Market Live: Nifty holds 9,850 amid rangebound trade; Midcap outperforms

10:15 am P Chidambaram on ED action: Former finance minister P Chidambaram called the ED action against his son and a firm as “a crazy mixture of falsehoods and conjectures”.

“I will not be intimidated,” the senior Congress leader said in a statement issued after an ED order attaching assets of Karti Chidambaram and the firm under anti-money laundering laws.

Chidambaram said that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) press note is “intended to intimidate me and to silence my voice.”

“The allegations in the press note are a crazy mixture of falsehoods and conjectures,” he said.

“I have read the press note released by the Enforcement Directorate. It cleverly skirts the issue of jurisdiction of the ED when the only charge sheet filed in the case (Aircel-Maxis) has been quashed by the special judge,” Chidambaram said.

He said that as and when the attachment order is served, “suitable action will be taken in accordance with law.”

10:03 am Market Outlook: In the past two months, the markets have moved largely sideways, believes Vibhav Kapoor of IL&FS.

“I expected a correction. Stocks have been as expensive as ever and there is no case of buying right now,” Kapoor told CNBC-TV18 in an interview.

But, going forward, a correction will take place and there are multiple reasons at play, he said. “Macros are deteriorating and oil price movements need to be watched. As a result, current account deficit could see strain, rupee will fall, among others. Plus, interest rates in the US could go up,” he told the channel.

He stressed on the fact that many midcaps had ‘ridiculous valuations’ in pockets such as a few NBFCs, and FMCG, among others.

9:58 am Offshore stocks gain: Selan Exploration, Dolphin Offshore Aban Offshore and HOEC rallied 5-11 percent.

9:55 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks remained rangebound in morning but broader markets rebounded with mild gains on positive breadth.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 19.09 points at 31,607.54 and the 50-share NSE Nifty declined 5.70 points to 9,866.90.

The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices gained 0.2-0.4 percent as about two shares advanced for every share falling on the exchange.

Experts expect the volatility to continue ahead of expiry of September futures & options contracts on Thursday.

“Volatility will remain high due to the upcoming derivatives expiry and erratic swings on global front. Thus traders should limit their positions and wait for some stability,” Jayant Manglik, President, Retail Distribution, Religare Securities said.

9:50 am Power reforms: Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a Rs 16,320-crore scheme – Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana ‘Saubhagya’ – to provide electricity connections to over 4 crore families in rural and urban areas by December 2018, on Monday.

“Rs 16,000 crore will be spent to bring a monumental change in the lives of the poor,” Modi said while launching the ‘Saubhagya’ scheme here.

The Rural Electrification Corporation Limited (REC) will remain the nodal agency for the operationalisation of the scheme throughout the country.

9:46 am Stake buy in PSU bank: LIC has acquired an over 4.5 percent stake in public sector lender Dena Bank in preferential allotment of shares over a period of nearly three months to mid-September.

LIC, the country’s largest and the only state-owned life insurer, bought nearly 4.52 percent shares in Dena Bank in a period between May 23 to September 18, the bank said in a regulatory filing.

The equity sale to LIC was done through a preferential allotment of shares. Prior to this additional stake purchase, LIC held over 9.73 percent (96,705,466 shares) stake in Dena Bank.

Thus, the current shareholding in Dena Bank by LIC has increased to over 14.25 percent, representing 141,571,168 shares, showed the regulatory filing.

9:45 am Govt bonds: Government bonds on Monday received robust response from foreign investors attracting bids to the tune of about USD 700 million, against USD 429 million on offer.

The auction was conducted on NSE’s e-bid platform from 15:30 hours to 17:30 hours, after the market hours.

At the end of the two-hour auction, as many as 37 bids were declared successful out of 47, the exchange data showed.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bid for investment limits in government debt securities worth Rs 4,541 crore (USD 699 million) as against Rs 2,786 crore (USD 429 million) on offer.

9:43 am Stake sale: State-owned IDBI Bank said it has sold one percent stake in Small Industries Development Bank of India (Sidbi) for an undisclosed amount in a bid to mobilise funds by exiting non-core business.

The bank has sold 53,19,220 shares constituting 1 per cent of the paid up capital of Sidbi, IDBI Bank said in a regulatory filing.

Without disclosing the name of the buyer, the bank said, the sale took place on September 22.

Sidbi was originally 100 percent owned by IDBI, when it was a term lending institution. Later in 2000, it divested 51 percent stake in favour of government owned banks and insurance companies.

9:40 am Rail merger: German industrial group Siemens is likely to decide today to pursue a multibillion-dollar rail merger with French rival Alstom rather than Canada’s Bombardier , two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The three major train and rail technology groups active in Europe have been looking at combining their businesses as larger Chinese state-backed rival CRRC embarks on a global expansion drive.

“I think Alstom will make it,” one of the people said on Monday. The second person said Siemens’ supervisory board would decide the matter on Tuesday, also describing Alstom as the frontrunner.

9:35 am Aviation stocks under pressure: SpiceJet and Jet Airways fell 3 percent each after Brent crude oil prices fell 3.8 percent yesterday but rebounded with mild gains today.

9:30 am RBI on NBFCs: Banks can no longer hold more than a 10 percent stake in a deposit taking non-banking finance company, with the exception of lenders owning equity in housing finance companies, and also regulated their commodity derivatives play, according to a Reserve Bank of India circular.

In amendments to the Master Direction – Reserve Bank of India (Financial Services provided by banks) Directions, 2016, the central bank said banks should not invest more than 10 percent of the unit capital of a real estate investment trust (ReIT) or an infrastructure investment trust (InvIT) subject to overall ceiling of 20 percent of its net worth.

9:25 am Asia growth: Developing Asia is on track to grow faster this year and next, the Asian Development Bank said today, buoyed by a pick-up in world trade and China’s expansion, but it flagged risks from tightening US monetary policy.

Developing Asia is expected to grow by 5.9 and 5.8 percent in 2017 and 2018, respectively, the Manila-based lender said.

That is unchanged from its July estimates, but higher than the 5.7 percent forecast it gave for both years in its Asian Development Outlook (ADO) released in April.

9:20 am Market Outlook: Aditya Agarwal of Way2Wealth Brokers said being the expiry week, high volatility is expected in coming trading session and traders are advised to keep strict stop losses in short-term trading positions.

“For the current week, we maintain cautious view and believe that 10,180 to 10,250 range will act as a strong hurdle and it will be a daunting task for bulls to surpass this zone immediately,” he said.

On the lower side, 9,740 will act as an immediate support whereas the strong support placed at 9,685. Any break below this level will confirm the medium-term downtrend.

9:15 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks opened flat on Tuesday after witnessing sharp fall in previous two sessions, and ahead of expiry of September derivative contracts.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 8.55 points at 31618.08 and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 6.90 points at 9,879.50.

Lupin, ONGC, Power Grid and Sun Pharma were early gainers.

Nifty Midcap was up 0.1 percent. Jet Airways, InterGlobe Aviation, SpiceJet, JK Paper and Alkem Labs were down up to 4 percent while REC, Adani Transmission, Avenue Supermarts, Shoppers Stop and DHFL gained 1-6 percent.

The Indian rupee hit a six-month low, opening lower by 14 paise at 65.24 per dollar today versus 65.10 on Monday.
Asian markets were pressured, following declines on Wall Street overnight, as the war of words between North Korea and the US escalated.