Nifty reclaims 8950, Sensex higher; Idea rises 7%, Bharti up 10%

9:36 am MF exposure to HFCs:Debt mutual funds can now invest up to 15 percent of their total net assets in housing finance companies with Sebi easing the regulations in this regard. The norms have been relaxed as part of efforts to channelise more funds towards affordable housing activities.

Debt mutual funds were allowed to have an exposure of only up to 10 percent to housing finance companies. This has been increased to 15 percent with the immediate effect subject to certain conditions.

In a circular, Sebi said mutual funds would need to ensure that the additional exposure to the securities issued by HFCs have high investment grade rating. Besides, the entities should have been registered with the National Housing Bank (NHB).

9:25 am FII View: Jonathan Garner of Morgan Stanley says the brokerage house raised Emerging Market base case target price by 9 percent, Asia Pacific ex-Japan by 8 percent and China by 10 percent. It stays overweight on Japan and China against Emerging Markets, he adds.

Morgan Stanley expects further gains for markets like China and Japan as earnings continue to surprise on the upside, Garner says.

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9:15 am Market Check

Equity benchmarks started off last day of the week on a positive note but erased some opening gains on profit booking amid weak Asian cues.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 40.16 points at 28904.87 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 10.30 points to 8937.20. About 477 shares advanced against 283 declining shares on the BSE.

Bharti Airtel shares gained 8 percent amid high volumes after it decided to acquire Telenor India that gives the company additional spectrum in 1,800 MHz band.

Its peer Idea Cellular also rose nearly 7 percent after a media report indicated that Soft Bank may end up buying 15-20 percent in merged entity (Idea Cellular-Vodafone).

The Indian rupee has opened almost flat at 66.96 per dollar on the last day of week against previous close of 66.97.

Mohan Shenoi of Kotak Mahindra Bank says US dollar remained rangebound against majors as market focus shifts to a possible rate hike in March FOMC meeting.

In-line with global trends, rupee is also seen in a narrow range, he adds.

USD-INR trading range for the day is 66.80-67.05/dollar, Shenoi says.

The dollar slipped after Federal Reserve meeting minutes disappointed expectations for a hawkish tone.

Asia markets traded modestly lower today, following a mixed close in US equities overnight as minutes from the Federal Reserve’s previous meeting hinted that a rate hike is coming “fairly soon.”

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 traded down 0.35 percent, while across the Korean Strait, the Kospi was fractionally lower at 2,106.29.

The S&P 500 ended modestly weaker on Wednesday, holding losses after minutes from the Federal Reserve.