Market Live: Nifty tests 10,000, Sensex plunges 300 pts; Metals lose shine

12:25 pm Gold policy: The Centre is open to cut gold import tax further after slashing it to 5-6%, reports NewsRise.

It expects the Watal-led panel to submit a report on gold policy by December 31.

12:10 pm Listing on Monday: Construction company Capacit’e Infraprojects will make a debut on exchanges on September 25. The issue price is fixed at Rs 250 per share.

The Rs 400-crore initial public offering of Capacit’e has oversubscribed 183.03 times.

The IPO has received bids for 209.17 crore equity shares against total issue size of 1.14 crore shares (excluding anchor investors’ portion), aided largely by institutional investors.

12:03 pm Pledged shares: Mercator’s promoter has created a pledge on their 28 lakh shares on September 21.

The stock fell 2.2 percent to Rs 39.40 on the BSE.

12:00 pm China on S&P’s downgrade report: China lashed out at the decision by Standard & Poor’s to downgrade the country’s credit rating, calling the warning against ballooning debt “mistaken” and based on “cliches” about its economy, reports AFP.

The agency slashed China from AA-minus to A-plus on Thursday, a move that followed a similar decision in May by Moody’s stemming from concerns that the world’s second largest economy is increasingly overleveraged. “Standard & Poor’s downgrade of China’s sovereign credit rating is a mistaken decision,” the finance ministry said, adding that the move was “perplexing.”

11:56 am Rupee pares losses: The rupee recovered from initial losses in late morning deals to trade at 65.04, still down by 23 paise against the dollar due to strong demand for the greenback from importers and banks.

The rupee resumed lower at 64.95 per dollar as against yesterday’s closing level of 64.81 per dollar at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) Market.

Later, it fell sharply on heavy dollar demand to 65.16 before paring losses to quote 65.04 at 10.20 hrs.

Persistent FII outflows and US Federal Reserve rate hike this year is affecting the rupee, a dealer said.

FPIs withdrew over Rs 1,200 crore on net basis from stock markets yesterday, as per provisional exchange data. Overseas, the US dollar was largely lower against the basket of currencies in early Asian trade.

11:54 am Modi’s Varanasi visit: Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in his Lok Sabha constituency Varanasi today for a two-day visit during which he will inaugurate several projects covering sectors like infrastructure, railways, financial inclusion and sanitation.

Among the highlights will be the flagging off of the Mahamana Express train which will connect Varanasi with Surat and Vadodara in Gujarat.

11:45 am IPO subscription: SBI Life Insurance Company’s 8,400-crore public issue has been oversubscribed 1.25 times, as per latest data available on exchanges.

The initial public offer has received bids for 11.01 crore shares against the total IPO size of 8.82 crore shares, excluding anchor investors’ portion.

The reserved category of qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) has seen oversubscription of 4.09 times while the portion set aside for non institutional investors has subscribed 10 percent and retail investors 52 percent.

11:38 am BoAML on Godrej Properties: Global research firm Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BofAML) has initiated buy rating on Godrej Properties with a target of Rs 756.

The firm sees a potential upside of 26 percent and expansion in the return on equity by 907 basis points to 20 percent in FY20.

The robust sales competition of legacy projects could drive 44 percent EPS CAGR over FY17-20, it feels.

The share price surged 102 percent in the last 9 months.

11:30 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks fell further in morning as the Nifty tested psychological 10,000-mark, tracking global weakness after North Korea threat saying it could do another missile test, and S&P downgraded China’s credit rating.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 309.65 points at 32,060.39 and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 119.90 points to 10,002.00.

About 3.5 shares declined for every share rising on the BSE.

The rupee dropped by 18 paise to 64.99 against the US dollar on frenetic dollar demand from importers and banks.

Dealers said early losses in domestic equity markets and unabated foreign fund outflows weighed on the rupee.

11:10 am I-T raid: The Income Tax department, which began search operations at Coffee Day Group companies and the other premises owned by founder VG Siddhartha on Thursday, will continue with its operations today, according to a media report.

11:00 am Japan fiscal stimulus: The Bank of Japan should maintain its massive monetary stimulus and enhance its communication of how it expects to achieve its 2 percent inflation target, a senior IMF official told Reuters.

Odd Per Brekk, the International Monetary Fund’s mission chief for Japan, said the BoJ will likely lag behind the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank in normalising monetary policy.

“But we think this is appropriate, as monetary policy is focused on domestic conditions and domestic conditions are different among countries and regions,” he said.

