Market Live: Midcap underperforms Sensex, Nifty breaks 10050; Pharma down 1%

1:15 pm GDP Growth: India’s GDP growth is likely to face near-term headwinds and might slip below 7 percent mark to a three-year low this financial year, says a DBS report.

According to the global financial services major, two recent policy measures — demonetisation in November 2016 and GST rollout in July 2017 had a short term impact on economic activity and aggravated the already slowing momentum.

“These amplified the already weak trends in manufacturing and investment growth slowing first half growth to 5.9 per cent from 7.9 per cent in 2016,” DBS said.

“For 2017-18, a weak June quarter and the likelihood of only a modest improvement in July-September, prompts us to temper our full year expectations. We expect real GDP to average 6.8 per cent year-on-year in 2017-18 (as against 7.3 previously),” DBS said in a research note.

1:07 pm Listing: Consumer electronics manufacturer Dixon Technologies and road BOT company Bharat Road Network are set to make a debut on bourses on September 18.

The former has fixed issue price at Rs 1,766 per share and the later has set it at Rs 205 per share, the higher end of price band. Both IPOs closed on September 8.

12:59 pm Buzzing: Shares of Indiabulls Ventures traded in the red after gaining around 4 percent intraday Friday after CLSA initiated a coverage with 3 percent investment in it.

The global broking firm said that the investment in the firm will be paid for by shaving investments in HDFC Bank by 1 percentage point, along with Indiabulls Housing and Bajaj Finance by 1 percentage point.

CLSA’s popular report, Greed & Fear, also shared an upbeat mood towards Chinese & Indian equities.

The stock has risen 50 percent in the past one month, while its three-day movement was seen at 12 percent. At 12:46 hrs Indiabulls Ventures was quoting at Rs 282.60, down Rs 1.45, or 0.51 percent, on the BSE. It touched a 52-week high of Rs 295.05.

12:47 pm Pledged shares released: Gayatri Projects’ promoter has released its pledge of 42.5 lakh equity shares on September 12. The stock gained nearly a percent.

12:44 pm NCLT order: National Company Law Tribunal has cleared decks for Rs 500 crore investment by Religare Enterprises into Religare Cap.

The tribunal refused to stay shareholder approval with respect to Rs 500 crore investment into Religare Cap.

12:38 pm Europe trade: European stocks opened lower after North Korea sent another missile over Japan into the Pacific Ocean.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 was 0.14 percent lower with most sectors moving south.

Most Asian indexes were moderately lower and US stock futures dipped as concerns over North Korea took center stage. Pyongyang’s most recent nuclear test missile landed in the Pacific, about 2000 Km from Japan. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has called on the United Nations to act.

12:30 pm IPO subscription: The Rs 5,700-crore IPO of ICICI Prudential General Insurance Company, the subsidiary of India’s largest private sector lender ICICI Bank, has been subscribed only 5 percent.

The issue received bids for 28.76 lakh equity shares against IPO size of 6.16 crore shares (excluding anchor investors’ portion), as per latest data available on NSE.

12:21 pm Stocks that are buzzing at this hour: Wipro,Vedanta, Ujaas Energy.

12:17 pm Jungle Book promotion: DQ Entertainment International rallied 13 percent after the company announced the appointment of new licensing agents for its popular brand The Jungle Book.

“The series will be represented for licensing & merchandising by The Licensing Group (TLG) in North America, CPL for Latin America & Mexico and CIMCA in Central America,” the producer and distributor of children’s animated content said.

While Sinecast, Turkey has been appointed as promotional partners for the brand in Turkey, he added.

The first two seasons of The Jungle Book series were telecast on Discovery Kids USA, receiving excellent reviews and high viewership from children and families, it said.

The popular TV show airs in over 160 territories around the world and has more than 300 active licensees. Season 3 is currently in production for broadcast on Discovery Kids in early 2018.

12:10 pm Buzzing: Shares of Voltas fell around 2 percent intraday following brokerage recommendations, which were largely mixed around the stock.

Post an analysts call by the firm, brokerages highlighted the weak industry trends, but also said that the stock’s peak multiples could sustain as well.

Last month, broking firm Motilal Oswal had retained a sell call on Tata Group firm Voltas with a 20 percent downside from the current level.

The research house maintained a cautious view on the stock given threat to margins driven by increasing competition in the room air conditioner segment, industry convergence to inverters where Voltas has weak share and rating change in January 2018.

In Q1 FY18, Voltas reported 17.68 percent rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 187.91 crore for the quarter ended June 30, on account of higher income which was inline with estimates.

