Sensex up 178, Nifty ends at 8627; Axis Bank, Reliance gain

03:30 Market closing

 The market ended in green for second straight day. The Sensex was up 178.35 points at 28533.97, and the Nifty ended up 61.85 points at 8627.40. About 1729 shares have advanced, 1076 shares declined, and 216 shares are unchanged.

Axis Bank was up 3 percent while NTPC, Maruti, L&T and RIL were top gainers in the Sensex. Among the losers were ONGC, BHEL, M&M, Cipla and Tata Motors.

03:20 pm Sugar sale

The world's second biggest sugar producer, is considering giving export incentives for 1.4 million tonnes raw sugar, Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, as mills started distress sale of the sweetener to pay cane farmers.

"The ministry's views is that we should give subsidy for 1.4 million tonnes...the paper has been circulated for a cabinet meeting," Paswan told. Without any government incentive, Indian sugar is uncompetitive in world markets well supplied by low-cost producers Brazil and Thailand.

Subsidies of Rs 3,300 a tonne helped exports of raw sugar last year and government sources said last month India was considering a rise in the subsidy to Rs 4,000 this year.

03:00pm Interview

IT services firm Cognizant has guided to a 16 percent growth for calendar year 2015 and believes its forecast is fair since it is seeing increased traction in all its businesses.

The company is also eyeing 19 percent growth for fiscal FY15 led by higher spending in healthcare. The forecast is higher than Nasscom’s projection of 12-14 percent growth exports for FY16. The Nasdaq-listed IT company has crossed the USD 10 billion revenue mark. 

Speaking Malcolm Frank said it will continue to focus on growth and surpassing its peers has been a natural by product. Cognizant bases its upbeat guidance on strong demand environment across services, that too after factoring in higher Visa costs. The company does not think US will pass its Immigration Bill in next two years.

02:45pm Ricoh India locked at 20% upper circuit

Ricoh India has turned profitable during October-December quarter with net at Rs 10.6 crore as against loss of Rs 0.2 crore in the year-ago period. The bottomline was supported by strong revenue growth and higher other income.

Net sales of the leading office automation company shot up 80.3 percent to Rs 409 crore in Q3FY15 from Rs 226.8 crore in same quarter last year.

Goods business increased 115.6 percent Y-o-Y to Rs 289.8 crore with EBIT loss at Rs 5.5 crore (against loss of Rs 8.5 crore in Q3FY14). Services segment reported a 29 percent growth at Rs 119.3 crore with EBIT rising 64.6 percent at Rs 34.4 crore in the quarter gone by.

02:30pm Syndicate Bank in News

State owned Syndicate Bank has registered a decline of around 20 percent in net profit for the third quarter ended December 2014 at Rs 304.99 crore. Bank's net profit in the corresponding October-December quarter of previous fiscal stood at Rs 379.76 crore.

Total income has increased from Rs 5,011.28 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2013 to Rs 5,921.58 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2014," it said in a filing to the BSE.

The net interest margin, a gauge of profitability, fell to 2.25 percent during Q3-FY15, from 2.76 per cent in Q3-FY14.

On the asset front, gross non performing assets (NPAs) or bad loans increased to 3.6 percent of gross advances, from 2.8 percent in the year ago period. Net NPAs were at 2.38 percent of net advances in the third quarter of 2014-15, up from 1.66 percent during the same period a year earlier.

02:00pm Market Check

It's a steady day of trade on Dalal Street. The market gained for the second consecutive day led by banking stocks. The broader markets outperformed benchmarks with the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices rising 1.3 percent each.

The Sensex advanced 208.90 points to 28564.52 and the Nifty climbed 72.05 points to 8637.60. About 1603 shares have advanced, 1060 shares declined, and 224 shares are unchanged on the BSE.

Ajay Srivastava of Dimensions Consulting expects the market to rise in the run-up to the Budget. He says FIIs are mainly betting on largecaps and banking names. He remains cautious on PSU banks as he sees another deep correction if NPAs rise.

Global markets traded mixed. Investors are cautious ahead of a meeting of eurogroup finance ministers in Brussels to discuss a solution to the Greek debt crisis.

The rupee traded marginally higher today tracking strength in equities. The 10-year benchmark yield is rangebound ahead of retail inflation data due tomorrow.

