore (5.3 percent of operating revenue) in December quarter.

02:46pm Market recovers: Volatile equity benchmarks recouped losses in late trade, supported by private banks, healthcare and stocks like L&T and HUL. The Sensex rose 45.74 points to 27721.78 and the Nifty advanced 5.55 points to 8383.30.

About 1115 shares have advanced, 1544 shares declined, and 179 shares are unchanged on the BSE.

L&T climbed over 2 percent on winning orders worth Rs 2,674 crore. HUL surged over 3 percent and Dr Reddy's gained 2 percent.

02:40pm Market Update: Equity benchmarks recovered supported by private banks. The Sensex fell 56.73 points to 27619.31 and the Nifty declined 26.80 points to 8350.95.

About 1058 shares have advanced, 1594 shares declined, and 176 shares are unchanged on the BSE. 

02:35pm FII View: Brokerage firm Credit Suisse has maintained its 10 percent overweight stance on India, buoyed by economic recovery and a significant fall in inflation.

Credit Suisse believes Prime Minister Narendra Modi's structural economic reform programme is already bearing fruit and India merits an exclusion from the 'fragile five.'

Some concerns notwithstanding, the brokerage says it prefers India over Brazil in the emerging markets (EMs) space.

"Our MSCI India regression model suggests the greatest potential upside in global emerging markets (GEM)," says the report,

However, the report added that the negative top and bottom line revisions is making the firm nervous about maintaining the 'overweight' call

02:25pm DoT to meet telcos: Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad today said the Department of Telecom (DoT) will soon call a meeting of all service providers to look into the problem of frequent call drops being faced by customers.

"I have asked my officials to call a meeting of all service providers regarding call drops faced by customers," Prasad told PTI. Operators will be asked to improve quality of service, he added.

A group of BJP MPs have also complained to the Minister regarding frequent 'call dropping', excess billing and non-transparency by some private telecom operators.

The parliamentarians demanded action against the private telecom operators after proper investigation and alleged that the companies were not hearing complaints of the customers.

Mobile phone users have been complaining about the call drops, but telecom operators have not lived up to their expectations to rectify the problems and provide a good communication network.

02:00pm Market Check
Equity benchmarks extended fall for the sixth straight session, down 0.8 percent on weak monsoon forecast. Banks, technology, oil & gas, auto and metals dragged.

The Sensex, which lost more than 1600 points in last 6 trading sessions, declined 205.39 points to 27470.65 and the Nifty slipped 70.75 points to 8307 today.

About 977 shares have advanced, 1659 shares declined, and 176 shares are unchanged on the BSE.

The Indian Met Department released its first official monsoon forecast for 2015 and predicted below normal monsoon this year. MET said rainfall is seen at 93 percent of long term average in 2015, adding 35 percent probability of monsoon rainfall will remain below normal.

Vibhav Kapoor of IL&FS said earnings season will be more difficult than anticipated. The range for the Nifty has moved lower to 7600-8600 over next 2 months, according to him.

On the crucial subject of restrospective tax payment for FIIs, minister of state for finance Jayant Sinha said the government cannot withdraw MAT notices sent to FIIs, The government is going by the authority of advance rulings which clearly stated that FIIs need to pay MAT and foreign investors are free to appeal against it.

The rupee weakened to 62.91 against a close of 62.85 a dollar yesterday due to fresh dollar demand from importers and strong dollar against other currencies overseas. Weak equity market also dampened sentiment.

1:50 pm Market check: The market has skid sharply after the MET department released its first monsoon forecast for the year 2015. According to Earth Sciences Minister, there is a 28 percent probability of rainfall being normal in 2015 and 35 percent probability of monsoon rainfall to remain below normal. He also said that El-Nino conditions are likely to persist during south west monsoon while weak El-Nino conditions are prevailing over Pacific.

He added that probability of above normal rainfall is almost nil and rainfall is seen at 93 percent of long-term average in 2015. Little chance of excessive monsoon rains this year. MET will release final monsoon forecast in June. The Sensex is down 237.74 points or 0.8 percent at 27438.30 and the Nifty is down 82.40 points or 0.9 percent at 8295.35. About 1042 shares have advanced, 1544 shares declined, and 168 shares are unchanged.

Wipro, ONGC,Tata Motors, SBI and ICICI Bank are major losers in the Sensex.

1:30 pm Big deal: Drug major Sun Pharmaceutical said its promoter and Managing Director Dilip Shanghvi did not buy shares of the company sold by the Japanese drugmaker Daiichi Sankyo.

Dilip Shanghvi has neither purchased nor agreed to purchase any shares of our company in the said transaction,” Sun Pharma said in a BSE filing today.