10:56 am IPO subscription: SBI Life Insurance Company’s initial public offering has been fully subscribed on final day.

The 8,400-crore public issue has been oversubscribed 1.15 times, as per latest data available on exchanges.

The IPO has received bids for 10.18 crore shares against IPO size of 8.82 crore shares, excluding anchor investors’ portion.

10:50 am VIX: Market volatility as gauged by the India VIX is up 6% at 12.35%. The benchmark indices have broken their key supports, with market participants not turning bearish.

10:42 am Interview: The Reliance Home Finance scrip made a stellar debut in trade today.

“The company is looking to grow is loan book at 50 percent CAGR over the next three-to-four years,” Ravindra Sudhalkar, CEO, Reliance Home Finance said in an interview to CNBC-TV18.

He further said it is looking to maintain its net interest margin (NIM) at 3.5 percent and grow its housing finance business to 60 percent by FY20.

The housing finance company is targeting return of assets (RoA) of 1.5 percent by FY20, he added.

10:35 am Buzzing: Shares of A2Z Infra Engineering gained 3 percent intraday on the back of one-time settlement with its lending banks.

The company’s board has approved issuance of up to 8 crore equity shares to its lenders as part of one-time settlement scheme(s), envisaged to be entered into between the company and its lending banks.

The said issuance of shares to banks shall address approximately Rs 850 crore of the company’s debt which represents 74 percent of the company’s total debt.

It has also approved one time settlement with SICOM, a lender of the company.

On September 21, 2017 IL&FS Financial Services – Proprietary Portfolio sold 18,34,357 shares of the company at Rs 42.13 on the NSE.

10:20 am Downgrade: Standard and Poor’s lowered Hong Kong’s long-term rating from AAA to AA+ following its earlier downgrade of China’s sovereign rating.

“We see very strong institutional and political linkages between China and the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong. Following the earlier downgrade of the sovereign credit rating on China, we are lowering the rating on Hong Kong to reflect potential spillover risks to the SAR should deleveraging in China prove to be more disruptive than we currently expect,” S&P said in a statement.

The rating agency downgraded China from AA- to A+ on Thursday, citing debt risk.

S&P changed Hong Kong’s outlook to stable from negative on Friday, and said it expected Hong Kong to “maintain its strong credit metrics across the board in the next two to three years”.

10:10 am Buzzing: New Delhi Television (NDTV) share hit its 5 percent upper circuit after a media report said that founder and owner of SpiceJet Ajay Singh has picked up majority stake in the news channel.

The report stated that Ajay Singh will hold around 40 percent stake in NDTV while promoters Prannoy and Radhika Roy will hold around 20% in the company.

10:05 am Market check: Equity benchmarks fell further in morning trade as the Sensex dropped 255.39 points to 32,114.65 following North Korea threat.

The Nifty has broken the 10,050 level, down 88.25 points at 10,033.65.

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

Asian markets like Hong Kong’s Hang Seng, Japan’s Nikki, China’s Shanghai Composite and South Korea’s Kospi were down 0.3-0.8 percent.

Geopolitical concerns over the Korean Peninsula have remained under the spotlight as the Trump administration has attempted to put more pressure on North Korea. President Donald Trump signed on Thursday a new measure that expanded the Treasury Department’s authority to target people and institutions conducting business with the North.

In turn, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said Friday that Trump would “pay dearly” for his speech at the United Nations earlier this week.

10:00 am Listing: Reliance Home Finance, the subsidiary of Reliance Capital, is locked at 5 percent upper circuit in opening.

The stock price has opened at Rs 107.20, with traded volumes of 6.24 lakh shares on the National Stock Exchange.

However, Reliance Capital was down 3 percent at Rs 696, extending losses.

9:59 am Buzzing: Shares of KNR Constructions has touched 52-week high of Rs 237.40, adding 12 percent in the early trade Friday on order won worth Rs 884 crore.

“KNR -HES-ACPL joint venture has bagged order worth of Rs 884.47 crore for formation of Konda Pochamma Sagar for a capacity of 15 TMC near Pamulaparthi (v), Markook (M), Siddipet District in the state of Telangana,” company said in press release.

The said order is to be completed within a period of 18 months from the appointed date.

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9:50 am Pre-opening: Reliance Home Finance settled at Rs 100 per share in pre-opening trade on the National Stock Exchange.

Reliance Home Finance is a subsidiary of Reliance Capital that fell sharply by 3.87 percent to Rs 689.95.

9:42 am Matrimony.com falls further: Matrimony.com extended losses for the second consecutive session today, falling 4.5 percent to Rs 863.95 against previous closing.

