Market Live: Sensex, Nifty remain strong; Anil Ambani group stocks rally

Thu Jun 22 2017
Ramesh Sridharan (903 articles)
Market Live: Sensex, Nifty remain strong; Anil Ambani group stocks rally

1:33 pm Market Check: Equity benchmarks continued to see buying interest in afternoon trade, with the Nifty eyeing 9700 level despite weak European cues.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 177.71 points at 31,461.35 and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 47.60 points at 9,681.20.

Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group stocks remained strong as Reliance Infrastructure, Reliance Defence, Reliance Capital and Reliance Communications gained 2-6 percent.

European bourses moved lower as investors reacted to depressed oil prices and ongoing weakness in commodities-related sectors. France’s CAC, Germany’s DAX and Britain’s FTSE were down 0.3-0.4 percent.

1:10 pm Stocks at record highs: As the market moved to new milestone, 99 stocks touched 52-week highs and amongst them, 35 stocks traded at fresh record highs.

Balkrishna Industries, Can Fin Homes, Entertainment Network India, Kirloskar Oil Engines, L&T Finance Holdings, Larsen & Toubro Infotech, MEP Infrastructure Developers, Mahindra Holidays, Shankara Building Products, SpiceJet, VST Tillers Tractors etc touched new highs during the day.

Among stocks that hit new one-year highs are Kotak Mahindra Bank, HDFC Bank, Jaiprakash Associates, Interglobe Aviation, NBCC, Colgate Palmolive, DHFL, NHPC, SPML Infra, BEML, GMR Infrastructure, Goa Carbon, Thomas Cook (India) etc.

12:42 pm IT Guidance: Software services industry lobby NASSCOM said IT growth guidance for FY18 is optimistic currently.

It expects IT services export revenue growth at 7-8 percent and domestic IT services revenue growth at 10-11 percent for the current financial year 2017-18.

12.29 pm Market Check: Equity benchmarks continued to be strong in afternoon trade as the Nifty is marching towards 9,700 level.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 189.22 points at 31,472.86 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 53.20 points to 9,686.80. About 1450 shares advanced against 982 declining shares on the BSE.

All sectoral indices traded in green, with Nifty Bank at record high of 23,897.85. Yes Bank, SBI, Federal Bank and Bank of Baroda gained 1-2 percent.

Gold prices rose for a second straight day, supported by an easing dollar and weakness in US Treasury yields.

Gold is highly sensitive to rising rates and yields, which increase the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding assets such as bullion while boosting the dollar, in which it is priced.

12:15 pm Buzzing: IDFC rose 3.4 percent intraday after the Reserve Bank of India allowed foreign investors to buy shares of the company.

The Reserve Bank of India has on Wednesday notified that the foreign shareholding by foreign institutional investors (FIIs)/ foreign portfolios investors (FPIs) in IDFC Limited have gone below the prescribed FII/FPI investment limit.

Hence, the restrictions placed on the purchase of shares by FII/FPI of the company, are withdrawn with immediate effect, it added.

FIIs, NRIs and PIOs now can invest in the infrastructure finance company through portfolio investment scheme.

11:55 am HSBC on RBI minutes: The minutes of the June MPC meeting revealed both commonalities and divergence in the opinion of the six monetary policy committee (MPC) members.

Dr Dholakia’s view that there is space for 50bp or more in rate cuts stood out most sharply.

HSBC said, “Among the other five members, there were three things in common. One, all members acknowledged the sharp disinflation over the last two months. Some of the statements suggest that the members are more flexible than before, ready to be convinced by lower inflation prints. Two, all five voted for a ‘wait-and-watch’ approach, given that the strong disinflation is only two months old. Three, all five worried about the same risks on the horizon, namely, the impact of farm loan waivers, the seventh pay commission allowances, monsoon rains, GST and global risks.”

Additionally, the RBI members also expressed concerns around stressed assets and monetary transmission.

“We have been highlighting the growing risks of moderate easing over the next few months. We now expect the RBI to deliver a 25bp rate cut in its August meeting, taking the repo rate to 6.0 percent (versus our previous expectation of a prolonged pause),” it said.