TCS is confident of beating NASSCOM's 12-14 percent growth guidance for FY16. Natarajan 

Chandrasekaran, CEO & MD that the company is seeing growth across markets, adding government's push for digital India will aid revenues.

Jindal Steel topped the buying list on Nifty, up 8 percent followed by L&T, Bank of Baroda, PNB, Axis Bank, Reliance Industries, Maruti and NTPC with 2-3 percent gains. 

Sensex, Nifty continue to slide; infra, auto & metal bleed

1:45 pm Divestment: The success of Coal India offer-for-sale (OFS) that helped government garner close to Rs 26,000 crore by divesting 10 percent share is a positive and the government may have another two-three divestments before the end of this fiscal, says C Jayaram, Joint MD, Kotak Mahindra Bank .

 Speaking to from the sidelines of the three-day Kotak Conference, Jayaram says broadly, market sentiment remains positive and a possible victory of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi elections is unlikely to cause much uproar in the market.

1:30 pm Upgrade: Shares of Wockhardt rose 5 percent intraday after Citi upgraded the stock to buy from sell. The brokerage has also revised its target price to Rs 1880 per share following firm December quarter results.

Citi has even increased its FY16-17 core EPS by 2/10 percent based on progress on regulatory front and stated that resolution of 483s at Morton Grove is positive. It also adds that risk-reward looks reasonable for Wockhardt.

Meanwhile, last week Macquarie also had upgraded Wockhardt to outperform from neutral with a revised one-year target of Rs 1700 (from Rs 410) per share.

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The market is still under pressure dragged mostly by metals, auto and infra stocks. The Sensex is down 287.96 points or 1 percent at 28429.95. The Nifty is down 80.65 points at 8580.40. About 915 shares have advanced, 1664 shares declined, and 208 shares are unchanged. 

ONGC, Bajaj Auto, Sun Pharma, Dr Reddy's Labs and Axis Bank are top gainers in the Sensex. Among the losers are GAIL, Tata Steel, Cipla, Bharti Airtel and Sesa Sterlite.

Japan's Nikkei share average edged up as the yen weakened against the dollar after strong US jobs data, but gains were limited as weak Chinese trade numbers capped risk appetite.

The Nikkei ended up 0.4 percent at 17,711.93, but off an intraday high of 17,799.49, the highest since Jan. 30.

The broader Topix added 0.6 percent to 1,424.92, and the JPX-Nikkei Index 400 gained 0.5 percent to 12,916.95. Analysts said that while some investors took heart from the weakening yen after the US data, others were concerned that liquidity may shrink in the global market if the US Federal Reserve increases rates too soon.

Nifty ends below 8750, Sensex loses 117 pts; BHEL, SBI fall

03:30 Market close

The market ended in red. The Sensex is down 117.03 points at 28883.11 and the Nifty slipped 32.85 points at 8723.70. About 1332 shares have advanced, 1573 shares declined, and 236 shares are unchanged.

Axis Bank was down over 4 percent while BHEL, SBI, L&T and TCS were down 2-4 percent. On the gaining side were Hindalco, Tata Power, ONGC, Sesa Sterlite and Coal India.

03:15 pm Brokerages on TVS Motor

Shares of TVS Motor rallied 4 percent intraday though it missed street expectations on bottomline and operational front but topline was in line during October-December quarter. The two-wheeler maker’s net profit jumped 31.1 percent year-on-year to Rs 90.2 crore in Q3FY15 as against expected growth of 38 percent.

Brokerages remain bullish on the stock and suggest buying. Goldman Sachs reiterates buy rating with a target of Rs 345 per share. It reasons that Q3 margins were impacted by provisioning of Rs 16 crore pending government’s clarification on possible restriction on input VAT credit and the management is confident of 14-14.5 percent market share in Q4 (13.6 percent in Q3).

Macquarie maintains outperform rating with a target price of Rs 340 per share and expects it to register a 54 percent EPS CAGR over FY14-17E. It feels TVS Motor is well placed, given its high exposure to fast-growing segments like scooters (25 percent of revenues), premium motorcycles (11 percent), and exports (21 percent), along with a strong launch pipeline.

