Sensex up 293 points, Nifty ends at 8672;SBI gains 7%, Sun Pharma up

3:30 pm Market closing: The market has ended on strong note with support from index heavyweights. The Sensex ended up 292.80 points or 1 percent at 28152.40, and the Nifty was up 80 points or 0.9 percent at 8672.15. About 1246 shares have advanced, 1413 shares declined, and 181 shares are unchanged.

SBI was up 7 percent, Axis Bank, Tata Motors, M&M and HDFC were top gainers while Cipla, Infosys, Sun Pharma, Asian Paints and Lupin were losers.

3:00 pm Diesel car: In a relief to automotive industry, the Supreme Court on Friday lifted the ban on registration of diesel cars in Delhi-NCR subject to a 1 percent cess paid at the time of registration.

Even though the direct impact of the lifting of the ban will be lesser, indirect impact on the industry will be greater, said Pravin Shah, President and Chief Executive – Automotive Division, Mahindra and Mahindra, told CNBC-TV18. Asserting that customers will get another option than petrol or CNG, Shah said the ruling will impact the diesel car sale which slipped from a high of 49 percent to under-30 percent levels recently.

2:45 am Monsoon Parliament: Passage of the long-pending GST bill and a unanimous resolution on Kashmir were the highlights of the "highly productive" Monsoon session of Parliament which was adjourned sine die today after 20 sittings.

The session also witnessed an Aam Admi Party (AAP) leader Bhagwant Mann being barred from attending the Lok Sabha after he filmed and uploaded a video of Parliament complex on social media, an episode which is being probed into by a Parliamentary Committee set up by Speaker Sumitra Mahajan.

Hailing the session as "highly productive", Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari said the House debated issues of "national concern", including the situations arising out of inflation, Kashmir violence and attacks on Dalits.

2:30 pm Results: Sun Pharma has posted net profit at Rs 2034 crore in April-June quarter from Rs 556 crore in corresponding quarter last fiscal. During the period, the drug major's total income was up 22 percent to Rs 8243 crore against Rs 6761 crore in year-ago period. Tax expense in Q1 increased to Rs 352.7 crore from Rs 112.7 crore (YoY).

In Q1, EBITDA climbed 65.2 percent at Rs 2921 crore while EBITDA margin was at 35.4 percent versus 26.1 percent on annual basis.

Sun Pharma was expected to post net profit at Rs 1894.4 crore in April-June quarter year-on-year. In Q1FY16, the company had one offs charges on impairment of goodwill to the tune of Rs 685 crore. According to a CNBC-TV18 poll, the drug major was likely to see revenue growth of 20.2 percent at Rs 7876.6 crore in Q1.

2:10 pm Earnings: Aluminium major Hindalco Industries ' first quarter (April-June) profit beat analysts' expectations, rising nearly 5-fold (381.2 percent) year-on-year to Rs 294 crore. It was driven by better operational performance despite fall in revenue and higher tax cost.

Revenue during the quarter missed estimates, falling 11.4 percent to Rs 7,597.3 crore on yearly basis due to sharp decline in realisations.

"A 36 decline in copper volumes due to planned maintenance shutdown along with lower realisations, negated the impact of higher aluminium revenues," the company said.

2:00 pm Market Check
The rally continued in afternoon trade with the Sensex rising 288.31 points or 1.03 percent to 28147.91 after strong SBI's quarterly earnings and ahead of factory and retail inflation data.

The Nifty climbed 74.50 points to 8666.65. The broader markets remained strong with the BSE Midcap rising 0.9 percent.

Banks led the major support with the PSU Bank index surging 6.5 percent. State Bank of India and Bank of India rallied 8-9 percent due to stable asset quality in Q1.

1:55 pm OBC Q1: State-owned Oriental Bank of Commerce today reported a decline of 60.9 percent in net profit at Rs 100.69 crore for the first quarter ended June 30.

The bank had registered a net profit of Rs 257.84 crore in the corresponding April-June quarter of 2015-16 fiscal.

Total income decreased to Rs 5,392.70 crore for the quarter under review from Rs 5,568.78 crore in the year-ago period, the bank said in a regulatory filing. Provisioning for bad loans and contingencies were raised to Rs 750.40 crore as on June 2016 as against Rs 577.65 crore a year ago.

1:45 pm Fuel demand: India's fuel demand rose 3.9 percent in July compared with the same month last year.

Consumption of fuel, a proxy for oil demand, totalled 14.92 million tonnes, data from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) of the oil ministry showed.

Sales of gasoline, or petrol, were 14.7 percent higher from a year earlier at 1.92 million tonnes.

Cooking gas or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) sales increased 8.8 percent to 1.71 million tonnes, while naphtha sales surged 6.3 percent to 1.10 million tonnes. Sales of bitumen, used for making roads, were 0.7 percent lower, while fuel oil use edged up 6.5 percent in July.

