Market Live: Sensex, Nifty trade in a narrow range; Maruti falls on weak auto sales

12:10 pm IPO: SREI Infrastructure Finance promoted company Bharat Road Network and Gujarat-headquartered NBFC MAS Financial Services have received approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for their initial public offerings.

Kolkata-based road build-operate-transfer (BOT) Bharat Road Network proposed an initial public offer of upto 2.93 crore equity shares of face value of Rs 10 each by way of book building process.

MAS Financial Services targets to raise up to Rs 550 crore comprising of fresh issue aggregating up to Rs 307.4 crore and an offer for sale by selling shareholders aggregating up to Rs 242.6 crore.

The company is also considering a private placement of up to 41 lakh equity shares for cash consideration aggregating up to Rs 135 crore, prior to filing of the red herring prospectus. If the pre-IPO placement is completed, the size of the fresh issue will be reduced to the extent of such pre-IPO placement, MAS said.

11:50 am Escorts at record high: Escorts said its agri machinery segment in May sold 6,886 tractors, higher by 29 percent over 5,331 units sold in year-ago month. The growth on month-on-month basis was 41 percent, it added.

The stock price surged nearly 2 percent intraday to hit a record high of Rs 706.

Domestic sales for the month of May increased 29 percent to 6,770 units compared with same month last year while exports sales stood at 116 tractors, up by 47 percent over 79 tractors exported in May 2016.

11:40 am Buzzing Stock: Claris Lifesciences zoomed nearly 12 percent intraday on Thursday after investors cheered the positive developments around US FDA inspection.

The company told the exchanges that the company and its subsidiary underwent a successful US FDA pharmacovigilance audit from May 29-May 31. The regulator did not issue any observations (i483s) for the plant.

11:20 am Market Check: Benchmark indices were trading in a narrow range, with the Nifty holding 9600-mark.

The Sensex was up 20.95 points at 31166.75, while the Nifty was down 3.20 points at 9618.05. The market breadth was positive as 1,338 shares advanced against a decline of 929 shares declined, and 137 shares were unchanged.

Sun Pharma, Aurobindo Pharma and Hindustan Unilever were the top gainers, while Tata Steel, ICICI Bank, Hindalco and Vedanta lost the most.

11:05 am Maruti sales: Country’s largest car maker Maruti Suzuki sold 1.37 lakh units in May, higher by 11.3 percent over a year-ago month, which was way below analysts’ expectations. The growth was led by its best selling cars Alto, Baleno & WagonR, and also by utility vehicles like Vitara Brezza and Ertiga.

The company sold 1.23 lakh units in the corresponding month of last year.

Domestic sales during the month grew by 15.5 percent to 1.31 lakh units compared with same month previous year but exports fell sharply by 36.3 percent to 6,286 units year-on-year.

Maruti said its passenger car sales increased 8.7 percent year-on-year to 95,047 units in the month gone by.

10:50 am RComm woes: Bankers are likely to meet next week to decide on a restructuring plan for debt worth over Rs 42,000 crore owed by Reliance Communications (RCom). After three rating firms recently downgraded the company’s debt, its bad loans are in danger of turning into non-performing assets.

The raft of downgrades have come in the wake of the Anil Ambani-run company missing its bond repayments. Bankers fear that these downgrades, combined with diminishing cash flows, could make it difficult for the company to service its loan repayments. Another fallout of the downgrade has been that investors have rushed to sell the stock.

A consortium of more than 20 banks led by State Bank of India has formed a joint lenders forum (JLF) as a proactive measure to prevent an account from turning into an NPA.

10:30 am Auto sales: Eicher Motors said it sold 60,696 units of Royal Enfield in May, a growth of 25 percent over 48,604 units sold in same month last year.

The growth was driven by selling of models with engine capacity upto 350cc that sales increased by 29 percent year-on-year to 55,823 units in the month gone by, which have a waiting period as well as capacity ramp up.

The company, however, said sales of models with engine capacity exceeding 350cc declined 10 percent to 4,873 units compared with same month previous year.

Royal Enfield exports sales growth continued to healthy during the month. It exported 2,049 units in May, up 49 percent over 1,372 units sold in corresponding month last year.

10:15 am Expert Speak: In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Surendra Goyal, Director and Head of India Equity Research at Citi Research spoke about his reading of the market and his outlook.

Citi India has upped the Sensex target for FY18 to 32,200. Explaining this upgrade, he said that Q4 FY17 earnings have come in slightly ahead of estimates, so this change in target is more of a roll forward.

Low inflation, goods and services tax (GST) about to come in, strong domestic and foreign institutional investors (FII) flows are the positives which give people a medium-term comfort that India is one of the key markets to be in, he said.

9.50 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks continued to be volatile in morning trade as investors awaited May auto sales data due today.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 23.73 points at 31,169.53 and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 5.40 points at 9,626.65.

The broader markets continued to outperform benchmarks for third consecutive session, with the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices rising 0.5 percent and 0.8 percent, respectively. About two shares advanced for every share falling on the exchange.

Mahindra & Mahindra, Hero Motocorp and Bajaj Auto gained a percent each ahead of auto sales data. Tata Motors, Maruti Suzuki and Escorts were flat with a positive bias.

9:40 am Buzzing: Bharat Gears shares rallied nearly 5 percent in morning trade on board approval for term loan from KKR India Financial Services.

The India’s largest gear manufacturer informed exchanges that its finance committee of board of directors, on May 31, considered and approved the proposal to avail a term loan of Rs 110 crore from KKR India Financial Services Private Limited.

The company has taken a loan for the purpose(s) of repaying some of the existing term debts, working capital requirements and capital expenditure, among others, it added.

9:23 am Market Update: Equity benchmarks rebounded after initial losses but against drifted lower amid volatility. The market awaited fresh triggers to move on either direction.

9:20 am Market Outlook: The Nifty formed a strong technical setup and is on the verge to touch 9,700 levels in coming sessions. Since Nifty has given a double bottom breakout in the start of the year, it is observed that on every breakout Nifty has rallied nearly 150 points.

Traders need to be cautious, as the index is trading at all-time highs and need to change strategies. Rather than jumping on fresh breakouts one can better look for a dip.

Also read – Buy, Sell, Hold: Here are 6 stocks that are being tracked by analysts today

9:15 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks started off June month on negative note after fourth quarter GDP growth slowed to 6.1 percent and eight core sector growth slipped to 2.5 percent in April.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 69.90 points at 31,075.90 and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 17.70 points to 9,603.55.

Infosys was the top loser, down 1.4 percent followed by HDFC Bank, HDFC, ICICI Bank, Asian Paints, ONGC and Reliance Industries.

Sun Pharma rebounded over a percent followed by ITC, M&M, Tata Motors, Hero Motocorp and L&T.

The Indian rupee opened at 64.48 to the dollar, up 3 basis points from its previous close of 64.51.

Mohan Shenoi of Kotak Mahindra Bank said selling of dollars by exporters and support by the Reserve Bank of India are likely to keep the rupee rangebound.
The USD-INR is expected to trade in the range of 64.35-64.70 to the dollar for the day, according to him.