Market Live: Nifty struggles below 10,000, Midcap falls too; banks drag again

11:15 am Listing: Security and Intelligence Services (India) is set to list its equity shares on exchanges on Thursday, August 10. The issue price is fixed at higher end of price band of Rs 805-815 per share.

The Rs 780-crore public issue, which was opened for subscription between July 31 and August 2, was oversubscribed 7 times.

The reserved category for qualified institutional buyers was oversubscribed 5.64 times while non institutional investors’ portion has seen 1.66 times subscription and retail investors 19.51 times.

The initial public offering comprised of fresh issue of equity shares of up to Rs 362.25 crore and an offer for sale of up to 51.2 lakh equity shares to be diluted by investors and promoters.

10:58 am Earnings Estimates: National Aluminium Company’s (NALCO) first quarter earnings are expected to be strong on volume growth. Profit is seen rising 23 percent year-on-year to Rs 166 crore and revenue may increase 31.8 percent to Rs 2,042 crore in the quarter ended June 2017.

Operating profit is expected to surge 56.9 percent to Rs 306 crore and margin may expand 240 basis points to 15 percent compared to same quarter last year, according to average of estimates of analysts polled by CNBC-TV18.

Analysts expect alumina volumes at 3.3 lakh tonnes (a growth of 14 percent YoY but fall 18 percent QoQ) and aluminum volumes at 1.02 lakh tonnes (up 24 percent YoY but down 6 percent QoQ).

Key issues to watch for would be availability of coal for captive power plant and LME price trend.

10:42 am Geopolitical tensions: Geopolitical tensions ramped up after President Donald Trump warned North Korea it would be “met with fire and fury” if it continued to make threats against the US. His comments came on the back of a report from the Washington Post that the hermit state had created a miniaturized nuclear weapon that could fit in its missiles.

Just hours after Trump’s warning, North Korea reportedly said it was “carefully examining” a plan to strike the US Pacific territory of Guam with missiles.

10:30 am Market Check: Benchmark indices remained under pressure amid consolidation, tracking weakness in global peers due to geopolitical tensions.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 60.45 points at 31,953.74 and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 13.05 points to 9,965.50. The broader markets, too, were down 0.3 percent on weak breadth.

About two shares declined for every share rising on the BSE.

Banks fell for the second day in a row, with the Nifty Bank down 0.6 percent. ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, IDFC Bank and Bank of Baroda were down between 0.5 percent and 1 percent.

9:55 am Earnings impact: Shares of SRF touched 52-week low of Rs 1425.30, down 7.7 percent intraday on the back of poor Q1 (April-June) numbers.

The company has reported 32.9 percent decline in its Q1 net profit at Rs 103.8 crore versus Rs 154.6 crore, in the same period last fiscal.

The operating profit (EBITDA) was down 30.8 percent Rs 209.1 crore and EBITDA margin was at 16.8 percent.

Meanwhile, its revenue was up 6.4 percent at Rs 1,388.4 crore versus Rs 1,305.5 crore.

The board has approved setting-up of a facility to produce specialty chemicals (P-33) for agro industry at SRF’s Chemical Complex in Dahej, Gujarat at an estimated cost of Rs 85 crore.

9:45 am Market Outlook: The market has seen some moderation, which was expected after sharp rally in the year so far but deep correction is unlikely, that is the word coming from Mahesh Patil, the Co-CIO of Birla Sun Life AMC on Wednesday.

Equity benchmarks already corrected around 2 percent from its record highs touched last week, which was on expected lines. Anyway the market always gives investors a chance to book some profits after some period of time. In previous session, the Nifty fell below 10,000-mark for the first time in two weeks, especially after capital market regulator SEBI on Monday released a list of 331 shell companies identified by Corporate Affairs Ministry.

The market shot up more than 20 percent year-to-date and the maximum correction seen in 2017 was around 2.5 percent that was healthy correction.

The current correction was also on expected lines as earnings revival has not seen so far, even Q1 earnings were a mixed bag, Patil said in an interview to CNBC-TV18.

He further said, “The current correction does not mean that we are at mouth-watering level.”

He expects new supply of USD 4-5 billion through large issuance to hit market soon.

“We at Birla Sun Life have been cautious on the market and are not in a hurry to buy stocks. The recent rally surprised us as valuations in near term will remain high,” he said.

Hence, he expects some correction in near-to-short term, which could be 6-7 percent (that can be called healthy correction) but he is positive on market with long term perspective.

He wants to see some earnings visibility before deploying cash in the market. He is a bit defensive; therefore he has increased exposure to consumer staples due to steady earnings.

9:30 am Earnings snapshot: Gautam Singh of Spark Capital said Q1FY18 earnings season started with a mixed set of results as 38 percent of the Spark coverage companies beat estimates while 41 percent missed the estimates.

On sector level, private banks, midcap IT and large cap cement players surprised positively whereas capital goods and pharma companies disappointed in this quarter, he added.

In the Nifty 50, out of the 35 companies that came out with results, 34 percent of them beat estimates while 37 percent missed estimates, Singh said.

9:20 am Buzzing: Shares of PVR rose more than 1 percent in early trade on the back of stake sale in its joint venture company.

The company in its meeting held on August 8 has approved sale of its 51 percent stake in PVR bluO Entertainment.

PVR bluO Entertainment is a joint venture between PVR and Major Cineplex group of Thailand in which PVR owns 51 percent stake with balance 49 percent stake held by Major group.

The company has signed definitive agreements with Smaaash Entertainment along with its partner Major Complex Group to sell 100 percent stake in PVR bluO Entertainment for a consideration of approximately Rs 86 crore.

9:15 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks extended previous day’s losses in opening trade Wednesday, tracking weakness in Asia.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 91.45 points at 31,922.74 and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 34.40 points to 9,944.15.

Nifty Bank was down 0.5 percent as Yes Bank, ICICI Bank, Bank of Baroda and Axis Bank were under pressure.

Nalco, Hindalco Industries and Vedanta gained up to 3 percent.
PVR, Endurance and Meghmani Organics gained up to 3 percent post earnings while HPCL, HDIL, Sintex Industries, JP Associates, HCC, Suzlon Energy and Balrampur Chini fell up to 10 percent.