The stock closed sharply lower on its listing day – Thursday. It was down 8.1 percent at Rs 904.65 compared with issue price of Rs 985.

9:35 am Pharma continues to outperform: Nifty Pharma index gained 0.2 percent, outperforming all other indices that are under pressure.

Sun Pharma, Glenmark Pharma, Cadila Healthcare and Dr Reddy’s Labs were up 0.1-1.1 percent.

9:30 am IPO subscription: The Rs 8,400-crore initial public offering of SBI Life Insurance Company has been subscribed 58 percent on final day, as per latest data available on exchanges.

The issue received bids for 5.08 crore equity shares against IPO size of 8.82 crore shares, excluding anchor investors’ portion.

9:28 am Unitech case: The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to grant interim bail to Unitech promoter Sanjay Chandra for the third time this month.

An amount of Rs 7, 816 crore has been collected by the company from 16,300 home buyers from across all Unitech projects, amicus curiae appointed for the case Pawanshree Aggrawal told the Supreme Court.

9:25 am Currency outlook: “The dollar is at an inflection point and it is going to be a large determinant of what the broad direction of emerging markets including rupee is going to be,” Brijen Puri, Markets Head-India at JPMorgan said in an interview to CNBC-TV18.

“Our base case is that in the medium-term, fundamentally, the dollar should continue to depreciate but in the short-term given the positioning in the market we could see a short-term reversal in dollar, said Puri.

Talking about Fed, he said markets now pricing in one more price hike by Fed in 2017.

According to him, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is not comfortable with continued appreciation in rupee. Puri thinks best of rupee appreciation is over.

9:22 am Tata Sons privatisation: Shareholders of Tata Sons have given their approval to amend the company’s Articles of Association (AoA) and Memorandum of Association (MoA) to make it a private limited company from a public limited one, sources tell CNBC-TV18.

Tata Sons Annual General Meeting which concluded on Thursday also saw all other resolutions being passed by a requisite majority, adds CNBC-TV18.

The Mistry family, which owns 18.4 percent of Tata Sons, had called the move “oppression of the minority interests” and stated that it would vote against the proposal.

Tata Trusts holds 66 percent in Tata Sons.

The move comes almost a year after Cyrus Mistry was ousted as chairman of the Tata Group, triggering a bitter boardroom battle. N Chandrasekaran was appointed Chairman in January this year.

9:20 am IPO opens: Prataap Snacks’ Rs 482-crore initial public offering has opened for subscription today, with a price band of Rs 930-938 per share.

The issue, which will close on September 26, comprises of fresh issue and offer for sale by promoters and investors.

The public issue comprises of fresh issue of equity shares up to Rs 200 crore and an offer for sale of up to 30,05,770 shares.

An offer for sale includes sale of up to 3,69,451 shares by Sequoia Capital GFIV Mauritius Investment (SCG) and up to 94,266 shares by Sequoia Capital India Growth Investment Holdings I (SCIGIH), which both are investor selling shareholders.

An offer for sale also include sale of up to 13,17,093 shares by SCI Growth Investments II (SCI), up to 1,83,740 shares by Arvind Mehta, up to 1,39,200 shares by Naveen Mehta, up to 1,39,200 shares by Arun Mehta, up to 3,61,920 shares by Rajesh Mehta, up to 66,820 shares by Kanta Mehta, up to 77,950 shares by Premlata Kumat, up to 22,270 shares by Swati Bapna, up to 1,16,930 shares by Apoorva Kumat and up to 1,16,930 shares by Amit Kumat, which are promoter selling shareholders.

9:15 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks fell sharply in opening on Friday, tracking weakness in Asia post North Korea threatened it could consider testing a nuclear weapon in the Pacific.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 163.54 points at 32,206.50 and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 58.25 points to 10,063.65.

All sectoral indices were in red as Nifty Auto, FMCG, Metal and PSU Bank and Private Bank lost 0.4-1 percent.

The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices dropped 0.7 percent each as about two shares declined for every share rising on the BSE.

In broader space, Exide Industries, Graphite India, JP Associates, PTC India and Matrimony.com were down up to 4 percent while Ipca Labs rallied 2.5 percent.

The Indian rupee slipped further as it traded at lowest level since April 5, down 28 paise at 65.11 against the US dollar after flat opening.

It has opened at 64.80 per dollar versus previous close of 64.81.
Yesterday rupee plummeted by 54 paise to end at 64.81 a dollar after the Federal Reserve left the door open for a rate hike in December.