1:30 pm LPG: Drilling holes into government claims of huge subsidy savings from direct benefit transfer (DBT), the CAG today said only Rs 1,764 crore in subsidy was saved on LPG on account of the scheme and the bulk of Rs 21,552 crore was due to sharp fall in global prices.

In a report tabled in Parliament, the Comptroller and Auditor General said "the actual subsidy payout during the period from April 2015 to December 2015 was Rs 12,084.24 crore as against Rs 35,400.46 crore during April 2014 to December 2014."

 The significant reduction of Rs 23,316.12 crore in subsidy payout was "on account of the combined effect of decrease in offtake of subsidised cylinders by consumers and lower subsidy rates arising form the sharp fall in crude prices in 2015-16."

The market is still on a rise with major support from SBI. The Sensex is up 275.39 points or 0.9 percent at 28134.99, and the Nifty up 73.90 points or 0.9 percent at 8666.05. About 1294 shares have advanced, 1133 shares declined, and 168 shares are unchanged.

SBI is up 8 percent while SBI, Axis Bank, Tata Motors, Reliance and Tata Steel are top gainers while Cipla, HUL, Infosys. Asian Paints and HDFC Bank are losers in the Sensex.

SBI the country's biggest lender by asset size, said profit in Q1 fell 31.7 percent year-on-year to Rs 2,520.96 crore. Overall earnings met analysts' expectations and the major positive was that the bank managed to lower its slippages significantly on sequential basis that drove the stock higher by 9 percent intraday.

Profit was supported by other income & operating profit and lower tax cost but remained impacted by higher provisions.

Net interest income, the difference between interest earned and interest expended, grew by 4.2 percent to Rs 14,312.31 crore on yearly basis.

European stocks were flat after record closes on Wall Street, helped by an oil price rise, failed to offset negative sentiment caused by disappointing Chinese data. M

eanwhile, oil prices continue to be watched for signs of recovery. Prices edged up in early trading on Friday, extending gains from the previous session on expectations that major OPEC producers could discuss ways to prop up a market dogged by oversupply.

12:59 pm Market Update: The Sensex was up 280.69 points or 1.01 percent at 28140.29 and the Nifty up 73.55 points or 0.86 percent at 8665.70.

About 1280 shares advanced against 1142 declining shares on the BSE.

12:45 pm Earnings: State Bank of India, the country's biggest lender by asset size, said profit in Q1 fell 31.7 percent year-on-year to Rs 2,520.96 crore. Overall earnings met analysts' expectations and the major positive was that the bank managed to lower its slippages significantly on sequential basis.

Profit was supported by other income & operating profit and lower tax cost but remained impacted by higher provisions.

Net interest income, the difference between interest earned and interest expended, grew by 4.2 percent to Rs 14,312.31 crore on yearly basis.

Asset quality more or less looked stable, though it weakened a bit on sequential basis. Gross NPA increased to 6.94 percent from 6.5 percent and net NPA to 4.05 percent from 3.8 percent.

12:25 Marcro data poll: Retail inflation, measured by the consumer price index (CPI), for July is expected to harden for the fourth straight month to 6.03 percent from 5.77 percent in June largely led by food inflation, while industrial output, measured by index of industrial production (IIP) for June is expected at 2.0 percent versus 1.2 percent in May, as per a poll conducted by CNBC-TV18.

12:15 pm Earnings: Mumbai-based healthcare company Glenmark Pharma started off financial year 2016-17 on a strong note with earnings beating analysts' expectations on Friday. Consolidated profit surged 24 percent year-on-year to Rs 226.8 crore on strong revenue and other income but slow operational performance limited growth.

Consolidated revenue in Q1 grew by 18 percent to Rs 1,943 crore on yearly basis, led by good growth across all operating regions except Latin America and out-licensing income.

"The US business continues to perform well and the recent approvals for the business will ensure the growth momentum will continue. Europe business performed well due to strong growth witnessed by the UK subsidiary," Glenn Saldanha, chairman & MD said.

12:00 pm Market Check
Equity benchmarks as well as broader markets continued to rally in noon trade ahead of major macro data & quarterly earnings (SBI and Sun Pharma) and supported by Asian peers.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 232.45 points at 28092.05 and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 61.10 points at 8653.25. The BSE Midcap rose 0.8 percent.

Asian markets traded mostly higher, with traders shrugging off a deluge of economic data from China that missed expectations, focusing instead on record finishes in the US markets and a rebound in oil prices.

Oil prices extended gains from the previous session on expectations that exporters could talk at an upcoming meeting about ways to prop up a market that continues to be dogged by a supply overhang. International Brent crude oil futures were trading at USD 46.18 per barrel, up 0.3 percent. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at USD 43.71 a barrel, up 0.51 percent.

