Market Live: Midcap outperforms Sensex; Nifty holds 9,900; Infosys, LT support

2:20 pm Contenders for Infosys’ CEO post: Ashok Vemuri and BG Srinivas are among contenders for the post of CEO at Infosys, reports CNBC-TV18 quoting unnamed sources.

Ashok Vemuri is considered a strong contender for the post.

Among company insiders, Mohit Joshi, Ravi Kumar & Pravin Rao are also in fray for the CEO post.

Ravi Kumar is currently deputy COO and Mohit Joshi is President of BFSI, healthcare & life sciences at Infosys.

Its current CFO, MD Ranganath, may be added to board of directors, sources said, adding 3-4 new members may be added to the board. Infosys board may include former employees & industry Veterans.

BG Srinivas, who is currently the group MD at PCCW group, worked at Infosys for 15 years till 2014 while Ashok Vemuri, who is currently CEO-BPO business at Xerox, worked at Infosys for 14 years till 2013.

2:00 pm Talwalkars in focus: Shivanand Mankekar & family increased stake in the company to 6.6 percent from 5.3 percent.

Talwalkars Better value Fitness’ shares rallied more than 4 percent.

1:50 pm SBI on bad loans: SBI told NewsRise that Q2 results would show improvement in bad loan situation.

“We have seen slippages of only Rs 1,000 crore in Q2 so far. NPA situation is improving at a ‘very fast pace’ in Q2,” the bank said.

1:35 pm FDI policy: The Government of India has unveiled consolidated FDI policy and the intent of it is to attract & promote FDI to boost economic growth.

Policy framework on FDI is transparent predictable & comprehensible.

The FDI cap for print media stayed at 26 percent while there is no change in FDI cap for scheduled domestic airlines.

The government prohibited FDI in real estate businesses, REITs, manufacturing of tobacco and tobacco substitutes.

Sectors already under 100 percent automatic route will not be affected by this FDI policy.

1:20 pm Market Check: Equity benchmarks remained positive in afternoon trade, with the Sensex rising 159.67 points to 31,755.73 and the Nifty up 49.50 points at 9,906.55.

The rally was backed by Infosys (up 3.78 percent), L&T (1.38 percent) and HDFC (0.7 percent), which were leading contributors. However, Tata Motors, TCS, SBI, Dr Reddy’s Labs and Tata Steel were under pressure.

The broader markets continued to outperform benchmarks as the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices gained 0.8-0.9 percent. About 1,517 shares advanced against 858 declining shares on the BSE.

1:10 pm Doklam border issue ends: Two months after the Doklam standoff, both India and China have finally decided to withdraw troops from the tri-junction.

In a statement, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Monday that in recent weeks India and China have maintained diplomatic communications on Doklam.

According to sources, the troops withdrawal process was still on at the time of filing this report.

“In recent weeks, India and China have maintained diplomatic communication in respect of the incident at Doklam. During these communications, we were able to express our views and convey our concerns and interests,” the statement said.

“On this basis, expeditious disengagement of border personnel at the face-off site at Doklam has been agreed to and is on-going,” the MEA statement further said.

1:00 pm USFDA nod: The US Food and Drug Administration has cleared Glenmark’s Indore facility with zero 483s observations, according to sources of CNBC-TV18.

The inspection by the US health regulator at company’s Indore unit was lasted for one week.

Glenmark manufactures oral solids at its Indore facility for US market.

Glenmark has no comment to make w.r.t US FDA inspection outcome.

12:45 pm Essar Steel in focus: Sources told CNBC-TV18 that Essar Steel’s committee of creditors and its IRP will hold first meeting on August 31 as lenders are keen to rope in new investor for the company and change promoter.

Turnaround advisory firm Alvarez & Marsal is appointed a interim resolution professional for Essar Steel.

Sources said more than 6 companies, including JSW Steel, Tata Steel etc informally expressed interest in acquiring controlling equity stake of Essar Steel.

Global firms ArcelorMittal, SSG International, Posco, Liberty House also expressed interest in acquiring stake in the company.

Essar Steel has a debt of approximately Rs 45,000 crore to 22 lenders led by SBI.

Tata Steel told CNBC-TV18 that it is evaluating various strategic opportunities on an ongoing basis and would not like to comment on market speculation.

12:40 pm Europe trade: European markets opened on a negative note, as investors gear up for the next round of Brexit talks in Europe, while keeping a close eye on the moves in oil.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 was 0.5 percent lower with all sectors moving south. The UK’s FTSE 100 will be closed today due to a public holiday.

12:30 pm Market Outlook: “Market will continue to be rangebound & move sideways,” Ajay Bodke of Prabhudas Lilladher said in an interview to CNBC-TV18.

He feels the market will wait for Q2 earnings before decisively breaking recent highs. Downside on Infosys looks limited, according to him.

12:20 pm Market Update: Benchmark indices extended gains as India and China both agreed to disengagement of border personnel at Doklam border after two months impasse.

Political analysts feel it is a big win for PM Narendra Modi diplomacy.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 209.17 points or 0.66 percent at 31,805.23 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 65.10 points or 0.66 percent to 9,922.15.

