Nifty races towards 8650, Sensex up over 200 pts; L&T gains

1:30 pm Buzzing: Shares of JP Associates fell over 3 percent intraday after its losses further widened in December quarter. Its net loss widened to Rs 116.09 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2014. The total income from operations during the quarter came down to Rs 2,583.35 crore, from over Rs 3,163.64 crore in the same quarter of the previous financial year.

Morgan Stanley says collapse in the real estate division led to weakness in revenue and margins. The EBIT margin fell 670 basis points Y-o-Y to 22.9 percent for the quarter, the lowest level in the last seven quarters.

Given the pain across divisions, the company reported its worst quarterly EBIDTA margins in a decade at 16.3 percent (down 720 bps Y-o-Y) in Q3 FY15, resulting in a decrease of 43 percent Y-o-Y in EBITDA.

Macquarie maintains underperform rating on the stock with a target of Rs 27.30. Despite recent steps by the company on de-leveraging, Macquarie believes much more needs to be achieved for the company to have a comfortable balance sheet position.

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Buying interest seems to continue in the market with Sensex gaining 227.34 points at 28582.96. The Nifty is up 73.10 points at 8638.65. About 1501 shares have advanced, 1011 shares declined, and 208 shares are unchanged.

L&T, ICICI Bank, Maruti, Axis Bank and NTPC are top gainers in the Sensex. Among the losers are ONGC, BHEL, Bharti Airtel, M&M and Tata Motors.

Gold inched up as the dollar took a breather after recent sharp gains and as caution prevailed in financial markets regarding Greece's future in the euro zone. The uncertainty over Greece debt issues has somewhat helped gold in recent days, but the metal is still down nearly 4 percent so far this month as a strong dollar and expectations of an interest rate hike in the United States have hurt the metal. Economic and financial uncertainties tend to boost demand for gold, seen as a safe-haven investment. 

Sensex up over 100 pts, Nifty over 8550; SBI, Hindalco gain

9:50 am Buzzing: Shares of DLF skid 6 percent intraday after it posted disappointing December quarter results. The realty firm reported 9 percent decline in its consolidated net profit at Rs 131.79 crore for the quarter ended December on lower sales.

Its net profit stood at Rs 145.29 crore in the year-ago period. Income from operations fell by 5 percent at Rs 1,956.72 crore for the third quarter of this fiscal from Rs 2,058.42 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year.

Besides lower sales, DLF's net profit fell because its other income dropped to Rs 123 crore during October-December quarter of this fiscal from Rs 531.78 crore in the year-ago period.

Finance cost, too, increased to Rs 648 crore from Rs 633 crore during the period under review.

9:40 am Delhi election results: AAP crosses the halfway mark, all set to form government in Delhi. AAP leads in 53 seats, BJP in 10 seats. Congress not ahead on even a single seat. t's day of hope, the passion is winning Delhi, says AAP leader Yogendra Yadav. AAP's SK Bagga leading in Krishna Nagar by 1065 votes against BJP's Kiran Bedi.

9:30 am FII view: Abhay Laijawala, Deutsche Equities says the brokerage believes that the recent trend of strong inflows into equity mutual funds is indicative of a long-pending shift in the nature of Indian households' savings, from physical assets to financial assets.

“As India's macroeconomic distortions correct, non-productive physical assets would continue to lose their allure, relative to financial assets,” he adds.

Deutsche believes that the financial sector should be the biggest beneficiary of this transition, says Laijawala. Hence the brokerage maintains financials as the biggest overweight in model portfolio.

9:22 am Market check: The market quickly recovered from early weakness. The Sensex is up 123.55 points at 28350.94 and the Nifty is up 36.95 points at 8563.30. About 695 shares have advanced, 450 shares declined, and 149 shares are unchanged. Hindalco is up 3 percent. Tata Motors, Tata Steel, SBI and Axis Bank are gainers in the Sensex. Among the losers are Dr Reddy's Labs, Tata Power, L&T, ONGC and Bharti Airtel.

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The market is weak as the Nifty opened below the 8500-mark but quickly pull up strength. The 50-share index is up 5.45 points at 8531.80. The Sensex is down 101.37 points at 28126.02. About 363 shares have advanced, 478 shares declined, and 151 shares are unchanged.

Hindalco, Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Infosys and HUL are gainers in the Sensex. Among the losers are L&T, Tata Power, ICICI Bank, Hero and NTPC.

The Indian rupee has opened flat at 62.15 per dollar on Tuesday against previous day's closing value of 62.17 a dollar.

The dollar slips somewhat after a payrolls-inspired rally ran out of steam. The dollar index is a tad softer but not far from an 11-year peak scaled last month.

Pramit Brahmbhatt of Veracity said, "We expect rupee to depreciate today as Asian markets have already opened on a weak note which will force local equities to trade low. Also, the gain in dollar may hurt the rupee. The USD-INR is expected to be in a range of 61.70-62.70/dollar."

Stocks in the US closed lower despite oil settling higher, as concerns about Greece continued to weigh. The CBoE VIX closed around 18 levels.

