Sensex maintains momentum; Cadila Health, Biocon hit new high
12:45 pm No Brexit impact on banks: There will be no major impact on Indian banking operations in the UK post-Brexit and the British capital will continue to be the global “financial hub”, according to the UK chief of SBI.
Sanjiv Chadha, the SBI’s Regional Head for the UK and chair of the Association of Indian Banks in the country, said that Indian banks in the UK are set for a new phase of growth as they prepare to expand operations into subsidiaries.
In reference to Brexit, the banking chief said he did not foresee a major impact on Indian banking operations in the UK and believed that London would continue to be the global “financial hub”.
12:30 pm Interview: PNB Gilts aims to replicate the strong performance of the last two quarters in the fourth quarter of the year, says Managing Director SK Dubey, But he also quickly cautions, that it would be difficult as various challenges persist in the market.
According to Dubey, the company has a strategy to short sell whenever the interest rates move adversely.
The company’s book stood at Rs 2,500 crore whereas the net worth is at Rs 731 crore.
PNB Gilts reported stellar earnings for the quarter ending December 2016. On a year-on-year basis, it posted a net profit of Rs 66 crore versus Rs 9 crore in the same quarter last year, an improvement of 633.3 percent.
12:20 pm JLR expansion: India will get fresh investments and added product lines from Tata Motors-owned British brands Jaguar Land Rover even as the company has not lined up big-ticket investments for elsewhere across the globe.
C Ramakrishnan, Group Chief Financial Officer, Tata Motors, said, “There will be some expansion of facilities here in India, where more product lines are getting added but beyond that in the immediate future or a short-term future we are not looking at any major investments of this nature”.
JLR is adding capacity at the assembly plant in Pune where it presently makes five models – Jaguar XE, XF and XJ and Land Rover Discovery Sport and Range Rover Evoque – with the help of knocked down kits imported from JLR’s mother plant in the UK.
The move towards making fresh investment at the Pimpri plant in Pune highlights the need for JLR to have more localised products in order to be more cost competitive in the face of increased competition from rivals.
Watch: Exclusive interview with RBI Governor Urjit Patel
12:00 pm Market Check
Equity benchmarks maintained strong momentum in noon trade despite weakness in Asian peers. HDFC Bank was a key driver today, up 7 percent after FII stake-buy ban removed by the RBI. This lifted the Nifty Bank index nearly 600 points to hit a record high.
More than 2 percent market cap of HDFC Bank already traded on exchanges. The street expects large FIIs buying today, aided by bank’s block deals.
The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 243.01 points at 28544.28 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 63 points to 8841, outperforming broader markets.
The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices gained 0.6 percent each as about 1443 shares advanced against 997 declining shares on exchange.
Pharma stocks were in news today. Cadila Healthcare continued to gain after yesterday’s strong run, up more than 5 percent as brokerages raised their target prices and earnings forecast on the stock.
Biocon shares gained nearly a percent after the USFDA accepted company’s license application for biosimilar version of chemotherapy drug.
Kotak Mahindra Bank and Axis Bank were also in focus on merger rumours even as the two lenders denied all rumours. CLSA said if both banks are merged, then the merged entity will become the largest private bank with Rs 8 lakh crore in assets. CLSA sees a share swap ratio of 0.6 shares of Kotak Mahindra Bank for 1 share of Axis Bank.
BHEL and Idea Cellular fell 1-2 percent in an otherwise strong market, on news that both will be replaced by Indiabulls Housing Finance (up 3.77 percent) and IOC (up 2.3 percent) in the Nifty 50 with effect from March 31.
