Market Live: Sensex, Nifty regain momentum; pharma gains for 4th day

12:15 pm Buzzing: Tata Motors shares price added 2 percent intraday after reporting stellar performance by Jaguar, Tiago, Tigor and Hexa brands in May.

Luxury car maker Jaguar Land Rover during the month sold 8,106 units in the US, higher by 13.9 percent compared with 7,114 units sold in same month last year.

The growth was largely driven by Jaguar sales that showed a solid 43.9 percent growth at 3,113 units but Land Rover’s US sales growth was subdued at 0.9 percent YoY.

12:00 pm Market Check: Equity benchmarks continued to trade nearly record highs hit in opening trade today.

Index heavyweights like HDFC (up 1.5 percent), HDFC Bank (up 0.8 percent) & ITC (up 0.9 percent), auto and pharma stocks continued to support the market. However, the selling pressure in ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries and Infosys limited gains.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 132.64 points at 31,270.23 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 36.90 points to 9,653 while the BSE Midcap index gained 0.7 percent and Smallcap up 0.4 percent on positive breadth.

About 1400 shares advanced against 966 declining shares on the exchange.

Bharti Airtel rallied 3 percent on approval from SEBI and stocks exchanges for merger with Telenor India while Hero Motocorp gained 3 percent post May sales data.

11:30 am Credit score linked to employment? If you thought your credit history and credit score was only useful for getting a bank loan, you will be mistaken. For senior positions especially involving hires for sales, accounting and finance roles, companies have sought information on credit history of prospective hires.

Rahul Belwalkar, CEO, SecUR Credentials which is a background verification company explained that since credit bureaus have started to share information with entities like them, they can verify as to how good a person’s credit score is.

“For positions like that of chief financial officer, it is imperative to know the credit score of the individual. Because, if he or she has been defaulting on their payments, they may not be the right fit for the company,” he explained.

You can read the full report here.

11:05 am Market Check: Benchmark indices regained some momentum after trading off the high points of the day.

The Sensex was up 122.68 points at 31260.27, while the Nifty was up 29.65 points at 9645.75. The market breadth was narrow as 1,340 shares advanced against a decline of 895 shares, while 140 shares were unchanged.

Bharti Airtel and Cipla were the top gainers, while Tata Steel, HUL and Indiabulls Housing Finance lost the most on both indices.

Pharma stocks continued to gain for the fourth consecutive session, while midcaps gained about half a percent.

Gold fell Rs 103 to Rs 28,840 per 10 grams in futures trade today as participants reduced their positions, largely in line with a weak trend overseas. Profit-booking at existing levels also weighed on the yellow metal.

Also Read: Why this apparel stock could be a good bet in the long-term

10:40 am Buzzing: GMR Infrastructure shares gained nearly 11 percent intraday after significant reduction in debt and turning profitable in the financial year 2016-17.

Company’s gross debt fell significantly to Rs 19,856 crore in FY17 from Rs 37,480 crore in FY16 and net debt to EBITDA ratio for the year improved to 4.3 from 10.2 in FY16.

“With significant reduction of gross & net debt and the improvement of Debt-to-EBITDA improving more than 100 percent, GMR has substantially brought down its leverage,” the Delhi-based infrastructure conglomerate said in its filing.

10.18 am Market check: Equity benchmarks were off day’s high in morning trade after hitting record highs in opening.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 96.97 points at 31,234.56 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 28.15 points to 9,644.25.

The broader markets also came off day’s high, up 0.4 percent on positive breadth. About two shares advanced for every share falling on the BSE.

Bharti Airtel was biggest gainer among Sensex stocks, up 3 percent after the telecom operator received approval from SEBI & stock exchanges for merger with Telenor India. The company filed application with National Company Law Tribunal for nod to scheme of merger.

Tata Motors, HDFC, Adani Ports, ITC and TCS were other top contributors to Sensex’ gains whereas ICICI Bank remained under pressure, down nearly a percent.

9:56 am BoJ balance sheet: The Bank of Japan hit a new milestone as its balance sheet topped 500 trillion yen (USD 4.48 trillion), roughly the same size as that of the Federal Reserve, having more than tripled since it started aggressive stimulus in 2013.

But while the central bank reached a major milestone in money printing, it is nowhere near achieving the ultimate goal of its policy, to lift inflation to 2 percent, highlighting the difficulty the BOJ is facing as the pace of its bond buying appears unsustainable.

Data from the BOJ showed its total assets rose to 500.8 trillion yen at the end of May, compared to 425.7 trillion yen a year earlier. It was 164.8 trillion yen when Governor Haruhiko Kuroda took the helm in March 2013.

9:40 am Auto sales: Bajaj Auto disappointed the Street on Friday by reporting a 10 percent decline in total sales at 3.14 lakh units for May 2017 against 3.48 lakh units in same month last year, impacted by overall performance.

Domestic sales during the month fell 15 percent year-on-year to 1.74 lakh units and exports dropped 3 percent to 1.4 lakh units.

Numbers were far lower than Nomura expectation of 3.45 lakh units for the month.

Bajaj Auto said 2-wheeler sales slipped 10 percent to 2.77 lakh units while 2-wheeler exports declined 5 percent to 1.21 lakh units YoY.

Total commercial vehicle sales were down 9 percent at 36,641 units, with domestic commercial vehicle sales down 28 percent at 17,524 units compared with same month last year.

9:25 am Buzzing: Cadila Healthcare shares gained more than 4 percent after its group company Zydus has received approval from the US health regulator for Levofloxacin injection.

Levofloxacin is the first approval from company’s Moraiya plant that received clearance from USFDA in February.

Also read – Buy, Sell, Hold: 3 stocks and 1 sector are on analysts’ radar today

9:15 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks started off Friday’s session on a strong note after four-day consolidation, with the Nifty hitting fresh record high.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 132.12 points at 31,269.71 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 40.05 points to 9,656.15. About 433 shares advanced against 80 declining shares on the BSE.

Hero Motocorp, Adani Ports, Lupin, TCS, Bharti Airtel, Aurobindo Pharma and Eicher Motors were early gainers while Bajaj Auto lost 1.5 percent.

The Indian rupee has opened at 64.35 against the US dollar.

Ashutosh Raina of HDFC Bank said the USD-INR pair continued to trade strong tracking global dollar weakness and in sync with other emerging markets currencies.

However, the gains are being capped by strong intervention, he added.

Raina expects the currency pair to trade in the 64.20-64.60 a dollar range today.
Positive global cues also supported the market. Asian markets were mostly in the green, after the release of strong private payrolls stateside and as President Donald Trump announced the US would be withdrawing from the Paris climate accord.