In Europe too equities closed lower, as negotiations over Greece’s bailout program continued and the crisis in Ukraine re-escalated

Greek stocks tumbled 5 percent and bond yields spiked after Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said his election pledge to restructure Greece’s debt was "irrevocable" in his inaugural speech

In commodities, crude prices dipped slightly with Brent crude trading below USD 58 dollars per barrel. Meanwhile, the OPEC has hiked its demand forecast for 2015, predicting that low prices would help boost demand later in the year. However, the organization still said that oil demand growth was "yet to show any signs of accelerating."

From precious metals space, gold prices remained largely unchanged at around USD 1240 an ounce.

Sensex, Nifty in red; oil & metals drag, IT stocks gain

03:30 Market close

The market ended at lower level. Nifty ends at 8711.70 (down 12 points), after sinking below 8700 intraday. The Sensex is down 32.14 points at 28850.97. About 1025 shares have advanced, 1889 shares declined and 229 shares are unchanged.

Tata Power was down 8 percent, Sesa Sterlite, BHEL, ONGC and M&M were losers in the Sensex.

03:00 pm Market in red

The Sensex is down 27.78 points at 28855.33 and the Nifty down 8.65 points or 0.10% at 8715.05. About 1081 shares have advanced, 1789 shares declined and 226 shares are unchanged.

Tata Power tanks over 7 percent, ONGC, Sesa Sterlite, Hindalco and ICICI Bank are major losers in the Sensex. Only IT stocks are up with gainers like TCS, Wipro and Infosys. HDFC and Coal India are other gainers in the Sensex.

02:45pm Market Update

The market trimmed gains on profit booking at higher levels. The Sensex gained 230.24 points at 29113.35 and the Nifty rose 69.70 points to 8793.40.

About 1254 shares have advanced, 1572 shares declined, and 236 shares are unchanged on the BSE.

02:30pm Petronet LNG falls

Petronet LNG disappointed street with the third quarter net profit falling 38.2 percent sequentially (up 20 percent year-on-year) to Rs 162.4 crore.

A poll had expected profit of Rs 227.9 crore on revenue of Rs 11,058 crore for the quarter.

Total income from operations grew 2 percent (up 19 percent Y-o-Y) to Rs 11,198 crore during October-December quarter from Rs 10,980 crore in pervious quarter.

Operating profit fell 34.2 percent quarter-on-quarter (down 3 percent year-on-year) to Rs 341 crore and margin declined 170 basis points to 3 percent in the quarter gone by. Analysts had estimated operating profit at Rs 475.2 crore and margin at 4.3 percent for the quarter.

02:00pm Market Check

Equity benchmarks gained more than a percent higher in afternoon trade, aided by further upside in banking & financials, technology and FMCG stocks. The Sensex jumped 367.77 points to 29250.88 and the Nifty rallied 98.80 points to 8822.50.

However, the broader markets remained flat. About 1320 shares have advanced, 1412 shares declined, and 241 shares are unchanged on the BSE.

Samir Arora of Helios Capital says FIIs are excited about India, but most of them are still stocking to the quality names. They are still not upbeat on companies that are potential turnaround stories.

Looking at possibilities on the economy in terms of monetary stimulus and fiscal stimulus, financial sector stocks will still do well, and within that space, private sector banks will outperform, feels Samir Arora of Helios Capital.

Among banking & financials, HDFC toppped the buying list on Sensex, up 4.6 percent. Axis Bank and State Bank of India rallied 1-3 percent while rival ICICI Bank recouped all its losses.

HDFC Bank gained 2 percent as it kicked off a Rs 10,000 crore share sale, with a Rs 1,500 crore QIP book launched last night. Sources say the QIP book saw very strong response, was subscribed over 7 times. The bank is also looking to raise Rs 7,500-8,000 crore via ADR issue.

TCS, Infosys and Wipro climbed 3-3.6 percent after Cognizant positively surprised the street with a revenue growth of 6.2 percent Q-o-Q and provided an encouraging guidance of 19 percent for this year. CLSA says guidance should improve investor confidence on CY15 demand health for Indian IT companies.

Bharti Airtel rebounded after seeing a loss of 1 percent. The company delivered a tepid set of Q3 numbers as Africa performance continued to drag. CLSA downgraded Africa's FY15-18 EBITDA by 11-13 percent.

In key earnings, Tata Motors gained 1.4 percent ahead of its third quarter earnings today. A expects revenues to come in 3.5 percent higher while profits are likely to remain flat at Rs 4,846 crore on a consolidated basis.

However, ONGC, Mahindra & Mahindra, Sesa Sterlite, Tata Power, Cipla, GAIL, Hindalco and BHEL were down 1-4 percent. 

Sensex, Nifty consolidate; HUL up 2%, ONGC falls 2%

The market is consolidating with the Nifty hovering around 8750 levels. IT stocks support while banks continue to weigh. The Nifty is up 27.50 points at 8751.20 and the Sensex is up 115.24 points at 28998.35. About 1237 shares have advanced, 1028 shares declined, and 197 shares are unchanged.

Wipro, Axis Bank, HUL and Infosys are top gainers in the Sensex. Among the losers are Tata Power, ONGC, GAIL, M&M and Sesa Sterlite.

Globally, Asian markets are mixed. China is higher as the People's Bank of China reduced the reserve requirement by 50 bps, the first cut in 2 years. However, volatility in oil prices and worries about Greek debt after the European Central Bank banned the use of Greek government bonds as collateral weighs.

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.