Market Live: Sensex opens 100 pts higher, Nifty Midcap hits record high; Eicher up

10:20 am Land sale: Shares price of Bombay Dyeing and Manufacturing Company has locked at 5 percent upper circuit on Friday as the company has sold land parcel situated at Pune, Maharashtra.

There were pending buy orders of 102,439 shares, with no sellers available.

The company has sold 48.457 acres of freehold land situated at village Dhoksanghvi, Taluka Shirur, District Pune, Maharashtra for Rs 13.57 crore.

In the month of January 2017, the company had entered into an agreement for sale of MIDC land & building and some specific utility machineries of Ranjangaon unit situated at Ranjangaon, Pune, Maharashtra, at an aggregate value of Rs 174.45 crore.

10:10 am Buzzing: Biocon shares surged more than 5 percent intraday after its Malaysian insulin facility received certificate of GMP compliance from European inspection authority.

“The certificate of GMP compliance reflects that the agency considered the site to be in compliance with the principles and guidelines of Good Manufacturing Practices for active substances, sterile drug products and quality control testing operations,” the biopharmaceutical firm said in its filing.

The facility was inspected by Irish drug regulator HPRA as the representative of European Medicines Agency in April 2017.

Biocon Sdn. Bhd (Biocon Malaysia) facility set up with an investment of about USD 275 million is the first overseas biopharma manufacturing and research unit of the company and employs over 600 professionals.

10:00 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks were off opening highs due to lack of global as well as domestic cues.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 61.60 points at 31,724.34 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 24.05 points to 9,953.95.

The broader markets continued northward journey as the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices gained around 0.5 percent on positive breadth.

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

Metals stocks extended rally as the Nifty Metal was up 1.4 percent. Hindalco Industries, Vedanta and Tata Steel gained 1.6 percent each.

9:55 am Earnings: Shares of Global Vectra Helicorp and Plastiblends India declined 3-10 percent intraday on the back of poor Q1 numbers.

Plastiblends India has reported 41 percent decline in its Q1FY18 at Rs 5.2 crore versus Rs 8.8 crore, in the same quarter last year.

Revenue slipped 2 percent at Rs 144 crore versus Rs 147 crore.

Its operating profit (EBITDA) was down 16 percent at Rs 11.4 crore and margin was down at 8.65 percent

Global Vectra Helicorp has registered 57 percent de-growth in its June quarter (Q1FY18) at Rs 90 lakh due to higher tax rate against profit of Rs 2.2 crore in Q1FY17.

Meanwhile, revenue was up 5 percent at Rs 99.8 crore and EBITDA was up 12 percent at Rs 17.2 crore.

9:44 am Inflow from EPFO: Emerging as a significant source of investments into capital markets, Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) is likely to pump in Rs 25,000-30,000 crore in equities in 2017-18 with Rs 5,700 crore already invested this year so far, says a report.

According to global brokerage Morgan Stanley, besides EPFO, the National Pension Scheme (NPS) is also among the sources for driving the domestic flow surge, which has been positive for the past 17 months.

“NPS’ pension assets stood at USD 30 billion at the end of July. We estimate their equity assets to be at USD 3.5 billion,” the report said.

The report noted that EPFO, which has raised its equity allocation to 15 percent in the current fiscal from 10 percent in 2016-17, is “likely to invest Rs 250-300 billion in equities in 2017-18 of which Rs 57 billion has been invested this year thus far”.

In August, equity flows were positive for the 17th straight month.

Year-to-date, domestic mutual funds have received equity inflows of USD 18.6 billion (tracking at USD 2.3 billion per month).

“By the end of the month, equity mutual fund assets under management (AUM) stood at USD 111 billion, and as a percentage of market cap rose to 5.3 percent, its highest level since July 2000,” Morgan Stanley said.

“Similarly, equity ETF assets rose to new highs of USD 8.4 billion. Year-to-date, ETF inflows stood at USD 2.6 billion (Rs 169 billion),” it added.

9:35 am Buzzing: Shares of Punj Lloyd added as much as 8.3 percent in early trade as it has received a letter of award of Rs 870 crore.

The company has been issued the letter of award (LOA) in respect of construction and commissioning of balance/left out canal work including cross drainage structures & design for Gosikhurd National Project in Bhandara, Nagpur and Chandrapur districts of Maharashtra for VIDC, Phase – I / Pkg – I by NBCC India.

On Thursday, the share closed with a gain of more than 19 percent after its joint venture bagged Rs 1177-crore project from the National Highways Authority of India in Myanmar.

9:30 am Rupee strong: The Indian rupee appreciated sharply in morning trade on dollar weakness.

It was trading at 63.87 against the US dollar, up 17 paise from Thursday’s closing of 64.05.

Bhaskar Panda of HDFC Bank said the dollar weakness continued due to various risks..

9:25 am IPO: ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company set Rs 651-661 as the price band for its initial public offering (IPO), which will make it a Rs 5,700-crore issue.

“The price band has been set at Rs 651-661. At the upper end of the band, it will raise Rs 5,700 crore,” a source said late in the evening.

The issue, the first by any general insurance company, hits the market on September 15. The roadshows are kicking off tomorrow in the financial capital.

Sources said the company promoters will dilute their holding by 19 per cent as part of the issue.

At present, its shareholders include largest private sector lender ICICI Bank and the Canadian Fairfax Financial Holdings.

Over 8.6 crore equity shares will be sold as part of the IPO, which will include ICICI Bank selling over 3 crore shares and the rest from Fairfax.

9:15 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks opened last day of the week on a positive note amid consolidation, with the Nifty reclaiming 9,950 level.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 89.87 points at 31,752.61 and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 23.75 points at 9,953.65.

Nifty Midcap hit record high. About 784 shares advanced against 247 declining shares on the BSE.

Future Market Networks, Future Enterprises and Future Consumer surged up to 10 percent.

Apex Frozen Foods gained another 3.5 percent, rising since listing on Monday.