Market Live: Sensex falls over 150 points, Nifty holds 9050; RIL down 2%

11:56 am Fate of BS-III vehicles: In a few hours the Supreme Court will take a decisive call on whether or not old and polluting Bharat Stage-III vehicles should be allowed to be registered after end of this month.

The fate of 824,000 unsold two and three-wheelers, trucks and buses will be determined by today’s judgement. Collectively worth over Rs 12,000 crore the inventory runs the risk of being turned into junk if the apex court rules that such vehicles cannot be allowed to be registered.

On Friday, a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta said that the Centre had spent thousands of crores of rupees to upgrade technology to produce BS-IV fuel and the companies could not be allowed to frustrate the government’s initiative to check increasing pollution levels by selling around 8.2 lakh BS-III vehicles which they are holding in stock.

11:45 am NPA issue: The government last week said it would speed up the process of resolving the bad loan or non-performing assets (NPA) issue that has been plaguing the banking sector for quite some time now.

However, there have been no details on what the mechanism would be to resolve this issue but hopes are alive and so the sector has been active in trade. Sources say the possibility of bad bank formation is unlikely.

To discuss this and the different mechanisms that could be used to resolve the issue CNBC-TV18 spoke to PK Gupta, MD, State Bank of India and Vinod Kathuria, ED, Union Bank of India.

11:30 pm Price hike: Automaker Ford India plans to increase prices of vehicles across its model range by up to 2 per cent from April in order to partially offset rise in input costs.

The company sells a range of vehicles in the country, from Figo hatchback to iconic Mustang sedan, which are priced between Rs 4.65 lakh to Rs 66.3 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi).

“Owing to input costs, Ford cars will see an increase of 1-2 per cent from April,” a Ford India spokesperson told PTI.

11:15 am Market Check: The market extended its losses from the morning session, dragged by a fall index heavyweights.

The 30-share Sensex was down 152.25 points at 29269.15, while the Nifty was down 49.70 points at 9058.30. The market breadth was in the negative as 1118 shares advanced against a decline of 1202 shares. About 191 shares were unchanged.

Tata Steel, Coal India, and Idea Cellular were the top losers on both indices, while SBI, HUL, Bank of Baroda and IndusInd Bank were the top gainers.

Engineering major Larsen & Toubro (L&T) today said its construction arm has bagged an order worth Rs 705 crore.

“The Water and effluent treatment business of the construction arm of L&T has won an order worth Rs 705 crore,” L&T said in a BSE filing.

Shares of GVK Power & Infrastructure advanced 6 percent intraday Monday as it has completed the stake sale in Bangalore International Airport (BIAL).

The company has divested 33 percent of its stake in Bangalore International Airport from its wholly owned subsidiary, Bangalore Airport & Infrastructure Developers (BAIDPL) to Fairfax India Holdings Corporation, through its wholly-owned subsidiary in Mauritius, for an aggregate investment of Rs 2202 crore.

The company has obtained all the necessary consents / approvals as may be required including from the lenders and also followed the process in the BIAL shareholders for stake sale.

10:55 am Market Outlook: Jayant Manglik of Religare Securities expects volatility to continue during the week due to scheduled derivatives expiry.

Participants will also be keeping eye on parliament working as the GST legislations are likely to be tabled this week, he says.

“Though the market trend is undoubtedly up but traders should not be complaisant and manage their positions actively. They should focus on risk management part and rest will take care on its own. Investors, on the other hand, should not give much weightage to the current fluctuations and use this as opportunity to gradually add fundamentally sound counters,” Mangalik says.

Broadly, he feels Nifty will consolidate further within 9000-9300 in near future prior to next directional move.

10:45 am Rupee strengthens: The rupee gained momentum and was trading at a 17-month high against the dollar. At 10:43 am, the Indian currency was trading at 65.12, up 0.44 percent, against the greenback.

10:30 Buzzing Stock: Shares of GVK Power & Infrastructure advanced 6 percent intraday Monday as it has completed the stake sale in Bangalore International Airport (BIAL).

The company has divested 33 percent of its stake in Bangalore International Airport from its wholly owned subsidiary, Bangalore Airport & Infrastructure Developers (BAIDPL) to Fairfax India Holdings Corporation, through its wholly-owned subsidiary in Mauritius, for an aggregate investment of Rs 2202 crore.

