Nifty struggles below 8900; Idea, Reliance, JSPL most active

1:55 pm ICRA downgrades IFCI:ICRA has downgraded rating outlook of IFCI to negative from stable and long-term rating of various debt instruments of IFCI downgraded to A, it says.

The rating downgrade is driven by the sharp deterioration in IFCI’s asset quality (gross NPAs at 25.8 percent and net NPAs at 21.4 percent as on December 31, 2016), and the continued stress on the entity’s loan book with very high proportion of loan book being in the 120-150 days past due and under the stand-still clause and hence not recognised as NPAs so far.

1:50 pm FDI: India will likely ease foreign direct investment (FDI) rules for several sectors, including multi-brand retail and commodity markets, a move aimed at conveying the Narendra Modi-government’s intent to walk the talk on economic reforms.

As reported in Moneycontrol on Monday, the government may allow limited sale of beauty and personal care products in global giants’ food retail outlets as part of plans to ease rules for multinationals to open stores in the country.

Inter-ministerial consultations are currently on for writing the new rules to partially open up the non-food sector to transnational deep-discount retailers.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will take a final view on the matter and a decision is expected after the second part of Parliament’s Budget session ends in March.

1:40 pm Interview: Vishwavir Ahuja, MD & CEO, RBL Bank is confident of an overall growth of 30-35 percent over the next couple of years and maintains loan growth of over 30 percent in FY17-18.

Growth in business and market share is aided by our exposure to lower income segments of the society and our focus on growth areas, said Ahuja.

He is also confident of improving net interest margins from the current range of 3.25-3.4 percent despite rate cycle movement. The potential for a further rate cut by RBI is minimal, he said.

Speaking to CNBC-TV18 in an interview from the sidelines of the eighth Motilal Oswal Eureka conference in London, he said the bank would look to raise capital by the year-end. Since we consume anything between 2.25-2.50 percent of capital on a full-year basis, we will need to raise cash.

1:20 pm FII View: Retail flows into Indian equity market look bullish in the near term and indicate that the recent market strength may continue despite the expected sharp earnings decline ahead, says an UBS report.

The global brokerage firm believes that the flows could drive markets up in the near-term but has retained the year end Nifty target at 8,800.

In its upside scenario, UBS expects Nifty to touch 9,700 as long as there are no global macro shocks; declines in global risk appetite; immediate local “negative catalysts” such as UP elections and fourth quarter of 2016-17 earnings, which is expected to disappoint.

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1:00 pm Market Check

Equity benchmarks as well as broader markets remained lacklustre in afternoon. Investors awaited Q3 GDP data, later today, to check the impact of demonetisation on economy during October-December quarter and also assembly elections results on March 11.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 9.48 points at 28803.40 and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 9.65 points to 8887.05.

Idea Cellular, Reliance Industries and Jindal Steel were most active shares on exchanges.

Idea Cellular fell over 2 percent after private equity fund Providence sold its entire 3.3 percent stake in the company via block deals, especially ahead of likely merger of the company with Vodafone.

Jindal Steel hit a fresh 52-week high of Rs 129.50 today, up over a percent after brokerage houses turned bullish on the stock, citing capacity addition and likely debt reduction in global companies due to fall in coking coal price.

Reliance Industries maintained its run up, up 0.44 percent after rising over 16 percent in previous four consecutive sessions due to new tariff plans announced by Reliance Jio last week.

Disclosure: Reliance Industries, the parent company of Reliance Jio, owns Network 18 that publishes