03:00 pm Result

Tata Power has turned profitable with consolidated net at Rs 198 crore during October-December quarter aganist loss of Rs 74.91 crore in the year-ago period.

The profit beat street expectations supported by forex gain while topline was in line. Profit was expected at Rs 134 crore for the quarter. Net sales increased 1.2 percent to Rs 8,806.6 crore in the quarter ended December 2014 from Rs 8,700 crore in same quarter last fiscal.

"Power business grew 9.8 percent year-on-year to Rs 6,545.7 crore with EBIT rising 5 percent but coal revenue fell 18 percent to Rs 2,104 crore with EBIT surging 17.4 times in Q3FY15," said the company in its filing.

02:30pm Raghuram Rajan says

Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan said that inflation was still a concern but added the deflationary global environment gave the central bank some elbow room with monetary policy.

"We still have concerns about inflation. Given the deflationary environment elsewhere, it's actually easier for us because we are not fighting inflation in an environment where inflation is picking up elsewhere," Rajan said in a conference call with analysts.

"So I think we are still in conventional monetary policy territory."

The comments come a day after the central bank held interest rates steady at 7.75 percent, leaving its next move probably until after the government presents its annual budget at the end of this month, reports Reuters.

02:00pm Market Check

The market remained lacklustre in afternoon trade as the Sensex hovered around 29000 level. HDFC twins, metals, healthcare and PSU oil stocks gained while banks, capital goods and auto stocks were under pressure.

The Sensex rose 7.09 points to 29007.23 and the Nifty fell 0.60 points to 8755.95. About 1372 shares have advanced, 1410 shares declined, and 239 shares are unchanged on the BSE.

There have been too many earnings disappointments for the December quarter, leading some investors to question if the India story has been hyped, says Manishi Raychaudhuri, MD and Asian Equity Strategist at BNP Securities.

In an interview says the Indian economy had already bottomed out four quarters ago and that growth prospects look much better compared to other economies. Falling commodity prices is one of the key cushions for the Indian economy, says Raychaudhuri.

ONGC was among the top gainers on the Nifty today, up 3 percent. The government is moving to iron out the subsidy sharing formula and fast track the ONGC divestment. Sources say, the oil ministry asked the government not to impose any subsidy burden on upstream companies if crude prices stayed at or less than USD 60 per barrel.

Cairn India gained 4 percent today in addition to 4 percent rally in previous session post 19 percent jump in crude oil prices in last 4 sessions. Canara Bank and Wockhardt rallied 3 percent and 7.5 percent post good third quarter earnings.

Global markets were a mixed bag today. Asian markets like Japan gained almost 2 percent while European markets like Germany fell 0.5 percent. In commodities, crude prices dropped around 2 percent after 4-day rally.   

Nifty rise above 8800, Sensex flat; Axis & Wipro gain 3%

1:45 pm Market check: The market recovers a bit as the Nifty manages to rise above the 8800-level. The 50-share index is up 2.00 points at 8810.90. The Sensex is down 10.85 points at 29172.10.  About 1557 shares have advanced, 1163 shares declined, and 231 shares are unchanged.

Hindalco is up 4 percent while Axis Bank and Wipro gain 3 percent each. GAIL & L&T are up 1.5 percent.

1:30 pm FII View: Shane Lee Director, Economist & Strategist-Equity Research, CIMB says the expectations around India's growth is worrisome since the only way it can pick up is through investments, which at the moment looks sluggish.  Lee says he is overweight on financials and consumer discretionaries in India but  underweight on cement.  However, he says Indian equities may not repeat the tops achieved last year. He has kept a Nifty target of 5500 this year.

Speaking about US market, Lee said the US GDP numbers may force the Fed to push back its interest rate raising programme. However, a lot of capital flew into US bond market over the last few weeks.

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Profit booking continues on Dalal Street dragging the indices sharply. The Sensex is down 190.68 points or 0.6 percent at 28992.27. The Nifty slips 50.20 points or 0.6 percent at 8758.70. About 1504 shares have advanced, 1152 shares declined, and 242 shares are unchanged.

Bharti Airtel, Dr Reddy's Labs and ICICI Bank are down 3 percent while Bajaj Auto and HUL are other losers in the Sensex. Among the gainers are Hindalco, Wipro, GAIL, Sun Pharma and TCS.