Sensex & Nifty sluggish, Brent rises; Bharti falls 2%

1:55 pm Result: Pharmaceutical firm Wockhardt's third consolidated net profit increased 14 percent year-on-year to Rs 347 crore led by strong operational income and other income.

Consolidated total income rose 11.8 percent to Rs 1,382 crore during October-December quarter from Rs 1,236.4 crore in the year-ago period.

Operating profit (EBITDA) surged 92.4 percent on yearly basis to Rs 463 crore and operating profit margin spiked a whopping 1400 basis points to 33.5 percent in the quarter ended December 2014.

Other income jumped 4.5 times year-on-year to Rs 28.5 crore while finance cost declined to Rs 12 crore from Rs 30.5 crore during the same period.

1:45 pm Growth: India needs to grow at 7-8 percent a year to create more job opportunities for young people and double the size of the economy in 10 years, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha said.

"We want to put India on sustainable non-inflationary growth trajectory of 7-8 percent growth. We need to have 7-8 percent growth to provide employment to young people that join workforce every year," Sinha said at 15th Delhi Sustainable Development Summit today.

"7-8 percent growth will double size of economy in the next 10 years. For this we need to build our productive capacity, but also need to ensure that our growth is sustainable," he added. The minister also stressed upon need to protect the environment.

1:30 pm Result: Canara Bank's third quarter net profit climbed 60.4 percent year-on-year to Rs 656 crore boosted by higher other income and lower provisions.

Net interest income, the difference between interest earned and interest expended, grew 6.9 percent to Rs 2,380.5 crore during October-December quarter compared to Rs 2,227 crore in same quarter last fiscal.

Provisions for bad loans declined 20 percent year-on-year (up 3.4 percent sequentially) to Rs 841.3 crore during the quarter with the provision coverage ratio at 59.44 percent at the end of December 2014.

Asset quality weakened a bit during the quarter as gross non-performing assets (NPA) increased 56 basis points Y-o-Y (up 43 bps Q-o-Q to 3.35 percent and net NPA rose 3 bps year-on-year (up 11 bps sequentially) to 2.42 percent.

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The market is still flat with the Nifty managing to hold above 8750 marginally. The 50-share index is up 5.20 points at 8761.75. The Sensex is up 25.39 points at 29025.53, and the Nifty About 1323 shares have advanced, 1319 shares declined, and 242 shares are unchanged.

Sesa Sterlite is up 4 percent while ONGC gain 4 percent, Hindalco, Coal India and Tata Steel are other gainers in the Sensex. Among the losers are Axis Bank, BHEL, TCS, Bharti and Tata Motors.

Crude oil futures prices rose 0.96 percent to Rs 3,257 per barrel today as speculators engaged in enlarging positions, tracking a firming trend in Asian cues. At the Multi Commodity Exchange, crude oil for delivery in February traded Rs 31, or 0.96 percent, higher at Rs 3,257 per barrel, with a business turnover of 19,103 lots. The oil for March also moved up by Rs 30, or 0.90 per cent, to Rs 3.334 per barrel, with a business volume of 1,040 lots.

Analysts attributed the rise in crude oil futures to a firming trend in Asia, extending gains from the previous day due to a significant decline in US drilling activity. Crude also gained strength with the dollar dropping to a one week low after some weak US factory orders data in December.

Sensex, Nifty under pressure; Reliance, ONGC, Bharti up

1:55 pm SEBI: Capital markets regulator Sebi has sought clarification from the merchant banker of State Bank of Travancore on the firm's proposed Rs 485-crore rights issue. Without disclosing the details, Sebi said "clarifications (are) awaited from lead manager" for the proposed rights issue. In rights issue, shares are issued to existing investors based on their holdings at a pre-determined price and ratio.

According to the latest weekly update to the processing status of draft offer documents filed with Sebi, the regulator said clarifications are awaited on the proposed rights issue of State Bank of Travancore as on January 30 this year. The status is updated on a weekly basis by the regulator and the next update of the status, as on February 6, would be uploaded on Sebi's website the next working day. Sebi said it might issue observations on State Bank of Travancore document within 30 days from the date of receipt of satisfactory reply from the lead merchant bankers to the clarification or additional information sought from them.

1:40 pm Market outlook: The government needs to move faster on the divestment process, as institutional investors are concerned about the government’s approach to the fiscal deficit, feels Gautam Trivedi, MD & CEO, Religare Capital. In an interview, Trivedi says market is having high expectations from the Railway Budget as well as Union Budget. On the positive side, he says foreign investor interest remains strong even as domestic institutions have been booking profits. He expects corporate earnings to grow 10-15 percent this year. Trivedi is cautious on banks, particularly state-owned banks, as he feels the fourth quarter numbers could be even worse than the third quarter ones. HDFC Bank is his top pick in the banking space.

1:30 pm Result: NHPC disappointed street on Tuesday by reporting a 30.6 percent decline (year-on-year) in profit at Rs 180 crore due to higher interest cost.

Profit was expected at Rs 300 crore on revenue of Rs 1,378 crore for the quarter, according to the average of estimates of analysts.

Net sales of the state-run hydro power generation company grew 3.9 percent to Rs 1,167 crore during October-December quarter from Rs 1,123.4 crore in same quarter last fiscal.

Operating profit declined 10.1 percent on yearly basis to Rs 561 crore and margin slipped 740 basis points to 48.1 percent in the quarter gone by. Analysts had expected operating profit at Rs 757 crore and margin at 54.9 percent for the quarter.