11:27 am Buzzing: Shares prices of dairy products makers Prabhat Dairy, Parag Milk Foods and Vadilal Industries gained as much as 4-9 percent in morning trade after the ban on milk products from the world’s second largest economy.

The Government of India today has banned milk, milk products and confectionary from China for one year, reports CNBC-TV18 quoting Cogencis.

11.08 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks extended rally in morning trade, with the Sensex and Bank Nifty hitting fresh record highs of 31,500 and 23,895.35, respectively.

The 30-share BSE Sensex gained 210.59 points at 31,494.23 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 52.60 points to 9,686.20.

Infosys, HDFC and Reliance Industries were top three contributors to Sensex’ gains, up 1-2 percent but HUL, Lupin and ONGC remained under pressure, down 1.5 percent.

About two shares advanced for every share falling on the BSE.

10:45 am Buzzing: Hindustan Unilever declined as much as 2 percent in morning trade Thursday as the share price adjusted for dividend.

The FMCG major, on May 17, has recommended a final dividend of Rs 10 for the financial year ended March 31, 2017 on equity shares of Re 1 each.

Hence, the register of members & share transfer books of the company will remain closed from June 24, 2017 to June 30, 2017 (both days inclusive) for the purpose of payment of final dividend & 84th annual general meeting (AGM) of the company to be held on June 30, 2017.

The final dividend will be paid to the shareholders on or after July 05, 2017.

Also read – Buy, Sell, Hold: 11 stocks are being tracked by analysts today

10.24 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks as well as broader markets held early gains, with the Sensex rising more than 100 points, supported by index heavyweights Reliance Industries, Infosys and HDFC Group stocks.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 125.81 points at 31,409.45 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 32.65 points to 9,666.25.

The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices gained around half a percent as about two shares advanced for every share falling on the BSE.
9:50 am Technical Outlook: Going forward, Dharmesh Shah

of ICICI Direct.com Research expects the Nifty to continue the consolidation between the broad range of 9500 and 9750 amid stock specific action while digesting the impact of GST in the short-term.

The key support base for the index is placed around 9500 region as it is the confluence of lower band of rising channel in place since February 2017 which also coincides with the 50 percent retracement of the last rising segment, he said.

9:35 am RBI on IDFC: The Reserve Bank of India has today notified that the foreign shareholding by foreign institutional investors (FIIs)/ foreign portfolios investors (FPIs) in IDFC have gone below the prescribed FII/FPI investment limit.

Hence, the restrictions placed on the purchase of shares by FII/FPI of the above company, are withdrawn with immediate effect, it added.

9:15 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks rebounded in opening trade Thursday, with the Nifty reclaiming 9650 level following positive Asian cues.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 109.69 points at 31,393.33 and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 30.25 points at 9,663.85, backed by Reliance Industries.

Reliance Industries, Tata Motors, Tata Motors DVR, HDFC, Asian Paints, Ambuja Cements and Aurobindo Pharma gained 1-1.5 percent while HUL, ONGC, Wipro, Lupin, HDFC Bank, GAIL and Tata Power were under pressure.

Among midcaps, Amtek Auto, Metalyst Forging, Prism Cement, Jaiprakash Assoicates, IDFC, Jaypee Infra, Punj Lloyd, Bhushan Steel, Federal Bank, JM Financial, Geojit Financial and Fortis Healthcare gained 2-9 percent while Videocon Industries was locked at 5 percent lower circuit.

The Indian rupee opened flat at 64.53 per dollar against previous close of 64.52.

Mohan Shenoi of Kotak Mahindra Bank feels the next trigger for rupee appears to be the pace and quality of GST implementation.

He expects the USD-INR pair to trade in a range of 64.40-64.70/dollar for the day.

The minutes of the MPC June policy meeting has raised expectations of monetary easing in subsequent policy reviews.
Asian markets were cautiously higher as oil prices rose slightly after hitting a ten-month low overnight.

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