The company was clarifying on speculations that Sanghvi, who holds 9.61 percent stake in Sun Pharma, had bought shares when Daiichi Sankyo exited from the Indian firm.

According to the data available on BSE, as on April 10, promoter shareholding in Sun Pharma stood at 54.71 percent .

The market is marginally in the green . The Sensex is up 28.77 points at 27704.81 and the Nifty down 1.30 points at 8376.45. About 1317 shares have advanced, 1161 shares declined and 161 shares are unchanged.

HUL, Hero Motocorp, M&M, HDFC and Dr Reddy's Labs are top gainers in the Sensex. Among the losers are Wipro, ONGC, SBI, Infosys and Tata Motors.

Amid a weakening global trend, gold futures traded Rs 96 down at Rs 27,007 per 10 gm as speculators reduced their positions.

Gold for delivery in far-month August contracts dropped by Rs 96 or 0.35 per cent to Rs 27,007 per 10 gm in a business turnover of one lot at the Multi Commodity Exchange.

Market analysts said the fall in gold futures was mostly in tune with a weak trend overseas and profit-booking by speculators.

12:58pm Market Update: The market erased all its gains. The Sensex rose 2.05 points to 27678.09 and the Nifty fell 12.35 points to 8365.40 due to selling in ONGC (down 3 percent) and SBI (down 1.5 percent). About 1324 shares have advanced, 1147 shares declined, and 163 shares are unchanged on the BSE. 

12:45pm YES Bank in focus: YES Bank's fourth quarter (January-March) beat street expectations on Wednesday. Net profit grew by 28.1 percent year-on-year to Rs 551 crore from Rs 430.2 crore in the same quarter last year, driven by strong other income and net interest income despite spike in provisions and tax cost.

Net interest income climbed 35.8 percent on yearly basis to Rs 977 crore and other income (non-interest income) jumped 32.5 percent to Rs 590.44 crore in the quarter ended March 2015.

The bottomline was also boosted by operating profit that surged 37.8 percent to Rs 937.50 crore in March quarter compared to Rs 680.44 crore in the year-ago period. However, operating expenses were up 30 percent to Rs 630.01 crore and tax expenses jumped by whopping 46.2 percent to Rs 260.15 crore during the same period.

Net interest margin remained unchanged at 3.2 percent on sequential basis but year-on-year increased from 3 percent.

Provisions for bad loans, however, shot up 74.8 percent year-on-year (up 80.6 percent quarter-on-quarter) to Rs 126.4 crore in the quarter gone by.

Asset quality weakened a bit on year-on-year basis but the same was stable on sequential basis. Gross non-performing assets (NPA) as a percentage of gross assets declined (up 10 basis points Y-o-Y) to 0.41 percent in January-March quarter from 0.42 percent in the corresponding quarter last year. Net NPA rose (up 7 bps Y-o-Y) sequentially to 0.12 percent from 0.10 percent.

12:25pm Interview: Branded air cooler manufacturer Symphony’s net profit shot up 35.1 percent year-on-year to Rs 36.5 crore for the third quarter ended March, 2015 driven by strong sales numbers and realisation. For last nine months, the company recorded sales of 6,15,295 units, a growth of 24.5 percent compared to 4,94,028 units sold in same period last year.

The company is confident of achieving consolidated CAGR growth of 20-25 over the medium to long-term by maintaining current levels of profitability and operating margins, said Nrupesh Shah, executive director-corporate affairs, Symphony in an interview to CNBC-TV18.

According to Shah going forward with the help of pricing power, new launches and economies of scale, the company is confident of keeping its EBITDA margins steady at current levels of around 30 percent.

Companies products are priced at around 5-12 percent premium to its peers, he said.

Impact on sales for the company is only related to weather conditions and not due to macros said Shah. March sales saw an impact due to unseasonal rains.

12:00pm Market Check
The market remained firm in noon trade as equity benchmarks recovered marginally after 5 days of weakness. Capital goods, banking & financials and healthcare stocks continued to support market while IT and select auto stocks dragged.

The Sensex advanced 94.94 points to 27770.98 and the Nifty rose 18.85 points to 8396.60. About 1448 shares have advanced, 885 shares declined, and 149 shares are unchanged on the BSE.

The market got strong cues from Asia as Nikkei and Shanghai scaled new multi-year highs while Brent crude prices dropped, hovering near USD 61 per barrel as tensions in the Middle East eased.

Wipro topped the selling list on Sensex, down 4 percent after the company reported revenue growth that missed street estimates. The tech major also guided for a weak Q1FY16. Goldman Sachs maintained a sell on Wipro and cut FY15-17 EPS estimates by 1-4 percent.

