Market Live: Sensex falls over 400 pts amid Myanmar border tensions; rupee sinks

3:23 pm Ambani speech: Chairman of Reliance Industries (RIL) Mukesh Ambani stressed on the creation of a digital infrastructure in India in line with the Prime Minister’s vision of a Digital India as he spoke at the Indian Mobile Congress in New Delhi.

“Data is the oxygen of a digital economy,” Ambani said.

Emphasizing that India ranks first in data consumption globally, he said that the pace at which India’s digital economy has grown in the span of a year is unparalleled.

He said that he believes that the Indian economy will rank among the top three economies of the world in the next 20 years, given that telecom and IT industries play a foundational role in creating a digital infrastructure.

Ambani highlighted that India has missed the three major industrial revolutions of mechanization, mass production and automation but shall rise up to the fourth industrial revolution “fuelled by connectivity, data and artificial intelligence” which has already begun.

“Data is the new oil. India does not need to import it. We have it in superabundance. It will be a new source of value and will create opportunities and prosperity for India and millions of Indians,” he said.

Disclosure: Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd.

3:18 pm Exclusive interview with Dabur: “Not satisfied with No 3 slot for Dabur, said Chief Executive Officer Sunil Duggal who is busy with the larger objective of rebuilding the company’s topline.

In exclusive interview to Moneycontrol, he said that in the next one or two years Dabur will take the No 2 slot in oral care after Colgate.

3:15 pm Loan book target: Piramal Housing Finance, a wholly-owned housing finance subsidiary of Piramal Finance, is targeting a loan book of Rs 15,000 crore by 2020. The housing finance unit set up on September 4 has assets under management (AUM) of over Rs 200 crore at present. Piramal Finance has infused equity capital of Rs 1,000 crore in the subsidiary.

Currently, it has an operational branch in Goregaon, a suburb of Mumbai, and plans to open a branch in Thane soon.

3:10 pm Management interview: Talking about any further fund raising, Bhargav Dasgupta, MD & CEO, ICICI Lombard said the total capital with them at this point is significantly higher than regulatory requirement of 1.5, so the current solvency of ICICI Lombard stands at 2.13 and looking at their profitability, cash flow they do not see the need for capital raising for normal organic growth.

However, they may consider raising funds for inorganic growth opportunities, said Dasgupta.

Confident of the business growth going forward he said the general insurance industry is expected to sustain a 15-16 percent growth. However, they aim to grow faster than the industry and have a targeted growth rate of 15-20 percent, he said.

3:05 pm Financial assistance: State-run Power Finance Corporation (PFC) has committed financial assistance of Rs 4,009 crore to Telangana for setting up a 4,000 MW thermal power plant in Nalgonda district.

PFC has sanctioned a term loan of Rs 4,009 crore to TSGENCO (Telangana Power Generation Corporation) for setting up 5X800 MW, coal based Yadadri Thermal Power Plant using super-critical technology in Nalgonda district of Telangana, a PFC statement said.

3:01 pm Digital push: Bharti Airtel will invest up to Rs 20,000 crore this year in digital infrastructure, the company’s chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal said today.

Speaking at the India Mobile Congress, Mittal — who shared the dais with arch industry rival Mukesh Ambani (Reliance Industries chairman) — advocated a collaborative approach to overcome challenges and unleash the growth potential of the sector.

“India’s time has come…each large tech honcho is looking at India,” Mittal said terming the country as an emerging showcase for digital technology.

Mittal said the telecom industry is offering “yeoman service” and infusing large amounts of money in strengthening infrastructure.

Airtel will invest Rs 18,000 to Rs 20,000 crore this year, he said, adding that the industry overall will be injecting Rs 50,000-60,000 crore to build digital infrastructure.

2:55 pm Market Check: Benchmark indices plunged further amid Myanmar border tensions. The BSE Sensex was down 443.68 points or 1.40 percent at 31,156.08 and the NSE Nifty dropped 142.45 points or 1.44 percent to 9,729.05.

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

2:45 pm Rupee trade: The Indian rupee extended losses in last hour of trade, trading at 65.73 against the United States Dollar, down 28 paise from previous closing of 65.45 a dollar.

The drop in rupee was following fresh spell of month-end dollar demand from importers and banks and a higher greenback overseas.
Persistent capital outflows and subdued domestic equities

hurt rupee sentiment, dealers said.
FPIs withdrew over Rs 1,915.54 crore on net basis from

stock markets yesterday, as per provisional exchange data.

2:37 pm GST concerns: Sources told CNBC-TV18 that the government will make fresh efforts to address concerns raised by traders. It will hold special sessions with traders pan India on GST (goods & services tax).

The government is concerned about drop in GST filings for August, sources said.

2:32 pm Alstom SA rallies: Alstom shares rose nearly 5 percent following confirmation that the French firm will merge with Siemens.

The companies will merge their rail operations and have decided to make Alstom’s Henri Poupart-Lafarge their chief executive.

2:25 pm Myanmar border tensions: The Indian Army struck hideouts of Naga militants along the Myanmar border early on Wednesday.

