Sensex, Nifty turn positive after weak opening; Bharti, Idea up

10:55 AM Market update:The market continued its positive momentum after having opened lower.

The Sensex was up 48.70 points or 0.17% at 28517.45, while the Nifty was up 14.30 points or 0.16% at 8836.00. About 1567 shares advanced, 752 shares declined, and 136 shares were unchanged.

Bharti Airtel and Tata Steel were the top gainers on Sensex, while ITC and HDFC were a drag. Meanwhile, Idea Cellular and Bharti were the top gainers on the broader index Nifty.

10:45 AM Expert View: The country’s telecom sector seems to be undergoing a lot of churn with the entry of a new player and merger talks between two incumbents. Even though the sector has been a rank underperformer in the past, Indian telecom stocks are very attractive from a three-year perspective, according to S Naren, Executive Director at Chief Investment Officer at ICICI Prudential.

Naren said the valuations of telecom stocks look well placed from a three-year horizon, which makes the outlook for the sector very good. Indian financial and telecom circles are abuzz with news of a possible merger between Vodafone India and Idea Cellular.

Meanwhile, Tata Teleservices and Reliance Communications -Aircel-MTS combine are reportedly considering joining forces to counter the tough competition from Reliance Jio Infocomm.

10:30 AM Buzzing stock: Share price of Millitoons Entertainment gained more than 13 percent intraday Monday on board approval to issue bonus shares to the shareholders of the company.

The company at its meeting held on February 18, approved the issue of bonus shares in the ratio of 1 share for every 1 share held by the shareholders of the company.

The firm will make an application with NSE for listing of shares of the company on their platform. It has allotted 15,00,000 equity shares of Re 1 each to Viniato Advisors (non-promoter category) pursuant to conversion of equity share warrants.

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10:15 AM Expectations from TCS Board meet: Tata Consultancy Services’ Board will be meeting today to consider a buyback. The company’s networth stands at USD 12.4 billion. According to buyback rules, if TCS wants to avoid a shareholder nod, it can opt for a 10 percent buyback of shares which would be around USD 1.24 billion.

With a shareholder approval, the company can go up to a 25 percent share buyback which will be USD 3.1 billion.

A 25 percent buyback would not be difficult for the company, whose cash on books currently is at Rs 43,169 crore (USD 6.4 billion).

Promoters of the company, who hold around 73.3 percent stake, are likely to participate in the buyback. If they don’t, their total holding will cross the 75 percent mark, which is against Sebi rules.

Analysts also believe the buyback is likely to be marginally EPS accretive, as it enjoys a 6-7 percent earnings yield, which is a little more than the yield it enjoys on cash. If the buyback is going to be in lieu of the company’s dividends, then investors may be left dissapointed. TCS’ dividend payout in the previous fiscal was at Rs 43.50 per share.

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After beginning the week on a lower note, the market has reversed its losses and is trading almost flat with a positive bias.

The Sensex was up 29.82 points at 28498.57 and the Nifty gained 10 points at 8831.70. The market breadth was strong as about two shares advanced for every share falling on the BSE.

Bharti Airtel, GAIL and TCS were the top gainers on the BSE, while HDFC, ITC and Maruti Suzuki were the top losers. Meanwhile, telecom stocks such as Idea Cellular and Bharti Airtel ruled the Nifty’s top gainers list, while Hindalco, HDFC and Yes Bank were top losers.