Sun Pharma bounced back, up nearly 2 percent today after JP Morgan put an overweight stance on the stock, saying the large correction was driven by supply due to the Daiichi's stake sale and they would use the weakness as a buying opportunity.

Mahindra and Mahindra gained 2 percent after CNBC-TV18 learnt that the company is planning to hike its stake in Ssangyong to 85 percent from the existing 72.8 percent. The company is likely to spend up to Rs 1,500 crore to increase its stake in Ssangyong, say sources.

In the broader space, Reliance Power also climbed 2 percent as its Sasan Ultra Mega Power Project achieved power station cod of its entire 3960 MW and Sobha advanced 2 percent too after foraying into a new segment in housing Sobha Dream Series.

11:50 am Big deal: ITC, India's largest cigarette maker, is in talks with Century Textile and Industries Ltd to buy its paper division in a bid to diversify revenue to non-tobacco businesses, said two sources directly involved in the deal. In separate transactions, Century's textile division will be merged with Aditya Birla Nuvo and the cement unit will be merged with UltraTech Cement Ltd , as part of the company's restructuring, the sources said.

The sources declined to be named as the deal talks were not public yet. Axis Bank is advising Century Textile on the restructuring process, the sources said.

11:30 am Poll: In Q4FY15 (January-March quarter), private sector lender YES Bank is expected to report similar growth to Q3. According to a CNBC-TV18 poll, profit is estimated at Rs 549 crore during March quarter, a growth of 27.6 percent over same quarter last year, supported by other income. Net interest income, the difference between interest earned and interest expended, may jump 32 percent to Rs 950 crore in fourth quarter of financial year 2014-15 from Rs 720 crore in same quarter last year. The growth in NII may also be supported by low base in Q4FY14 when NII had increased 13 percent to Rs 720 crore. Analysts feel the growth in other income may be led by financial advisory, third party distribution and trading gains. Continued support from operating profit will also be closely watched.

The market is still keeping its head high with the Nifty hovering around 8400. The 50-share index is up 19.10 points at 8396.85 while the Sensex is up 102.81 points at 27778.85. About 1359 shares have advanced, 766 shares declined, and 151 shares are unchanged.

HUL is up 3 percent while Sun Pharma, Hero Motocorp, Dr Reddy's Labs and M&M are top gainers in the Sensex. Among the losers are Wipro, Infosys, Tata Motors, ONGC and Sesa Sterlite.

Oil prices fell in Asia after a Saudi-led coalition declared an end to four weeks of air strikes in Yemen and ahead of a key US supply report.

US benchmark West Texas Intermediate fell 52 cents to USD 56.09 while Brent crude fell 42 cents to USD 61.66 in late-morning trade. Analysts said dealers were sitting on the sidelines ahead of the release later today of the official US stockpiles report. Gains in US petroleum reserves typically indicates slack demand in the world's top crude consumer, pushing global prices down.

10:56am Market Update: The Sensex rose 82.46 points to 27758.50 and the Nifty advanced 16.35 points to 8394.10. About 1320 shares have advanced, 788 shares declined, and 138 shares are unchanged on the BSE. 10:45am Gitanjali in News: Gitanjali Gems said the board of directors of the company, on April 21, has approved the scheme of amalgamation of Gitanjali Exports Corporation (GECL), a wholly owned subsidiary with the company.

Additionally, with a view to rationalise the existing group structure and create synergy of operations, Gitanjali group is presently undertaking consolidation exercise at group level for enabling restructuring of group's business, said the company.

This will enable operating of it sourcing, manufacturing, distribution, exporting and retailing arms of the group in the most beneficial manner by way of reduction in costs and improvement in cash flows. The resultant strategic business model which may help unlocking value in future, it added.

The company on Tuesday also approved merger of Asmi Jewellery India and Spectrum Jewellery with Nakshatra Brands; and merger of Gitanjali Jewellery Retail and Gitanjali Lifestyle with GILI India.

The company said Asmi Jewellery India, Spectrum Jewellery, Nakshatra Brands and Gili India are step down subsidiaries of the company while Gitanjali Jewellery Retail and Gitanjali Lifestyle are the wholly owned subsidiaries.

10:25am FII View: A positive macro-and-policy-fuelled India was the most preferred emerging market across all financial centres in Europe at the end of 2014, says Deutsche Bank in a research report. But now global as well as emerging markets investors are looking at a tactical reallocation of aggressively overweight positions towards other EM's like China, Russia and Brazil, the report says.

Deutsche Bank met as many as 34 investors last week across key financial centers in Europe.