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

11:31 am Adani Enterprises in focus: Adani Enterprises will start work on Carmichael mine in Australia, in October, reports CNBC-TV18 quoting Reuters.

The Adani Group company will start work on mine with its own fund of USD 317 million.

The stock rallied more than 8 percent.

11:22 am Drug launch: Dr Reddy’s Labs has launched Cefixime for oral suspension, USP 100mg/5ml and 200 mg/5ml in the US market.

It is therapeutic equivalent generic version of Suprax for oral suspension, approved by the US Food and Drug Administration.

The Suprax brand and generic had US sales of approximately USD 50.5 million MAT for the first twelve months ending in June 2017, according to IMS Health.

Suprax is a registered trademark of Astellas Pharma Inc.

11:05 am Insurance companies IPOs: Sources told CNBC-TV18 that insurance regulator IRDA’s board will meet today to discuss IPOs filed by general & life insurance companies.

It will discuss IPO proposals of HDFC Life, SBI Life, New India Assurance and ICICI Lombard. It will decide further requirements of companies before granting nod for IPO.

The insurance regulator will consider Reliance Capital proposal of a separate health insurance arm, today and is likely to grant R1/first level nod to health insurance arm, sources said.

Two life and 3 non-life insurance companies have announced their listing plans.

10:45 am Order win: The construction subsidiary of L&T has received orders worth Rs 1,975 crore across various business segments.

“The power transmission and distribution business has bagged orders worth Rs 1,331 crore while other business segments have won orders worth Rs 644 crore,” it said.

10:31 am Buzzing: Shares of Hindustan Oil Exploration Company (HOEC) gained 7.6 percent intraday on the back of commencement of commercial production at Dirok field.

The company has been granted a petroleum mining lease to its Dirok field and started the commercial production from the field.

On successful testing and completion of the sixth well, all the six wells in the field are ready to hook up for production.

Company expects the initial production to be about 10 mmscfd, restricted by the capacity of by 4′ pipeline and will be ramped up to full capacity over the next six months with the commissioning of Modular Gas Processing Plant (MGPP).

10:16 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks continued to trade higher in morning as the Sensex was up 182.73 points or 0.58 percent at 31,778.79, and the Nifty gained 55.65 points or 0.56 percent at 9,912.70.

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

10:01 am USFDA nod: Jubilant Life Sciences said Jubilant Pharma, a material wholly owned subsidiary, through one of its wholly owned subsidiaries, has received abbreviated new drug application (ANDA) final approval for Indomethacin capsules USP, 25 mg and 50 mg.

It is the generic version of Indocin of Iroko, which is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug used for the treatment of moderate to severe inflammation and reduce pain.

“This is the seventh approval that we have received from the USFDA during the current financial year,” the company said.

As on June 30, 2017, Jubilant had a total of 84 ANDAs for oral solids filed in the US, of which 53 had been approved.

9:43 am IPO: Future Enterprises said the board of directors, of the company approved for the offer for sale of shares of its subsidiary company, Future Supply Chain Solutions (FSCSL), and participation of the company upto 5 percent of paid up capital of FSCSL.

FSCSL has filed the draft red hearing prospectus (DRHP) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for a public offer of up to 97,84,570 equity shares representing 25 percent of the existing issued and paid-up equity share capital of FSCSL for cash, through an offer for sale.

The issue consists of offer for sale of 19,56,914 equity shares held by the company in FSCSL representing up to 5 percent of the existing issued and paid-up equity share capital of FSCSL; and 78,27,656 shares held by Griffin Partners (other participating shareholder) in FSCSL representing up to 20 percent of the existing issued and paid-up equity share capital of FSCSL.

9:29 am FII View: Sanjay Mookim of Bank of America Merrill Lynch said in Indian equities at the moment, one may buy a good business or a good price.

There is currently no overlap amongst the two sets, according to him.

“Value may work as the market corrects in absolute terms yet we continue to favour good businesses. We are overweight banks, staples and cement,” he said.

MSCI India currently trades at 17.8x 1-year forward earnings but the headline masks excesses in midcaps and domestic facing sectors, he added.

9:15 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks started off the week on a strong note, with the Nifty reclaiming 9,900 level, largely driven by Infosys.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 154.47 points at 31,750.53 and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 40.15 points at 9,897.20.

Infosys surged 4 percent as CLSA upgraded the stock to buy from underperform and raised target price to Rs 1,070 from Rs 940 after co-founder Nandan Nilekani joined the company again as non-executive chairman. CEO choices & strategy should improve, the research house said.

Kotak Mahindra Bank, Eicher Motors, Reliance Industries, Hindalco Industries, Sun Pharma and ONGC were other gainers.

Dr Reddy’s Labs, Hero MotoCorp, Asian Paints and ITC were under pressure.

Nifty Midcap gained 0.4 percent as about four shares advanced for every share falling on the exchange.
DLF, Adani Enterprises, Adani Power, Future Enterprises, Suzlon Energy, Ansal Housing, Nestle India, Bajaj Finserv and Bajaj Finance rallied up to 6 percent whereas PC Jeweller, Titan Company, Strides, Wockhardt and Cadila Healthcare were under pressure.