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.