12:05 pm Former oil minister on fuel price hike: With spike in the petrol and diesel prices, former oil minister S Jaipal Reddy on Thursday said bringing them under the GST is “desirable”, but not feasible as the states would oppose it, but the Centre can certainly cut excise duty on them.

The policy of keeping excise duty high when prices of international crude oil are low is wrong, he said.

Saying that many states have drastically increased VAT (value-added tax), Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had said on Wednesday: “It is high time the GST Council considered bringing petroleum products under the ambit of GST.”

Asked for his comment on Pradhan’s statement, Reddy said, “They (the NDA government) knew that GST Council would never include this (petroleum products). The Government of India never insisted on it. State governments would not agree.”

For the central and state governments, petroleum products have become the “first resort” for raising revenues, the former minister said.

12:00 pm Healthcare stocks: Pharma stocks corrected after a rally in previous session. The Nifty Pharma index fell over a percent.

11:52 am Japan manufacturers’ mood: Japanese manufacturers’ confidence worsened for the first time in four months in September from the previous month’s decade-high level and was expected to fall further, weighed by global uncertainty, a Reuters poll showed.

The monthly poll – which tracks the Bank of Japan’s closely watched quarterly tankan – found the service-sector mood had its best reading in more than two years, adding to recent signs of recovery in private consumption.

Compared with three months ago, the Reuters Tankan’s sentiment indexes for manufacturers and service sector firms held largely unchanged, pointing to a steady reading in the central bank’s upcoming tankan due on October 2.

11:42 am Rupee recovers: The rupee recovered from early losses to trade at 64.09 against the dollar, up by 3 paise, in late morning deals today as the greenback turned weak in global markets.

The rupee resumed marginally lower at 64.14 per dollar against Thursday’s closing level of 64.12 per dollar at the interbank foreign exchange market.

The dollar index against a basket of six major currencies was trading down 0.02 per cent at 92.108.

The greenback fell against safe-haven yen after North Korea’s latest missile launch fueled geopolitical tensions.

11:32 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks extended losses in late morning trade, with the Sensex falling 78.46 points to 32,163.47 and the Nifty declining 37.20 points to 10,049.40.

Geopolitical tensions surrounding around North Korea hit global markets sentiment. North Korea has launched its intermediate range ballistic missile today that flew over Japan.

Back home, the broader markets also remained under pressure as the BSE Midcap index was down 0.66 percent. About two shares declined for every share rising on the BSE.

11:10 am Buzzing: Shares of Hyderabad-based tech firm Cyient was up more than 1 percent intraday as global research firm Morgan Stanley kept an overweight rating on the stock with a target price of Rs 565 per share.

The research house believes that InfoTech Aerospace Services Inc (IASI) divestment transaction has no implications on company’s existing relationship with respect to United Technologies Corporation (UTC).

IASI, a 51:49 joint venture between Pratt & Whitney and Cyient, was set up in 2013. It provides aerospace defence design, development and related services, primarily to United Technologies and its business units.

On Thursday, the company said that it will divest its 49 percent equity ownership in joint venture firm Infotech Aerospace Services to its partner Pratt & Whitney.

10:56 am BHEL Corrects: State-run power equipment maker BHEL fell 3 percent as analysts retained their negative stance on the company despite bullet train contract.

“We have been negative on BHEL. We don’t see significant uptick in power segment,” Sanjeev Zarbade, analyst at Kotak Securities said in an interview to CNBC-TV18.

He expects Rs 3,000 crore worth of ordering in FY20-22 for BHEL.

According to him, bullet train is a very minor opportunity for the company and he doesn’t see bullet train as a re-rating trigger.

10:45 am Advance tax: Sources told CNBC-TV18 that private sector lender Yes Bank is likely to have paid advance tax of Rs 590 crore for the quarter ended September 2017.

In September quarter 2016, it had paid advance tax of Rs 435 crore.

10:40 am Management Interview: As spot prices of power zoomed to over Rs 9 per unit on September 12, the entire power sector along with stocks like PTC India were in focus. The merchant power went up to Rs 3-4 per unit.

Deepak Amitabh, CMD, PTC India said there has been an imbalance in demand and supply of power that led to tariff movement.

The reason for fall in supply was due to various factors, said Amitabh.

One was due to temporary shutdown of 1000 MW of thermal power plant due to technical issue leading to non-supply of power in bilateral or the exchange market. Two, was lack of rain in the central states for eg Madhya Pradesh which uses 5000 MW of hydro power plant during monsoon and thermal plants on shutdown but since lack of rains, their hydro plants were not running to full capacity and therefore thermal plants were utilisied and so demand for power rose, he said.

