Market Live: Nifty struggles below 9150 amid consolidation; D-Mart doubles on debut

Tue Mar 21 2017
Ramesh Sridharan (935 articles)
Market Live: Nifty struggles below 9150 amid consolidation; D-Mart doubles on debut

12:10 pm Market Check: The Sensex was down 80.31 points at 29438.43, while the Nifty was down 20.45 points at 9106.40. The market breadth pointed to selling pressure as 906 shares advanced against a decline of 1,517 shares, while 147 shares were unchanged.

Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, Axis Bank and Idea Cellular were among the top losers on both the indices, while Larsen & Toubro, ONGC, Bosch and Grasim were the top gainers.

Avenue Supermarts, the operator of supermarket retail chain D-Mart, more than doubled on debut on hefty buying by investors. The stock listed at Rs 604.4 on the BSE, up 102 percent over issue price of Rs 299.

Investors earned huge returns on their money invested in the issue. One lot of 50 shares at issue price of Rs 299 cost Rs 14,950 for an investor. At listing price of Rs 610, the total value of investment jumped Rs 30,500.

Divi’s Laboratories plummeted over 17 percent intraday on Tuesday after the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) issued an import alert for Divi’s Laboratories’ Visakhapatnam unit-II.

Jubilant Life Sciences today said its subsidiary Jubilant Pharma will negotiate a potential acquisition of a specialty business in the US.

“The Board of Directors of Jubilant Pharma Ltd, a material wholly-owned subsidiary of the company in Singapore, has approved to negotiate a potential acquisition of a specialty pharma business in the United States using only internal accruals,” Jubilant Life
Sciences said in a BSE filing.

Share price of C & C Constructions has locked at 5 percent upper circuit on Tuesday as its joint venture company has bagged projects worth Rs 3011 crore.

11:50 am Buzzing: Share price of C & C Constructions has locked at 5 percent upper circuit as its joint venture company has bagged projects worth Rs 3011 crore.

The joint venture company, EPI- C & C, has been awarded a project by government of India for construction of two lane road on NH from Paletwa to India-Manmar border in Chin State of Myanmar on EPC mode.

In the said JV the company has share of 60 percent and the total contract value of the project is Rs 1518 crore.

The other JV company, BSC- C &C has been awarded five road projects in the state of Bihar of Rs 1493.40 crore. The company has 50 percent share in the said JV.

11:33 am Market Update: Benchmark indices continued to trade lower amid volatility as investors remained on sidelines due to lack of global & domestic cues.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 61.30 points at 29,457.44 and the 50-share NSE Nifty declined 16.25 points to 9,110.60.

Dr Reddy’s Labs fell nearly 4 percent on USFDA observations for Duvvada plant. Axis Bank, Sun Pharma, GAIL, Adani Ports, and Aurobindo Pharma were other losers.

Idea Cellular lost 7 percent on top of 10 percent loss in previous session due to profit booking post announcement of merger with Vodafone India.

L&T, Infosys, ITC, Wipro, ONGC, Ambuja Cements and Bharti Infratel were gainers.

11:16 am Environmental norms violation: World Bank’s probe body CAO has raised concerns over IFC’s insufficient action to address environmental norms violation by Tata Power arm Coastal Gujarat Power Ltd (CGPL).

World Bank investment arm IFC is an investor in CGPL.

The CAO, in its second monitoring report in relation to audit of CGPL following complaint by fishing communities, said there was a need for rapid, participatory and remedial approach to assess and address project impacts raised by the complainants.

10:59 am Capex: Country’s largest telecom operator Bharti Airtel will increase capex spend to Rs 30,000 crore in FY18, which is much higher than current year spending, according to CNBC-TV18 reports quoting unnamed sources.

In the financial year 2017, Bharti had said it would spend around Rs 20,000 crore on capital expenditure.

Sources say the company will spend Rs 30,000 crore over & above its acquisitions & spectrum cost. Out of which, Bharti will spend Rs 10,000 crore in branding & marketing of the company & its products over next 3 years.

Bharti Airtel is yet to respond to CNBC-TV18’s queries.

10:45 Buzzing: Following the blockbuster listing of supermarket retail chain D-Mart’s operator, Avenue Supermarts, shares of other retail majors fell.

While V-Mart Retail plunged 10 percent intraday, V2 Retail slipped 7.4 percent, Shoppers Stop dipped 2 percent, and Future Retail declined 3.4 percent.