10:15 am EMA suspends drug: Sources told CNBC-TV18 that European Medicines Agency has recommended to Strides Shasun for suspension of only one drug in five countries. Drug recommended for suspension by EMA is still not commercialised.

The stock was quoting at Rs 1,114.50, down Rs 24.20, or 2.13 percent on the BSE.

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10:05 am Market Check: Benchmark indices extended losses in morning, with the Sensex falling over 100 points, weighed by index heavyweights Reliance Industries, ITC and HDFC Bank.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 133.47 points at 29,287.93 and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 45.85 points to 9,062.15.

The market breadth was balanced as about 1025 shares advanced against 1004 declining shares on the BSE.

Reliance Industries, ITC, Tata Steel, Lupin, Sun Pharma, Asian Paints and Tata Motors were down 1-2 percent followed by HDFC Bank whereas SBI and HUL were gainers.

Adrian Mowat of JPMorgan says India remains the highest net overweight market in emerging markets. Net overweights in India increased to 23 from 20 and the median fund overweight in India increased by 20 bps.

9:50 am GST Bill: The government is likely to table supplementary goods and services tax legislations in Parliament today. Sources said C-GST, I-GST, UT-GST and the compensation law are likely to be introduced in the Lok Sabha today and could be taken up for discussion as early as March 28.

Also, amendments to the excise and Customs Act to abolish various cess as well as furnishing Bills for exports and imports under the new GST regime will be placed before the House.

According to the sources, the government is looking at passage of the GST Bills in the Lower House by March 29 or latest by March 30.

9:40 am FII View: The bulls market which started in the month of November after Donald Trump became the 45th US President may take a breather after Republicans pulled the legislation to overhaul the US healthcare system. But that doesn’t mean the tax agenda is dead, Ken Peng, Asia Pacific Investment strategist at Citi Private Bank said in an interview with CNBC-TV18.

“The setback for the Healthcare Bill doesn’t mean the Tax Reform agenda is ‘Dead’. It now puts more emphasis on tax reforms, in that line of thought; overall global recovery is still there and corporate earnings are likely to grow,” he said.

Peng further added that setback from the Healthcare Bill is not a trend reversal but a correction that could extend up to 5-10 percent in US markets; but emerging markets like India and China are likely to do well.

9:28 am NPA resolution likely?: To deal with mounting bad loans afflicting banks, the government is likely to come out with a set of measures for faster resolution of non-performing assets within a fortnight.

“Policy is being given final touches. It should be announced by the month-end or early next month,” a senior finance ministry official said.

Broadly, the policy should contain the processes relating to haircut and one-time settlement to be carried out by banks for faster resolution of high-value cases, the official said, adding that the big loan defaults constitute about 70 per cent of the total NPAs.

This will provide a clear direction on the NPA front and the government will be able to take the bull by horns, the official said.

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9:15 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks started off Monday’s trade on a negative note, tracking weakness in Asian peers.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 81.81 points at 29,339.59 and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 27.45 points to 9,080.55. About 620 shares advanced against 381 declining shares on the BSE.

Coal India and Aurobindo Pharma were top losers, down 2-3 percent followed by Reliance Industries, ITC, Hero Motocorp, Sun Pharma, Idea Cellular and Eicher Motors.

However, ICICI Bank, Grasim Industries, Power Grid Corporation, Dr Reddy’s Labs, Bajaj Auto, SBI and GAIL were gainers.

The Indian rupee gained in the early trade. It has opened higher by 14 paise at 65.28 per dollar versus 65.42 Friday.

Pramit Brahmbhatt of Veracity said, “Considering 10-year bond as well as equity market movement, we are of the view that rupee will trade sideways in a range of 65.20-65.50/dollar.”

The US dollar took a spill in early Asian trade as investors in the region fretted about the chances of US fiscal stimulus following the defeat of President Donald Trump’s healthcare package.
Asia markets were mostly lower after US President Donald Trump suffered a legislative defeat last Friday when Republican leaders pulled a bill to overhaul the US health care system with the dollar weaker and gold prices up.