Sensex gains over 200 pts; HUL, Tata Motors jump 2-3%

10:30 am Market check: The Sensex is up 214.10 points or 0.7 percent at 29309.03, and the Nifty is up 58.75 points or 0.7 percent at 8864.25. About 1290 shares have advanced, 877 shares declined, and 174 shares are unchanged.

HUL is up 3 percent, Tata Motors, Bharti Airtel, M&M and Tata Steel are up around 2 percent each.

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The market continues to remain firm. The Sensex is up 165.44 points at 29260.37 and the Nifty is up 42.95 points at 8848.45. About 1144 shares have advanced, 739 shares declined, and 158 shares are unchanged.

Tata Motors, Bharti Airtel, Sesa Sterlite, HUL and Coal India are top gainers in the Senssex. Among the losers are Sun Pharma, BHEL, L&T, NTPC and Infosys. 

Oil prices were mixed with traders optimistic over falling US production, although they remain on edge as analysts warn of continued volatility. WTI jumped USD 1.57 and Brent crude gained USD 2.24 on Friday after data showed another drop in the number of oil rigs in operation in the United States.

Japan's Nikkei share average rose to a near eight-year high, helped by Wall Street's gains, while investors digested weaker-than-expected domestic growth data.

The Nikkei rose 0.8 percent to 18,031.84 points at midday, after reaching as high as 18,074.26 earlier, the highest level since July 2007. Japan's economy rebounded from recession in the final quarter of last year but growth was weaker than expected as household and corporate spending disappointed, underlining the challenge premier Shinzo Abe faces in shaking off decades of stagnation. 

Nifty ends above 8700, Sensex up 271 pts; BHEL gains 5%

3:30 pm Market close

The market ended higher with some last minute buying. The Nifty closed above 8700-level. The 50-share index was up 84.15 points or 0.9 percent at 8711.55. The Sensex ended up 271.13 points or 0.9 percent at 28805.10

3:20 pm Big deal?

Pipavav Defence & Offshore Engineering Co denied it was in talks to sell a stake to Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, after a media report said it was close to clinching a deal.

A media report said techonology-to-automative conglomerate Mahindra would purchase a stake in Pipavav for about Rs 3000 crore (USD 481.15 million), in a phased transaction that would eventually see it own a majority share.

"There are no negotiations/agreements which the company has entered into which requires disclosure under clause 36 of the listing agreement," Pipavav said in a regulatory statement.

03:10 pm Market check

The market is clenching back its gains. The Nifty is above 8700-level. The 50-share index is up 87.35 points or 1 percent at 8714.75. The Sensex is up 241.93 points or 0.8 percent at 28775.90. About 1582 shares have advanced, 1190 shares declined, and 233 shares are unchanged.

Dr Reddy's Labs, BHEL, Cipla, GAIL and Maruti are up 2-5 percent each while HUL, Bajaj Auto, Bharti Airtel, Coal India and SBI are losers.

02:40pm Interview

Escorts posted a 21.5 percent decline in its third quarter net profit to Rs 35.7 crore impacted by lower revenue and operating income in tractor business. Total income fell 9.8 percent to Rs 1,046.4 crore during October-December quarter from Rs 1,159.6 crore in the year-ago period due to 16.6 percent drop in tractor sales volumes.

Discussing the earnings, Bharat Madan, Group Financial Controller at Escorts, said some cost-cutting exercises in the company have been bearing fruit. He feels a normal monsoon prediction this year will be positive for the industry. However, he does not see major jump in tractor sales in the near-term.

Escorts is bullish on construction. The company is hopeful that a revival in the infrastructure sector will actually push demand. “We are expecting the topline to grow on the construction side definitely,” Madan said.

02:20pm FII View

Dismissing the recent market correction as a “bit of a reality check”, Richard Gibbs of Macquarie said the India economy had several positives going for it and added that foreign investors were now looking for strong leadership in the Union Budget that takes later this month.