The brokerage house further says: "Many global investors we met – who were first time investors into India, through the rally last year, are currently focused on European equity markets, following improving economic data and QE in Europe."

Focusing on India, the report says, the ongoing tactical correction is a healthy consolidation and investors waiting on the sidelines should use this as an opportunity to realign their portfolios.

Deutsche Bank maintains its year-end Sensex target of 33,000.

10:00am Market Check
The market continued to see marginal gains in morning trade led by banking & financials, FMCG and select oil stocks. The Sensex rose 71.09 points to 27747.13 and the Nifty climbed 12.20 points to 8389.95.

The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices gained 0.3 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively. More than two shares advanced for every share declining on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Sun Pharma rebounded with 2 percent gains after a 9 percent fall in previous session. JP Morgan has maintained overweight rating on the stock with a target price of Rs 1030. "Large correction was driven by supply from Daiichi’s stake sale (down 19 percent over last 2 weeks including correction yesterday)," said the brokerage, adding he will use the weakness as a buying opportunity.

He believes the base Sun Pharma business (ex-Ranbaxy) can grow at more than 15 percent over medium term and sees significant upside from integration / turnaround of Ranbaxy acquisition, manufacturing related synergies.

HUL also rallied 2 percent followed by ICICI Bank, ITC, Reliance Industries, Axis Bank, M&M, HDFC Bank, HDFC, Dr Reddy's Labs and Hero Motocorp with 0.3-1.3 percent.

However, Wipro tanked 4 percent post disappointing earnings and weak guidance. TCS and Infosys too were under pressure, down 0.4-0.9 percent.

9:55 am Buzzing: Shares of Cimmco are locked at 10 percent upper circuit at Rs 106.30 per share on getting licence for manufacturing defence equipment. Cimmco, a subsidiary of wagon and railway coach manufacturer Titagarh Wagons, on Tuesday said it had received industrial licence for manufacturing defence equipment.

"We have received the licence for manufacturing defence products. It will be manufactured from the Cimmco unit at Bharatpur in Rajasthan," Titagarh Wagon Managing Director Umesh Choudhary said. The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) licence would help the group's foray into the defence sector in a big way, he added.

9:40 am Market check: The market is headed higher. The Sensex is up 82.26 points at 27758.30 and the Nifty is up 17.75 points at 8395.50. About 1155 shares have advanced, 529 shares declined, and 99 shares are unchanged. Dr Reddy's Labs, HUL, Hero Motocorp, Sun Pharma and Tata Steel are gainers in the Sensex. Among the losers are Wipro, GAIL, Hindalco, Bharti Airtel and Infosys.

9:30 am How to trade Wipro: Perturbed by tepid March quarter earnings and low guidance, brokerages have slashed target price of Wipro.

CLSA has cut target price by 3 percent to Rs 600 per share, maintaining an underperform rating. It states that persistent poor top 10 account mining, headwinds in energy, telecom and BFS are likely to keep earnings growth prospects uninspiring. CLSA also says that guidance sets Wipro for one its weakest years since FY10. For the Q1FY15 (April-June quarter), Wipro has given a guidance which expects revenues in the range of USD 1.76-1.79 billion, a growth of negative 0.5 percent to positive 1 percent over March quarter.

Credit Suisse has also reduced target price to Rs 700 per share from Rs 725 and estimates by 3-4 percent on growth concerns.

The market opens in green with strong Asian cues. The Sensex is up 37.47 points at 27713.51, and the Nifty is up 9.30 points at 8387.05. About 521 shares have advanced, 144 shares declined, and 74 shares are unchanged.

Sun Pharma is up 1.5 percent while Dr Reddy's Labs, SBI, Axis Bank and Bajaj Auto are top gainers. Dragged by weak earnings, Wipro is down 4 percent. Among other laggards are Hindalco, GAIL, Bharti Airtel and Sesa Sterlite.

The Indian rupee has opened flat at 62.81 per dollar against previous day's closing value of 62.85 a dollar. The dollar is mixed against major currencies, with the euro pivoting to modest gains against the greenback after euro zone finance ministers moved away from fixing a deadline for Greece to come up with fiscal reforms.

Pramit Brahmbhatt of Veracity said, "We expect the rupee to appreciate backed by the strength we expect to see in local equities today. The USD-INR pair is expected to trade in the range of 62.30-63.30/dollar."

US markets closed mixed on the back of lackluster earnings. European markets ended flat but Asia is positive in morning trade with Japan's Nikkei reclaiming the psychologically-important 20,000 mark.

Brent crude slipped below USD 62 dollars per barrel on anticipation of another weekly build in US crude stockpiles.

Gold held steady as the US dollar turned lower and bolstered bullion's appeal.