Market Live: Sensex up over 200 points, Nifty above 9550; Maruti up 1.5%

Mon Jul 03 2017
Ramesh Sridharan (904 articles)
Market Live: Sensex up over 200 points, Nifty above 9550; Maruti up 1.5%

11:10 am Buzzing Stock: Shares of Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) surged 4.7 percent intraday Monday as its joint venture company has bagged an order worth Rs 798 crore.

The company in the joint venture with URC Construction has been awarded Rs 797.29 crore contract by the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation.

The company has 51 percent share in the joint venture which is approximately Rs 406.61 crore of the total contract value.

The said project is to be completed in 36 months.

11:02 am Market Check: The equity benchmark indices extended its gains, which is majorly contributed by ITC, which has rose 9 percent in intraday trade.

The Sensex was up 302.73 points at 31224.34, and the Nifty was up 86.25 points at 9607.15. About 1618 shares have advanced, 525 shares declined, and 112 shares are unchanged.

ITC, M&M, Maruti Suzuki, Tata Steel, HUL, Bharti Infratel, Hindalco and Vedanta were the top gainers on the indices, while top losers include NTPC, Wipro, Bajaj Auto, Sun Pharma, Kotak Mahindra Bank and HCL Tech.

10:45 am Benefits passed on: Hero Motocorp is passing on the benefit of GST to its customers with a reduction in the prices of models across its product portfolio in most of the states w.e.f. July 1, 2017. The quantum of reduction ranges from Rs 400 to Rs 1800 on mass-selling models.

10:30 am Market Check: Equity benchmark indices regained strength and was trading at high points of the day, with the Nifty comfortably placed over 9550.

The Sensex was up 207.08 points at 31128.69, while the Nifty was up 57.15 points at 9578.05. The market breadth was positive as 1553 shares advanced against a decline of 536 shares, while 91 shares were unchanged.

ITC, Maruti Suzuki and Hindalco were the top gainers on both indices, while NTPC, Wipro and HCL Technologies lost the most.

FMCG sector is the top gainer on the Nifty, while metals and auto followed suit. Midcaps continued to gain as well, gain around half a percent.

10: 15 am Expert Speak: On the first trading session post the roll out of GST, benchmark indices were trading strong on the back of leads by index heavyweights such as ITC.

The government, over the weekend, scrapped excise and additional excise on cigarettes. As a result, cigarette manufacturer ITC gained over 9 percent in the opening trade.

Kotak Institutional Equities further said that there was no incremental negative for cigarette taxation. On competitive dynamics against bidis, the incremental position of cigarettes look better, Sanjeev Prasad of Kotak Institutional Equities told CNBC-TV18 in an interview.

“Materially, Colgate stands to benefit from the GST rates and will look to pass the benefit to customers,” Prasad added. He also expects the competitive position for the company to improve.

9:50 am Buzzing Stock: Ashok Leyland rallied as much as 4.9 percent in morning trade on Monday after the Indian commercial vehicle manufacturer registered sales growth of 11 percent on a year-on-year (YoY) basis to 12,330 units for the month of June 2017.

The company had sold 11,108 units in June 2016 as reported in a BSE filing.

9:32 am Market Update: Equity benchmarks’ opening gains reduced by more than 50 percent due to correction in HDFC Group, oil, infra and select technology stocks.

ITC also erased some opening gains but still maintained its top position in the buying list among Sensex stocks, up 6 percent.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 130.52 points at 31,052.13 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 30.75 points to 9,551.65.

About 1,067 shares advanced against 438 declining shares on the BSE.

9:25 am Fund flows into India: Sanjeev Prasad of Kotak Institutional Equities said listed fund flows to India continued to be net buyers since the beginning of CY17.

India has received USD 1.8 billion of inflows, driven by USD 943 million of ETF inflows and USD 856 million of non-ETF inflows, he added.

He further said Global Emerging Market (GEM) funds saw USD 988 million of inflows, led by USD 617 million of ETF inflows. India-dedicated funds saw an inflow of USD 614 million, he added.

Allocations to India and China constitute more than one-third of the average Asia ex-Japan fund portfolio. Allocation to India by Asia ex-Japan funds has come down to 13.3 percent in May from 13.6 percent in April.

Fund allocation to India by GEM funds remained around 11 percent. Allocation by Asia ex-Japan non-ETF funds to India came down to 13.9 percent from 14.2 percent in the previous month, Prasad said.

9:15 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks started off the week on a strong note, with the Sensex surging nearly 300 points driven by ITC but immediately erased some gains due to correction in select banks and technology stocks.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 157.16 points at 31,078.77 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 38.30 points to 9,559.20.

ITC rallied 8 percent after the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC), over the weekend, removed excise and additional excise duty on cigarettes, while the National Calamity Contingent continued to remain.

HUL, ICICI Bank and Infosys were other gainers while Wipro, HDFC, HCL Technologies, TCS and Reliance Industries were under pressure.

Nifty Midcap gained 0.35 percent on positive market breadth as about three shares advanced for every share falling on the NSE.
Emami Infra, Zandu Realty, Godfrey Phillips, Kalpataru Power, JMC Projects, Shiva Cement, Dilip Buildcon, MEP Infra and Jaiprakash Associates were up 1-6 percent while Jet Airways fell over 2 percent followed by InterGlobe Aviation.

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