In an interview Sumaira Abidi, Gibbs said he was not worried by the recent defeat of the BJP and said the central government still had a lot of political capital left with which to push its reforms agenda.

02:00pm Market Check

The market picked up pace in the last half hour as the Nifty climbed over 8650 level again led by gains in select pharma and auto stocks. The broader markets continued to outperform with the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices rising 0.9 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively.

The Sensex rose 151.14 points to 28685.11 and the Nifty advanced 49.75 points to 8677.15. About 1537 shares have advanced, 1197 shares declined, and 244 shares are unchanged on the BSE.

Geoffrey Dennis of UBS is betting on India and China in 2015. As UBS moves to a more defensive position in Europe due to Grexit fears, he says the most secure EPS forecasts over 2015 are likely to be in India and China.

Global markets traded mixed. Investors remain cautious as concerns over Greece linger after euro zone finance ministers failed to reach a deal with Greece yesterday.

The rupee continued to trade above 62 a dollar and is headed for a fourth consecutive fall against the dollar. Bond yields remained largely unchanged ahead of the January CPI and December IIP data later today.

Dr Reddy's Labs and Cipla topped the buying list, up over 3 percent followed by Maruti Suzuki with 2.5 percent gains. Hindalco Industries climbed 2 percent after the company maintained its operating performance in Q3. Operating profit jumped 46.7 percent to Rs 923 crore and margin expanded 200 basis points to 10.7 percent in Q3 on yearly basis.

HDFC Bank, L&T, Axis Bank, Hero Motocorp, NTPC, GAIL, BHEL and Tata Power gained more than percent. However, ITC, State Bank of India, HUL, Bharti Airtel, Sun Pharma, Coal India and Tata Steel were down 0.4-1.4 percent.

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 up over 250 pts, Nifty at 8800; banks, IT, FMCG gain

1:45 pm Subsidy share: The Oil Ministry proposed a new subsidy sharing proposal by which upstream companies ONGC and Oil India would not make any contributions towards subsidy burden if crude prices are at or below USD 60 per barrel. The companies, however, take upon 85 percent of the burden if crude ranged between USD 60 and 100 and 90 percent if oil stays above USD 100.

In an interview Sudhir Vasudeva, former chairman and managing director, ONGC says the government should instead fix the price at USD 65 vis-a-vis 60 per barrel.

1:30 pm Downgrades: Shares of KEC International slumped over 12 percent intraday after it posted disappointing December quarter results. Its consolidated total income fell 6.7 percent to Rs 2053 crore while EBITDA was down 26.2 percent at Rs 104.6 crore.

Sales was driven by strong cable sales offset by weaker transmission and distribution (T&D) and railways revenue. The company was expected to report a recovery in Q3 EBITDA margins. However, during the quarter, its net profit was up at Rs 66.4 crore from Rs 19.2 crore year-on-year.

Barclays downgraded the stock to underweight from overweight and lowered target price by 40 percent to Rs 73 from Rs 121 per share. It warns that there is a limited visibility of a margin turnaround post the deterioration in margins from Q2 while exposure to the Middle East and international business is a concern.

1:20 pm Market check: The market has started to rally with boosts from bank, IT and FMCG stocks. The Sensex is up 257.75 points or 0.9 percent at 29140.86 and the Nifty is up 76.85 points or 0.9 percent at 8800.About 1306 shares have advanced, 1342 shares declined, and 243 shares are unchanged.

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It is a good day of consolidation as the Sensex is up 126.33 points at 29009.44. The Nifty is up 36.75 points at 8760.45. About 1273 shares have advanced, 1342 shares declined, and 230 shares are unchanged.

Wipro is up 3 percent while HDFC, Axis Bank, Infosys and Coal India are top gainers in the Sensex. Metals & oil stocks drag. Among the losers are Tata Power, ONGC, Sesa Sterlite, M&M and Hindalco.

Oil markets edged lower after big losses in the previous session as record high oil inventories in the United States had cut short a four-day rally.Prices had gained in early trade on optimism that steps by China's central bank to pour fresh liquidity into the world's second-biggest economy by lowering banks' reserve requirements would spur demand for energy.