10:25 am Technical Outlook: Gautam Shah, Associate Director & Technical Analyst at JM Financial believes that this is still a nascent stage of a bull market and has no reasons to book profits. He highlighted the manner in which indices have achieved key levels and that is noteworthy.

There were two attempts to touch and cross 9000-mark on two occasions earlier, but there was no occasion to rally beyond that level, he said. “This cross over (to 9000 and beyond) is genuine and reliable…the consolidation in the markets ahead of the UP elections was healthy,” he told CNBC-TV18.

Shah has positive targets for the Nifty going forward. He has set a near term target of 9,500 for the Nifty in 4-6 weeks. In the medium term, he sees the index touching 11,000 level in 12-16 months.

COMMENT: Why the Voda-Idea marriage is all about a smart pre-nuptial

10:05 am Market Check: Benchmark indices erased early gains amid consolidation as investors remained on sidelines due to lack of global as well as domestic cues.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 48.41 points at 29,470.33 and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 12.55 points to 9,114.30.

The broader markets underperformed benchmarks, with the Nifty Midcap falling half a percent on weak breadth. About three shares declined for every two shares advancing on the BSE.

Shares of Avenue Supermarts, the operator of supermarket retail chain D-Mart, more than doubled on debut. The stock has opened at Rs 604.40, up 102 percent over issue price of Rs 299.

10:00 am Listing: Avenue Supermarts, the operator of supermarket retail chain D-Mart, listed at Rs 604.40 on the Bombay Stock Exchange, up 102 percent over issue price of Rs 299.

D-Mart has chain of around 120 retail stores, with most of them being in Maharashtra and Karnataka.

9:50 am Avenue in pre-opening: Shares Avenue Supermarts, the operator of D-Mart, settled at Rs 604.40 in pre-opening session, 102.14 percent higher over issue price of Rs 299.

9:40 am Fund Raising: Varun Beverages said it has sought shareholders nod to raise Rs 1,000 crore by issuing non-convertible debentures (NCDs).

The company, which has been listed on BSE in November last year, has plans to raise the amount in one or more tranches, Varun Beverages said in a regulatory filing.

“Shareholders approval is being sought in the aforesaid 22nd AGM for further fund raising by way of debt issue and the shareholders are requested to authorise the board of directors to offer, from time to time, the subscription of redeemable, secured/unsecured Non-Convertible Debentures aggregating to Rs 1,000 crore,” the company said.

9:30 am CLSA on Idea: CLSA has maintained a sell call on Idea Cellular and stated that realising the synergy is key to lower gearing. It highlighted that the merged firm needs to have operational expenses saving of Rs 8,400 crore for debt/EBITDA ratio of 3 times.

Furthermore, the swap ratio of 1:1 with respect to stake in Indus Tower implies over 3 percent valuation premium for Idea Cellular. It has lowered revenue and EBITDA estimates by 2-27 percent to factor in near term risk.

Also read – Buy, Sell, Hold: These 6 stocks would be in focus today

9:15 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks started off trade moderately higher amid consolidation on Tuesday due to lack of domestic as well as global cues.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 43.61 points at 29,562.35 and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 16.45 points at 9,143.30. About 522 shares advanced against 212 declining shares on the BSE.

ITC, L&T, Coal India, ONGC, Infosys, Bharti Infratel and HCL Technologies were early gainers while Dr Reddy’s Labs, Axis Bank, Bharti Airtel, M&M, GAIL, Idea Cellular and Hindalco were under pressure.

Divi’s Labs shares tanked 17 percent after the US Food and Drug Administration has issued an import alert for its Visakhapatnam unit-II.

The Indian rupee opened marginally lower at 65.39 per dollar versus previous close of 65.36.

Bhaskar Panda of HDFC Bank says the USD-INR pair has been consolidating in a narrow range of 65.30-65.50/dollar, supported on the downside by importer purchases and intervention.

The pair is expected to trade within a range of 65.25-65.45/dollar for today, he feels.

The dollar remained in a defensive mode after Chicago Federal Reserve President Charles Evans reinforced the perception that the US Central Bank won’t accelerate the pace of its interest rate hikes.

Asian equities traded mixed, after the Reserve Bank of Australia released its March meeting minutes and the dollar continued to weaken.

Ramesh Sridharan

Ramesh Sridharan

Ramesh Sridharan is our Stock Market Correspondent covering events and daily movements of stock markets in Asia. He is based in Mumbai