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The market continues to be under pressure. The Sensex is down 173.79 points or 0.6 percent at 28948.48, and the Nifty is down 54.40 points or 0.6 percent at 8743.00. About 1156 shares have advanced, 1450 shares declined, and 259 shares are unchanged.

Sesa Sterlite, Reliance, Tata Motors, ONGC and Bharti are top gainers in the Sensex. Among the losers are Axis Bank, Bajaj Auto, M&M, HDFC and SBI.

Signalling strong demand for government bonds, overseas investors have put in bids worth Rs 813 crore, oversubscribing a Rs 310 crore auction for debt securities by more than two times.

The auction was held at 'nse-ebid' platform for allocation of investment limits in government debt securities worth Rs 310 crore (USD 50.2 million). The auction attracted bids for Rs 813 crore (USD 131.64 million), as per the bourse.

At the end of two-hour auction last evening, as many as 43 bids were made in the auction, of which 21 were declared successful. The debt auction quotas give overseas investors the right to invest in debt up to the limit purchased.

Foreign investors have so far put in over Rs 23,000 crore in the debt market in 2015. The equity market has also seen similar trends with overseas fund inflows of more than Rs 18,244 crore since the beginning of the year. 

Sensex, Nifty consolidate; Sun Pharma, Ranbaxy, Jet rally

10:30am Manufacturing PMI

Despite falling from December’s two-year record of 54.5 to 52.9, the headline HSBC India Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) remained consistent with a solid improvement in business conditions in January.

PMI is a seasonally adjusted indicator designed to give an accurate overview of manufacturing operating conditions.

Moreover, the latest expansion was the fifteenth in as many months. Sector data highlighted consumer goods as the best performing of the three market groups for the third month in a row, says HSBC in its report.

"Manufacturing activity continued to signal improvement in January, though the rate of growth slipped to a three-month low. The slip can partly be attributed to consolidation after two months of impressive upticks," said Pranjul Bhandari, Chief India Economist at HSBC.

"New orders, both from domestic and international sources, also continued to grow, though at a slower pace than in December. New orders were strongest in the consumer goods sector. On the inflation front, growth in input and output prices moderated further due to cheaper commodity prices," he added.

"Sluggish growth and falling inflation further reinforces our view that the RBI should deliver upfront rate cuts. We expect the repo rate to be lowered by 75bp in the first half of 2015," said Pranjul.

10:00am Market Check

The market remained under pressure amid consolidation following weakness in Asian equities post China data. The Sensex fell 73.99 points to 29108.96 and the Nifty declined 16.30 points at 8792.60.

The broader markets outperformed benchmarks with the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices gaining 0.6 percent each. About 1230 shares have advanced, 708 shares declined, and 195 shares are unchanged.

Sun Pharma gained more than 2 percent and Ranbaxy jumped over 3.5 percent to hit record highs. The US Federal Trade Commission approved the pharma major’s plan to buy Ranbaxy on the condition that it divests one antibiotic product to avoid anti-competitive impact in the US market. Torrent Pharma will acquire Ranbaxy's minocycline business in the US.

Jet Airways and SpiceJet rallied more than 4 percent as aviation turbine fuel (ATF) is slashed by a steep 11.3 percent which now costs lesser than diesel. The price of ATF, or jet fuel, in Delhi was cut by Rs 5,909.9 per kilolitre, or 11.27 per cent, to Rs 46,513.02 per kl, oil companies announced. 

Sensex, Nifty continue to drag over 1%; NTPC, BHEL gainers

1:50 pm Market outlook: A combination of low inflation, declining interest rates and strong corporate earnings growth will support the ongoing rally, feels Jeff Chowdhry, Senior Portfolio Manager, LGM.

In an interview Chowdhry says India’s macro economic fundamentals have improved significantly over the last year.

He says he is not worried about the market levels and basis his investment decisions on whether the outlook on fundamentals is positive and what are the other alternatives?

Art this point, very few emerging market stories are as good as that of India, Chowdhry says. He is bullish on private sector banks and select consumer names, and sees the rupee strengthening as the outlook on corporate earnings improves.

1:30 pm Result: Bank of Baroda disappointed street on Friday by reporting a 68 percent (Y-o-Y) decline in profit at Rs 334 crore for quarter ended December 2014. Higher provisions and tax rate impacted the bottomline. Profit of the public sector lender was expected at Rs 1,243.6 crore and net interest income at Rs 3,501 crore for the quarter, according to the average of estimates of analysts. Net interest income grew 7.5 percent to Rs 3,286 crore in the quarter ended December 2014 from Rs 3,057.1 crore in same quarter last fiscal. Net interest income is the difference between interest earned and interest expended.

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The market continues to be under sharp selling pressure. The Sensex is down 413.87 points or 1.4 percent at 29267.90, and the Nifty slips 118.35 points or 1.3 percent at 8834.

About 1139 shares have advanced, 1501 shares declined, and 251 shares are unchanged.

NTPC is up 2 percent while BHEL, Tata Power, Wipro and Hero are top gainers in the Sensex. Among the losers are SBI, HDFC, Coal India, Dr Reddy's Labs and TCS.

Overseas investors have remained the backbone of the rally, with net purchases of USD 2.1 billion so far this month till Thursday, provisional exchange and regulatory data showed.

Gold prices rose by Rs 73 to Rs 27,482 per 10 gram in futures trade as speculators engaged in enlarging positions amid a better trend overseas. Analysts said the rise in gold prices at futures trade was mostly in line with a firming trend overseas where the precious metals advanced from a two-week low on easing of selling pressure. Meanwhile, gold rose as much as 0.4 per cent to USD 1,262.07 an ounce in Singapore.