Sensex up 193 pts, Nifty ends above 8850; buyback lifts TCS 4%
3:30 pm Market Closing:
Equity benchmarks maintained uptrend on the first day of week, with the Sensex rising 192.83 points to 28661.58.
The Nifty gained 57.50 points at 8879.20.
The broader markets climbed over a percent on positive breadth. About 1719 shares advanced against 1151 declining shares on the BSE.
TCS and Tata Steel were biggest gainers among Sensex stocks, up 4 percent each followed by GAIL, HDFC Bank, BPCL and Idea Cellular.
However, Axis Bank, ITC, HDFC, Dr Reddy’s Labs, ICICI Bank, Yes Bank and Tech Mahindra were losers.
3:21 pm Buyback: IT major TCS has announced buyback of upto 5.6 crore equity shares for upto Rs 16,000 crore.
The buyback price has been price at Rs 2850 apiece.
The stock jumped 3.5 percent to Rs 2491.55 on the NSE.
3:10 pm Stake sale: A consortium of 29 lenders led by State Bank of Patiala will be meeting today to discuss a majority stake sale in the debt laden Monnet Ispat, said sources close to the development. State Bank of Patiala has an exposure of more than Rs 9,000 crore to the company.
The sole bidder for the stake, JSW Steel, will present an offer for the acquisition of Monnet Ispar to the lenders in today’s meeting.
Synergy Capital and Blackstone had earlier expressed their interest but later backed out.
Earlier, the lenders had converted Rs 350 crore of debt in the company to equity. They hold a stake of 51 percent. Monnet has a total debt of over Rs 9,000 crore.
3:05 pm Demerger: GMR Infrastructure is likely to demerge airports subsidiary and list it separately, reports CNBC-TV18 quoting unnamed sources.
The company is looking at an equity valuation close to Rs 20,000 crore for its airports arm.
Sources say the infrastructure company has asked for lenders’ permission for demerger of airports arm.
The demerger of airports arm is for the value unlocking & debt reduction.
2:55 pm Q3 GDP estimates: ICRA expects growth of Indian gross value added (GVA) at basic prices to ease to 6.2 percent in Q3 FY2017 from 6.9 percent in Q3 FY2016. Moreover, GDP growth is likely to decline to 6.5 percent in Q3 FY2017 from 7.2 percent in Q3 FY2016.
“ICRA expects the note ban to selectively affect some of the sub-sectors of industry and services, dampening the expansion of the GVA at basic prices to 6.2 percent in Q3 FY2017 from 6.9 percent in Q3 FY2016. In contrast, the robust kharif harvest is expected to contribute to a turnaround in the performance of agriculture, forestry and fishing to a growth of 5.0 percent in Q3 FY2017 from the 1.0 percent contraction in Q3 FY2016,” Aditi Nayar of ICRA said.
2:47 pm New Tata Sons chief: Tata group will enter a new era tomorrow as N Chandrasekaran takes over as chief, hoping to put behind an acrimonious boardroom battle that saw the ouster of Cyrus Mistry as Tata Sons Chairman.
Popularly known as ‘Chandra’, the 54-year-old will be the first non-Parsi chairman of the 150-year old Tata Group.
A man known for making India’s largest software exporter TCS what it is today, Chandrasekaran has his task cut out as the new Chairman of Tata Sons — the promoter firm of many of the operating Tata group firms.
Last week, Chandrasekaran had described his new assignment as “a very big job” with a large canvas, where there were “challenges and opportunities” .
2:30 PM Buzzing stock: Shares of Punj Lloyd soared over 12 percent intraday on Monday after the company received orders worth Rs 348 crore.
The company received two orders in its vertical pipelines and tankages. The orders have been awarded by Mundra LPG Terminal for EPCC of refrigerated double wall storage tanks and mounded bullets for its LPG Terminal at Mundra for Rs 139 crore. The second order was from Mumbai Port Trust for installation of offshore/onshore pipeline and terminal work for fifth oil berth at Jawahar Dweep in Mumbai Harbour worth Rs 209 crore, the company informed in a notification to the exchanges.
2:15 PM IOC-Chennai Petro merger: In Union Budget 2017, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had proposed the merger of oil companies to create an oil PSU (Public Sector Undertakings) behemoth and also more value for shareholders.
Speaking to CNBC-TV18, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) Chairman B Ashok said it is difficult for standalone companies to sustain, hinting at a possible merger of IOC with Chennai Petroleum Corporation Limited (CPCL). However, he did not mention the timeline for the merger and said these decisions have to be taken after considering all the stakeholders on board.
“Merger is one of the options we are looking to improve the strength of CPCL. There is opportunity for growth for the company as well,” he added.
Also read – SBI merger may be delayed as banks yet to seek CCI approval
2:00 pm Market Check: The market continued its bullish run and was trading at a day’s high. Telecom, banking and metal stocks pushed up the indices during the day’s trade.
The Sensex was up 131.97 points or 0.46 percent at 28600.72, while the Nifty was higher by 37.20 points or 0.42 percent at 8858.90. About 1694 shares advanced, 1027 shares declined, and 170 shares were unchanged.
Tata Steel, GAIL and Maruti Suzuki were among the top gainers on the Sensex, while, Axis Bank, ITC and HDFC were among the top losers.
Banking stocks were one of the positive contributors on the 30-share index, with HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank contributing the most. Meanwhile, ITC and HDFC were a drag.