However, according to him, average merchant power of Rs 3-4 per unit of power rate is sustainable but not beyond that and it should ease out.

10:20 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks as well as broader markets continued to fall in morning as fresh missile launch by North Korea weighed.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 45.66 points at 32196.27 and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 24 points to 10,062.60.

The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices underperformed benchmarks, falling over half a percent on weak breadth. About two shares declined for every share rising on the BSE.

10:05 am FII View: A sense of nervousness is existing in the Asian markets today after North Korea fired yet another missile over Japan.

Something like this should make global markets very concerned, Seth Freeman of EM Capital Management said in an interview to CNBC-TV18.

On Indian markets, he said that if you are a trader then there are still opportunities to invest. Indian market and Indian economy is finally at relatively stable upward trajectory point, he added.

Ken Peng, Asia Pacific Investment Strategist at Citi Private Bank said that the latest developments from North Korea will be a headline risk for quite some time to come.

The market is getting used to the launches of missiles by North Korea and more and more investors understand that there is an insurmountable risk for any military action, he added.

9:58 am Buzzing: Share price of Ujaas Energy advanced 10 percent in early trade today on the back orders win.

The company has received letter of award of contract from WBREDA (West Bengal Renewable Energy Development Agency) for installation and commissioning of 150 rooftop grid connected solar PV power plants each in array capacity of 10Kwp at various locations of West Bengal.

The company also received letter of award from Oil India for EPC contract for solar energy generation project of 500 KW at pump station of Oil India at Jorhat in the state of Assam.

It has received letter of allocation from SECI for an aggregate capacity of 20.03 MW for implementation of grid connected rooftop solar PV system scheme for government building in different states/union territory of India.

9:55 am FII View: Christopher Wood of CLSA said the sentiment for Asian equities has been distinctly upbeat at this year’s 24th CLSA Investors’ Forum. It is always nice to be a contrarian, he added.

Still Greed & Fear shares the upbeat mood, most particularly towards China and Indian equities, he said.

Wood said a 3 percent investment will be initiated in Indian consumer finance play, Indiabulls Ventures. This will be paid for by shaving the existing investments in HDFC Bank, Indiabulls Housing Finance and Bajaj Finance by 1 percent each, he added.

9:45 am IPO: ICICI Lombard General Insurance’s Rs 5,700-crore IPO opened for subscription today, with a price band of Rs 651-661 per share.

The company raised Rs 1,624.77 crore by allotting 2.45 crore shares to 64 anchor investors at the upper band of Rs 661 apiece.

The issue will close on September 19.

ICICI Lombard General Insurance is a joint venture between ICICI Bank and Canadian NRI Prem Watsa-promoted Fairfax Financial Holdings.

The company’s initial public offer (IPO) involves dilution of up to 86,247,187 equity shares by promoters — ICICI Bank and Fairfax. The initial share-sale offer would close on September 19.

9:35 am Buzzing: Shares of Vedanta slipped further today, on top of 2 percent correction in previous session after Odisha pollution board asked company to shut down plant.

The Odisha State Pollution Control Board (OSPCB) in Jharsuguda has ordered temporary shut-down of its five units following a breach in its ash pond dyke wall in August.

The firm has been asked to close three units of 135MW of the 1215MW power plant and two units of 600mw each of the 2400MW power plant.

9:25 am Block deal: Shares of Max Financial Services gained around five percent in early trade today on the back of a block deal.

Around 74 lakh shares of the company were traded in five blocks on the BSE at an average price of Rs 602 per share.

Interestingly, Xenok and GS Mace were reportedly looking to sell 11.8 million shares at a floor price of Rs 595 per share today.

9:15 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks started off last day of the week on a negative note, tracking weakness in Asia post North Korea launched a missile that flew over Japan.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 28.52 points at 32,213.41 and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 13.70 points to 10,072.90.

Tata Steel, Vedanta, Sun Pharma, Lupin and Indiabulls Housing were under pressure. BHEL gave up yesterday’s gains, down nearly 3 percent.

In broader space, Indiabulls Venturs, Sunil Hitech, Max Financial, SpiceJet, Bombay Dyeing, Liberty Shoes, Container Corporation, Avenue Supermarts and Future Retail rallied up to 6 percent.
Bajaj Finance, Indiabulls Real and Voltas were under pressure.