Nifty ends Feb expiry at 8939; banks, RIL drag; tech supports

3:30 pm Market closing:Benchmark indices closed higher for sixth consecutive session Thursday but were off day’s high due to selling pressure in banks and Reliance Industries.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 28.26 points at 28892.97 and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 12.60 points at 8939.50, supported by technology and telecom stocks.

The market breadth was negative as about 1518 shares declined against 1233 advancing shares on the BSE.

3:25 pm Fund raising: Shares of Hero Motocorp surged over 1 percent intraday as the company’s arm outlined a plan to raise fresh funding.

Hero FinCorp, its retail lending arm, plans to raise Rs 1,000 crore in fresh round of funding, according to CNBC-TV18 quoting unnamed sources. The money will be used for expansion of business and to diversify into non-organic areas.

As part of the deal, Hero FinCorp could dilute partial stake for raising this money, sources say. Currently, Hero MotoCorp has 40 percent stake in Hero FinCorp.

3:20 pm Market Update: Equity benchmarks erased gains in late trade on selling pressure in Reliance Industries (down 2 percent). Bank Nifty also turned lower after crossing 21000-mark intraday as HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and SBI slipped more than half a percent.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 15.14 points at 28879.85 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 8.65 points to 8935.55.

3:10 pm Buzzing: State-run Hindustan Organic Chemicals shares were locked at 5 percent upper circuit at Rs 24.75 from early trade after it sought permission from shareholders for stake sale in subsidiary and land sale.
The board of directors sent a notice of postal ballot to company’s shareholders for seeking their approval for sell of 442 acres of land at Rasayani, Maharashtra to BPCL at Rs 1.4 crore per acre.

The board also sought permission for divestment of company’s entire equity shareholding (56.43 percent) in Hindustan Fluorocarbons, a subsidiary of the company.

With regard to utilisation of revenue generation of Rs 618.80 from land sale, the board decided to use it for payment of salary, voluntary retirement scheme, raw material suppliers dues to BPCL, SBI & Canara Bank loans and other expenses.

2:58 pm Acquisition: Jaiprakash Power Ventures said ICICI Bank has acquired its 81.44 crore shares under the strategic debt restructuring plan by its lenders.

“ICICI Bank Ltd has acquired 81,44,90,000 shares of Jaipraskash Power Ventures Ltd by conversion of debentures into equity,” the company said in a BSE filing.

“Accordingly, at February 18, 2017, the total equity shareholding of the bank stands at 13.72 percent (of the total share capital of the company),” it said.

Before this acquisition, the bank held 79,61,535 shares or 0.13 percent of the equity in the company, it said.

2:43 pm CPI estimates: Reserve Bank of India’s minutes of the monetary policy are in line with what the Monetary Policy Committee had said earlier this month. “No real surprises in the minutes as such,’’ said Ananth Narayan, Standard Chartered said. He said that the Dalal Street investors will, however, view the policy and RBI’s stance as hawkish. Hence, the Street may choose to adopt a sell on rally approach, he added.

While the RBI had set a CPI target of 4 percent with a 2 percent variance, Standard Chartered agrees with the central bank’s assessment. A 4.5-4.6 CPI inflation target seems to be a best-case scenario, Narayan said.

He cautioned, “There is a huge amount of uncertainty around CPI projections given 46 percent depends on food and monsoon and imponderables like the House Rent Allowance (HRA) component post the Pay Commission and the impact of Goods and Services Tax (GST) whenever that comes through.”

2:30 pm SoftBank denies stake buy: Japan’s SoftBank Group denied it was in talks with Vodafone Plc’s Indian unit and Idea Cellular to pick up a stake in a potential merger between the two Indian wireless carriers.

SoftBank’s denial follows a report in The Economic Times newspaper that the Japanese firm was looking to pick up a stake in a Vodafone-Idea merged company, citing four unidentified people aware of developments.

“We would like to categorically deny SoftBank’s participation in the alleged Vodafone, Idea Cellular merger in India,” a SoftBank spokeswoman said.

“We underline that we have held no such discussions and media reports about the same are baseless and unsubstantiated.”

2:20 PM Interview: Housing finance companies are in focus today as the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) allowed additional 5 percent of mutual fund investment into bonds of housing finance companies.

Commenting on the development, Gagan Banga, Vice Chairman and of Indiabulls Housing Finance told CNBC-TV18 he expected roughly Rs 60,000 crore of additional funds to come the way of the top rated housing finance companies from this move.

As mutual funds tend to invest only in the top-rated companies, which are just a handful right now, this Rs 60,000 crore could go to only three or four players, he said.

Also read – Reliance Jio Effect: Airtel buys Telenor ahead of Voda-Idea deal

2:00 pm Market Check

The market erased some gains in afternoon trade, ahead of expiry of February Nifty derivative contracts.

The Sensex was up 122.97 points at 28987.68, while the Nifty rose 40.80 points at 8967.70. The market saw some selling pressure after 1,298 shares advanced, while 1,366 shares declined. About 200 shares were unchanged.

The Bank Nifty staged a recovery as it reclaimed its 21000-mark and eyed an all-time high.

IT stocks Infosys and TCS continued to rule the charts on the Sensex, while Nifty top gainer was Idea Cellular.