11:45 am Gold: India's gold imports fell sharply by 76 percent to 60 tonnes in the April-July period this fiscal on high import duty and other taxes, according to gold and silver refiner MMTC-PAMP.

However, India imported around 80 tonnes of gold through unofficial channels in these four months in the wake of high import duty of 10 percent, it noted.

"Unless and until customs duty is reduced to 3-4 percent, this trend of unofficial imports will continue," MMTC-PAMP Managing Director Rajesh Khosla told PTI on the sidelines of a three-day India International Gold Convention.

11:30 am Views on Grasim- AB Nuvo merger: CLSA believes the transaction adds to confusion and creates a complex conglomerate with multiple businesses sharing no commonality. It warns that minority vote seems to be an uphill task. ''Continued stake by Grasim in financial services as against a total direct exposure by shareholders could be an important area of concern. It would require serious persuasion by the management on positives from the deal to win minority confidence and there may be uncertainty on this aspect,'' CLSA cautions.

CLSA explains that Grasim has so far been seen as a proxy to play UltraTech along with exposure to VSF while ABNL has largely been a proxy for financial services. Despite this, both the stocks trade at a meaningful discount to underlying investments, in our understanding.

The market is still steady with the Sensex up 279.93 points or 1 percent at 28139.53, and the Nifty is up 77.70 points or 0.9 percent at 8669.85. About 1351 shares have advanced, 774 shares declined, and 129 shares are unchanged.

Tata Motors, Axis Bank, Tata Steel, Reliance and BHEL are top gainers while Infosys, Bharti Airtel, Adani Ports and Dr Reddy's Labs are losers in the Sensex.

Gold prices drifted lower by 0.46 percent to Rs 31,483 per 10 grams in futures trading today as
participants trimmed their positions, tracking a weak trend overseas.
 
Analysts said a weakening trend in the overseas markets where gold a decline as speculation that central banks will remain supportive of growth underpins gains in global equities, curbing demand for a haven and pushing US stock benchmarks to records, mainly influenced gold prices at futures trade here.

10:59 am Market Update: Equity benchmarks remained strong. The Sensex was up 269.54 points or 0.97 percent at 28129.14 and the Nifty gained 74.30 points or 0.86 percent at 8666.45.

About 1350 shares advanced against 751 declining shares on the BSE.

10:45 am Poll: The much-awaited earnings of the country's largest lender SBI will be announced on August 12. State Bank of India's (SBI) profit in April-June quarter is likely to fall 32.2 percent year-on-year to Rs 2,504.9 crore, according to average of estimates of analysts polled by CNBC-TV18.

Net interest income, the difference between interest earned and interest expended, may grow 5.5 percent to Rs 14,489.5 crore in the quarter ended June 2016 compared with Rs 13,732 crore in year-ago period.

Key things to watch out for would be slippages, slippages from restructured book, gross non-performing assets, watchlist, net interest margin and update on non-core assets selling.

10:35 am FII View: Devendra Joshi of HSBC says urban consumer stocks have outperformed their rural peers. He thinks that is about to change for three reasons.

Firstly, he expects positive earnings revisions for stocks with rural exposure. Secondly, rural volumes are expected to pick up on higher rainfall and thirdly, outperformance of companies in rural index moves in tandem with the deviation of rainfall from the average, so the more rain the better, he feels.

10:25 am Divestment: A promoter entity of Hero MotoCorp divested its equity holding in the two-wheeler major by selling shares worth Rs 1,910 crore to another promoter firm in an open market transaction.

Brij Mohan Lall Om Prakash (BMOP), a partnership firm of the promoter family members, sold a total of 57,54,744 shares of the company, according to bulk deal data released by the stock exchanges.

The shares were offloaded on an average price of Rs 3,319 apiece, totalling to Rs 1,909.99 crore.

Another promoter entity Bahadur Chand Investments picked up 48,80,988 scrips of Hero MotoCorp for Rs 1,620 crore.

10:15 am Interview: Swedish furniture maker Ikea said it will double sourcing of products and material from India to euro 600 million in up to next four years.

The firm held groundbreaking ceremony for its first store in the country which will come up here in an area of 4 lakh sq ft with an investment outlay of Rs 700 crore.

Juvencio Maeztu, Chief Executive Officer, IKEA India said the construction may be completed by next year-end.

"The IKEA store is planned to open in Autumn of 2017, giving access to affordable, good quality home furnishing products. IKEA will hire 500 direct co-workers and another 1,500 engaged in providing services around the store. The store will be about 4,00,000 sq ft large and will host more than 5-6 million customers every year," Maeztu told reporters.

