Market Live: Sensex consolidates ahead of FO expiry, Nifty holds 9100; SBI gains

12:05 pm Market Check: Equity benchmarks extended gains in noon, with the Nifty eyeing 9150 ahead of expiry of March derivative contracts due Thursday, backed by banks.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 107.27 points at 29,516.79 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 29.20 points to 9,130.

Bank Nifty touched a new high of 21,384 on hopes of early resolution to rising non-performing assets, up nearly a percent.

Vinod Rai, Chairman of the Banks Board Bureau, said on Tuesday that should the government create a “bad bank” to tackle bad loans, it would be essential to empower and capitalise it.

He said that while bad banks had been a success in countries such as Spain and Indonesia, its success in India would depend on appointing qualified personnel.

Bank of India, Canara Bank, SBI and ICICI Bank gained 1-2.5 percent followed by HDFC Bank.

Bharti Airtel said it sold a 10.3 percent stake in its telecom tower unit Bharti Infratel to US private equity firm KKR & Co LP and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board for more than Rs 61.9 billion (USD 952.75 million). Bharti Infratel gained 4 percent.

11:55 am Stocks react on merger buzz: As market awaits Kotak Mahindra Bank’s announcement today, speculations over a possible big buyout have sent some stocks — including Axis Bank, Mahindra and Mahindra Financial Services and Shriram Transport Finance — high up.

On Tuesday, the stock of these companies shot up by 3-5 percent in intraday trades amid expectations of a big buyout or merger announcement in the press conference which billionaire Uday Kotak, Promoter, Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Kotak Mahindra Bank will be holding at 3.30 pm today.

However, today all the above-mentioned stocks are down excepting Axis which is up by about 1 percent.

11:41 am Buzzing stock: Share price of Vadilal Industries, one of the largest ice cream makers, touched a record high of Rs 968, up more than 5 percent after strong outlook from management during summer season. The stock price already rallied 36 percent this month and 89 percent in 2017 on hopes of likely strong demand as days getting hotter day by day.

To meet the expected demand for the summer season the company has already commissioned three production lines, said Rajesh Gandhi, CMD, Vadilal Industries, adding that distributors now have increased to 850 from 800 and retail outlets have increased to 60,000 from 55,000.

11:25 am Nifty Bank at record high: Banking stocks are in focus with the Nifty Bank index hitting a record high level. It just surpassed the earlier level of 21,336.

The rally on the index was helped by surge in State Bank of India, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank.

Meanwhile, the Nifty PSU bank has gained the most in this week.

11:05 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks were in a consolidation mode ahead of expiry of March F&O series, with the Nifty just managing to hold on to 9100-mark.

The 30-share Sensex was up 72.10 points at 29481.62, while the Nifty was up 20.85 points at 9121.65. The market breadth was narrow as 1,275 shares advanced against a decline of 1,019 shares, while 168 shares were unchanged.

State Bank of India (SBI), Asian Paints, Bharti Infratel and Tata Power were top gainers on both the indices, while Mahindra and Mahindra and Adani Ports were top losers.

Share price of Larsen & Toubro (L&T) gained 1.5 percent intraday Wednesday as its construction arm won an order worth Rs 2400 crore.

The power transmission and distribution business of L&T Construction has bagged major orders worth Rs 2400 crore in the domestic and international markets.

In the Middle East and Africa, the PT&D has secured repeat orders from reputed customers to build 400 kV transmission lines and substations, 33 kV primary substations and related cabling on turnkey basis.

10:40 am VRS in SBI: State Bank of India, country’s largest bank, is expecting to see 50 percent or about 6,000 employees opting for its voluntary retirement scheme (VRS).

A senior executive of SBI said, “The employees opting for VRS is on expected lines. We have estimated about half or 50 percent of the employees taking that option. You can say about 6,000 employees may opt to take it up.”

The VRS has been offered to about 12,000 employees of the associate banks.

“The scheme will be on offer till April 5 and those employees who have opted or applied for the VRS can withdraw it thereafter in a week’s time..so we have to wait and see how many apply,” said Dinesh Khara, Managing Director at SBI.

10:24 am Market Outlook: Jayant Manglik of Religare Securities expects volatility to increase in two sessions due to scheduled derivatives expiry. Even liquid stocks are witnessing erratic intraday swings, which is normal during consolidation phase.

Traders should continue with positive yet cautious approach and refrain from going overboard, he advises.

10:08 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks remained in a positive terrain in morning ahead of expiry of March derivative contracts, backed by banks and FMCG stocks.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 57.23 points at 29,466.75 and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 18.85 points at 9,119.65.

The market breadth was positive as about 1205 shares advanced against 798 declining shares on the BSE.

9:55 am Partnership: Indian drugmaker Biocon has partnered with Japanese drug firm Eisai Pharma to market the latter’s anti-ulcer drug rabeprazole in India.

Eisai’s brand is sold as Parit and its combination drug Parit-D. The Japanese firm has terminated its earlier co-marketing arrangement with GSK in India, with sources saying Eisai was disappointed with its partner’s brand development and sales push.

GSK was marketing these brands since 2005.

Biocon will market the two rabeprazole brands as part of its metabolic products portfolio.

9:41 am Market outlook: After a sharp 15 percent rally in three months and hitting a 9000 level again, Motilal Oswal believes the markets have largely shrugged the impact of demonetisation. The macro backdrop remains conducive – inflation under control, twin deficits within tolerance limits, government sticking to the fiscal consolidation path, and stable currency among others, it feels.

The brokerage house says GST is on track for implementation from July 01, 2017. The BJP’s strong showing in the recent UP elections (won 4/5th majority) should provide tailwinds for further reforms. The political calendar is light, as the next major elections are due only in January 2018 (Gujarat). Earnings recovery is the only missing link, according to Motilal Oswal.

9:29 am PVR performance: Multiplex operator PVR is looking at around 90 percent jump in revenue to around Rs 4,000 crore in four to five years driven by expansion across the country.

The company has set a target of 1,000 screens in next four to five years with presence in 100 cities by then. It has 570 screens in around 50 cities at present.

“Once we get to 1,000 screens, our revenue would be around Rs 3,500 crore to Rs 4,500 crore,” PVR Chief Financial Officer Nitin Sood told PTI.

With the increase in the number of screens, he said in the next three years “people watching movies at our theatres will rise to 100 million from 75 million today”.

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9:15 am Market Check: Picking up from where it previously left, the market opened on a higher note, tracking global cues and steady domestic developments around GST as well.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 71.07 points at 29,480.59 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 22.80 points to 9,123.60. About 751 shares advanced against 204 declining shares on the BSE.

Bharti Infratel, Tata Power, Axis Bank, Bharti Airtel, Tata Steel, L&T and SBI were early gainers while Wipro, Adani Ports, Reliance Industries, GAIL, Tata Motors and BPCL were losers.

The Indian rupee gained past USD 65 against the US dollar for the first time since October 28, 2015. It closed at 65.04 to the dollar in previous session.

NS Venkatesh of Lakshmi Vilas Bank says the rupee is expected to take cues from the equity market and the FPI flows. There could be month and quarter-end demand from the importers which could be balanced by the FPI flows, he feels.

He expects the rupee to trade in a range of 64.90-65.35/dollar today.

The dollar pulled away from 4 month lows against currency basket as solid data backed expectations for more US Interest rate hikes this year, sterling was knocked by concern about Britain’s impending exit from the European Union.
Asia markets were mostly higher, after US equities rose higher on the back of a strong consumer confidence survey with markets awaiting the formal move by the UK to start an historic split with the European Union.