Sensex closes up 241 pts on HDFC ITC support; metals shine

3:30 pm Market Closing: Benchmark indices closed higher after two-day consolidation. The 30-share BSE Sensex gained 241.17 points at 28984.49 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 66.20 points to 8945.80.

The market breadth was positive as about 1630 shares advanced against 1220 declining shares on the BSE.

Tata Steel, M&M, Sun Pharma, Dr Reddy’s Labs, ITC, Hindalco and Kotak Mahindra Bank rallied 2-3.6 percent while NTPC, Tata Motors, GAIL, BHEL, Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Eicher Motors were under pressure.

3:24 pm Big deals likely in 2017: A significant majority of private equity firms in India are optimistic about stronger deal activity this year, with funds looking at financial services and healthcare as the top sectors for investment, says a survey.

According to News Corp VCCircle’s PE-VC Outlook Survey 2017, which covered heads and partners of large global and Asian funds that invest in India, 63 percent are optimistic about a rise in deal activity in India in 2017 as against 2016.

“It is estimated that over USD 7 billion is waiting on the sidelines to be invested by India-focussed funds. This is a figure which is at a 6-year high,” Nita Kapoor, Head, India New Ventures, News Corp and CEO, News Corp VCCircle, said, adding that investors have adopted a wait and watch approach in 2017 and are “cautiously optimistic”.

The top three destinations for private equity players this year are financial services, voted by 66 percent of respondents, health (52 percent) and consumer discretionary (48 percent).

3:07 pm JV stake sale: Indian Overseas Bank may consider sale of stake in its Malaysia Bank joint venture, reports CNBC-TV18 quoting Cogencis’ sources.

India International Bank (Malaysia) Berhad (IIBM), a locally incorporated full-fledged commercial bank, is a joint venture of 3 large Indian Government owned banking institutions. The bank commenced business in July 2012.

Indian Overseas Bank owns 35 percent stake in IIBM while Bank of Baroda holds 40 percent and Andhra Bank has 25 percent shareholding.

Indian Overseas Bank shares gained 4 percent.

2:57 pm Auto sales: M&M said total auto sales declined 2.9 percent year-on-year to 42,714 units due to fall in passenger vehicles but commercial vehicle sales registered a 18 percent growth year-on-year at 16,383 units.

Passenger vehicle sales slipped 13 percent to 20,605 units while total auto expects dropped 13 percent to 2,300 units.

Tractor sales grew by 11 percent to 15,007 units as domestic sales increased 9 percent and exports showed a 35 percent growth.

2:50 pm Market update: Equity benchmarks extended gains in last hour of trade, with the Sensex reclaiming 29000 level as HDFC and ITC gained further.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 274.13 points or 0.95 percent at 29017.45 and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 75.70 points or 0.85 percent at 8955.30.

2:46 pm Acquisition: Banking sources told CNBC-TV18 that steel ministry has asked SAIL to evaluate taking over debt-laden Monnet Ispat.

JSW Steel has currently made an offer to pick up 22 percent of Monnet Ispat’s Rs 10,000 crore debt.

With steel ministry approaching SAIL, JSW’s offer for Monnet Ispat temporarily shelved, sources say.

SAIL, JSW Steel and Monnet Ispat shares gained 2-10 percent.

2:40 pm Neuland Labs still up 20%: Hyderabad-based active ingredient maker Neuland Laboratories declined to comment on any link between the company’s steep rise in share price and Teva getting a priority review status for its experimental drug SD-809.

“Please note that the approval for the aforesaid product, is not received by
Neuland Laboratories Limited and therefore the Company cannot give any comments on the development,” the company said in a statement to exchanges.

“Further, we would like to state that our relationships with our customers both under the Custom Manufacturing Solutions (CMS) and the Generic Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) manufacturing are bound by confidentiality clauses. All our communications to the exchanges and the investors in the past have been bound by these agreements with our customers,” the company said.

2:30 pm BoAML on GDP: India is expected to clock a GDP growth of 6.9 percent this fiscal, which is likely to recover to 7.2 percent in 2017-18, says a Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BofAML) report.

“Looking ahead, we expect growth to end 2016-17 at 6.9 percent and recover to 7.2 percent in 2017-18, partly on base effects of the ongoing demonetisation shock,” BofAML said in a research note, adding that this rate of growth is still higher than other BRICs.

The government on February 28 pegged GDP growth at a higher-than-expected 7.1 percent for the current fiscal.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) put the growth rate for October-December — the quarter in which the government banned 86 percent of the currency in circulation — at 7 percent, compared to 7.4 percent in the second quarter and 7.2 percent in the first.

2:20 pm Market Expert: India is in a bright spot in the global environment. Demonetisation was only a temporary setback for the market. These were key takeaways from the Eight Motilal Oswal Eureaka Conference, says Rajat Rajgarhia, MD & CEO, Motilal Oswal, adding that data points now indicate things are beginning to look up.

Globally, too, investors are generally positive on equities, and commodities and so global trade looks good, says Rajgarhia.

Also read – Buy, sell, hold: 19 stocks that analysts are watching out today

2:00 pm Market check

The market retained its strong uptrend in afternoon after better-than-expected Q3 GDP data, supported by banking & financials, metals, technology, FMCG and pharma stocks.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 218.67 points at 28961.99 and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 59.55 points at 8939.15 but the gap in advances and declines narrowed.

Currently about three shares advanced for every two shares declining on the BSE against the morning ratio of four shares gained for every share falling.

The Nifty Realty gained the most among sectoral indices, up 3.8 percent followed by Metal with 2 percent upside. FMCG, Pharma and Bank indices also gained around a percent each.

Tata Steel, Hindalco, HDFC, Sun Pharma, Dr Reddy’s Labs and Kotak Mahindra Bank were top gainers on Sensex and Nifty, up 2-4 percent. However, Tata Motors was biggest loser, down over a percent ahead of February sales data.

Oil retailers were under pressure, with IOC, HPCL and BPCL falling 1-4 percent.

Markets in Europe were higher as investors focused on earnings and fresh data releases and digested President Donald Trump’s address to Congress. France’s CAC, Germany’s DAX and Britain’s FTSE gained 0.6-1 percent. Asia ended mostly higher today.