"We buy more than euro 300 million from India alone and we will multiply it by 2 to euro 600 million in the next three to four years," he said.

10:00 am Market Check
Equity benchmarks extended rally in morning trade with the Sensex rising 256.06 points or 0.92 percent to 28115.66, driven by banks, auto, FMCG and oil stocks.

The Nifty jumped 72.10 points or 0.84 percent to 8664.25. The broader markets also traded in line with benchmarks with the BSE Midcap rising 0.8 percent.

About two shares advanced for every share falling on the exchange.

SP Apparels started off day one's trade at Rs 275 on the National Stock Exchange and jumped nearly 8 percent to touch day's high of Rs 288.75 against issue price of Rs 268 per share.

9:45 am Market rises: The Sensex is up 278.24 points or 1 percent at 28137.84, and the Nifty is up 74.75 points or 0.9 percent at 8666.90. About 1113 shares have advanced, 490 shares declined, and 68 shares are unchanged.

9:35 am Macro data: Retail inflation, measured by the consumer price index (CPI), for July is expected to harden for the fourth straight month to 6.03 percent from 5.77 percent in June largely led by food inflation, while industrial output, measured by index of industrial production (IIP) for June is expected at 2.0 percent versus 1.2 percent in May, as per a poll conducted by CNBC-TV18.

Data on wholesale prices suggests inflation in vegetables and fruits had risen in July, along with sugar uptrend. Additionally, adverse base will contribute to surge in food inflation in July. However, clothing, footwear, pan, tobacco among others are likely to offset the sharp rise. It must be noted the CPI has averaged at 5.7 percent in the first quarter of FY17 versus the Reserve Bank of India forecast of 5.3 percent.

9:30 am Market check: The Sensex is up 140.66 points or 0.5 percent at 28000.26, and the Nifty is up 30.65 points or 0.4 percent at 8622.80.
About 888 shares have advanced, 405 shares declined, and 52 shares are unchanged.

Axis Bank is up 3 percent. BHEL, Tata Motors, L&T and Tata Steel are top gainers in the Sensex.

9:25 am Stocks plunge: AB Nuvo plunged 22 percent while Garsim is down 7 percent.  The boards of AB Nuvo and Grasim have entered into a two-way restructuring process to merge AB Nuvo into Grasim. The shareholders of AB Nuvo, for every 100 shares will get 30 shares of Grasim. The first step involves merging AB Nuvo with Grasim following which the financial services business of AB Nuvo will come into Aditya Birla Financial Services (ABFSL). ABFSL is expected to be listed on stock exchanges post the merger. Shareholders of AB Nuvo will get 210 shares in ABFSL for every 100 shares post the listing while the Grasim shareholders, holding 100 shares, will get 700 shares in the financial business. The deal is expected to be completed by this year-end.

The market has opened flat as the Sensex is up 44.75 points at 27904.35. The Nifty is up 13.30 points orat 8605.45. About 272 shares have advanced, 188 shares declined, and 18 shares are unchanged.

Sun Pharma, BHEL, HDFC, Bajaj Auto and M&M are top gainers while Asian Paints, ITC, Bharti Airtel, Maruti and Dr Reddy's Labs are losers in the Sensex.

AB Nuvo is down 15 percent while Grasim lost 5 percent.

The Indian rupee opened marginally higher by 4 paise at 66.80 per dollar versus 66.84 Thursday.

US dollar index trades around 95.90 levels, rising from a near one-week low.

Bhaskar Panda of HDFC Bank said, "The pull and push in USD-INR is evenly matched currently. Support comes in around 66.80/dollar and break below this
looks unsustainable. Hence I expect the pair to trade within the 66.75-67/dollar range."

Asia markets advanced in early trade , following record high finishes in the US amid a rebound in oil prices.

The Japanese market returned to trade after being shut Thursday for a public holiday, and the benchmark Nikkei 225 was up 0.8 percent. Across the Korean Strait, the Kospi gained 0.34 percent.

In Asia trade, oil prices extended their overnight rebound, with US crude futures up 0.51 percent at USD 43.71 a barrel after jumping 4.3 percent overnight. Global benchmark Brent added 0.33 percent to USD 46.19 after climbing 4.5 percent overnight.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) also said on Thursday that the world will consume less oil next year than previously thought, estimating global oil demand growth will slow from 1.4 millions of barrels a day in 2016 to 1.2 million barrels a day in 2017, which is 100,000 barrels below its previous forecast.

Stocks in the United States and Europe raced higher on Thursday helped by encouraging corporate reports and a 4 percent surge in oil prices on comments from the Saudi oil minister and a forecast for a tighter crude market.

Major US stock indexes closed at record highs. US labor data showed a drop in jobless claims, and shares of department store operators Macy's and Kohls soared after their quarterly reports.