Oil markets remain highly volatile, with US crude losing 9 percent on Wednesday in one of its biggest routs ever. In the previous four sessions, prices had rallied almost 19 percent from their lowest in nearly six years.

Nifty struggles below 8900; HDFC Bank, Lupin, RIL support

The market remained under pressure in morning trade following weakness in global markets post Fed meet and ahead of big offer for sale of Coal India on Friday. Banking & financials, metals, telecom and select technology stocks dragged the market while Reliance Industries, HDFC and L&T supported the market.

The Sensex fell 150.68 points to 29408.50 while the Nifty lost 42.45 points to 8871.85 ahead of expiry of January derivative contracts today. However, the broader markets outperformed benchmarks with the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices rising marginally.

Yogesh Radke, head of quantitative research at Edelweiss Securities is of the view that with rights issues, offer for sale, divestments, fund raising in the pipeline, there could be large supply in the market, so one needs to be a bit cautious at present and unwind long leverage positions.

The leverage positions in the Futures market have gone as high as Rs 1 lakh crore, he adds.

In an interview he says, although the India story is still intact, the Nifty is likely to consolidate or correct around 4 percent and see levels of 8600-8500. According to him 9000 levels would act as strong resistance.

Coal India dropped nearly 4 percent ahead of stake sale by the government tomorrow. HDFC, ICICI Bank, Sun Pharma, ONGC, Bharti Airtel and Mahindra & Mahindra declined 1.4-2.4 percent.

However, HDFC Bank and Lupin gained more than a percent on CCEA clearance for foreign investment in company. Reliance Industries climbed over a percent followed by L&T, HUL, Wipro and Hero Motocorp with 0.3-0.9 percent upside.

Dr Reddy's Labs gained 0.4 percent ahead of Q3 earnings. According to a poll, profit is expected to fall 13.6 percent year-on-year to Rs 534.3 crore.

Nifty drifts below 8950, Sensex flat; HDFC rises 3%

1:45 pm Defaulter? Jaiprakash Power Ventures said it was likely to default on payments for convertible bonds worth USD 200 million due on February 13 this year, as it could not generate enough revenue from its operations. Jaiprakash, which has been weighed down by debts and a sharp downturn in the performance of the Indian power sector, said in a statement on Wednesday the company was confident of its ability to pay its dues under the bonds by March 31, 2016.

1:30 pm Result: Aban Offshore beat street expectations by reporting a 62 percent growth (year-on-year in consolidated net profit at Rs 130 crore. Good operational performance due to decline in expenses pushed the bottomline higher.

Profit was expected at Rs 85 crore on revenue of Rs 992 crore for the quarter, according to the average of estimates of analysts polled.

Consolidated total income of the offshore drilling services provider (to oil companies) grew 1 percent to Rs 1,003 crore in the quarter ended December 2014 from Rs 994.3 crore in same quarter of last fiscal.

Total expenses slipped 1 percent on yearly basis to Rs 669.78 crore during the quarter due to lower cost of materials consumed, rental charges for machinery and insurance cost.

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The market started to skid after the Nifty almost touching 9000-level. The 50-share index is up 15.10 points at 8925.60 ahead of Jan F&O series expiry tomorrow. The Sensex is up 42.56 points at 29613.60. About 1073 shares have advanced, 1583 shares declined, and 254 shares are unchanged.

HDFC is up 3 percent followed by Maruti, ICICI Bank, Coal India and SBI. Among the losers are Bharti, Tata Motors, Sesa Sterlite, Tata Steel and Tata Power.

Analysts say traders are cautious because of the Fed's first two-day policy meeting of the year that concludes tonight, and policymakers will likely restate their "patient" approach to raising rates, while also voicing faith that the economy will continue improving.

The Federal Reserve is expected to signal it remains on track to begin raising interest rates later this year, as the central bank shows confidence that low inflation and rising risks from abroad have yet to derail the US economic recovery.