NSCN-K cadres are believed to have suffered heavy casualties as a result of the counter-insurgency operation that took place at around 4.45 am. The Indian Army said none of its personnel were hurt in the operation, contradicting reports that have suggested otherwise.

2:18 pm Market Check: Equity benchmarks extended losses in afternoon despite positive trade in European markets, ahead of expiry of September futures & options contracts on Thursday.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 316.80 points or 1 percent at 31,282.96 and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 102.05 points or 1.03 percent to 9,769.45.

The broader markets also corrected in line with benchmarks, falling around a percent. About three shares declined for every share rising on the BSE.

The Nifty IT was only gainer among sectoral indices, up 0.2 percent following sharp depreciation in rupee. TCS was up 0.8 percent and Tech Mahindra rose 1.6 percent.

2:06 pm Niti Aayog on fiscal deficit: India’s economy will do well with extra fiscal stimulus and there will be no harm if New Delhi busts its fiscal deficit target to create space for higher capital spending, a top government policy adviser said today.

The comments from Rajiv Kumar, deputy head of policy think-tank Niti Aayog, comes at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration is deliberating on measures to revive an economy, which recorded its slowest growth in three years in June quarter.

Government officials last week told Reuters that they were contemplating spending up to Rs 50,000 crore (USD 7.61 billion) more to halt the slowdown, which could widen the federal fiscal deficit for the financial year ending next March to 3.7 percent of GDP from a budgeted target of 3.2 percent.

1:58 pm Global Competitiveness Report: The World Economic Forum has praised the quality of Indian institutions in terms of public spending in its Global Competitiveness Report for 2017-18. The report has maintained that India still needs to tackle corruption in certain sectors.

“The quality of institutions has increased further, especially in terms of efficiency of public spending, but the private sector still considers corruption to be the most problematic factor for doing business in India,” the report says.

A slew of reforms, digitisation and e-governance measures introduced in the country have helped the polity and the economy as a whole.

India has been ranked at 40 in the Global Competitiveness Index 2017-18 compiled by the World Economic Forum (WEF), the highest rank for a South Asian country so far out of a total of 137 countries across the globe.

1:43 pm Order win: Larsen & Toubro (L&T) said its construction arm has won orders worth Rs 2,170 crore across business segments. L&T Construction has bagged orders worth Rs 2,170 crore across business segments, the company said in a BSE filing.

L&T said its water and effluent treatment business has won an order worth Rs 1,547 crore while the power transmission and distribution business has bagged orders worth Rs 623 crore in the domestic and international market.

1:32 pm Market Check: Equity benchmarks were mildly off the day’s highs, with the Nifty hovering around 9800-mark.

The Sensex was down 207.80 points or 0.66% at 31391.96, while the Nifty was down 65.65 points or 0.67% at 9805.85. The market breadth was negative as 754 shares advanced against a decline of 1558 shares, while 133 shares are unchanged.

1:20 pm Exit at Infosys? Another key lieutenant of Vishal Sikka has tendered his resignation at Infosys. Navin Budhiraja, who had followed Sikka from German Software giant SAP SE, resigned a month after Sikka stepped down.

According to Mint, the architecture and technology head Budhiraja submitted his papers over the weekend. This was the 12th resignation by a SAP executive in Infosys since March last year.

Budhiraja was a senior VP, and joined Infosys in August 2014 and was one of the 16 executives from SAP to join Infosys at the rank of associate VP.

1:00 pm Banks under pressure: Nifty Bank declined 250 points in afternoon. State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Canara Bank, Axis Bank, PNB, Bank of Baroda, Yes Bank and HDFC Bank were down 1-2 percent.

12:50 pm Buzzing: Sun Pharmaceutical Industries share price fell 3.4 percent intraday after tepid outlook from the management for current financial year 2017-18.

“Growth could be a challenge in FY18 and we expect a single-digit decline in consolidated revenues for FY18 over FY17,” founder Dilip Shanghvi said while addressing 25th Annual General Meeting on September 26.

The US generics industry is facing rapidly changing market dynamics. Increased competitive intensity and strong customer consolidation is leading to pressure on pricing, he reasoned.

Continued delay in approvals from the Halol facility is also impacting Sun Pharma, he said.

12:40 pm Europe trade: European markets opened higher on growing expectations of another rate hike in the United States before the year-end.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 was 0.16 percent higher with most sectors trading in positive territory.

Janet Yellen, the chair of the US Federal Reserve said Tuesday that it would be “imprudent” to keep monetary policy on hold waiting for inflation to reach 2 percent and that moving “too gradually” could be risky. The US dollar and bond yields jumped Wednesday on such remarks.

Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump said that a military option for North Korea isn’t the preferred choice but if this were to be the case, it would be “devastating” for Pyongyang. Asian investors trod cautiously on today as amid the geopolitical tensions.

12:33 pm Market Check: Benchmark indices fell further in afternoon trade, with the Nifty breaching 9,800 level, weighed by ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries, and HDFC Bank.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 255.28 points or 0.81 percent at 31,344.48 and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 78.15 points or 0.79 percent to 9,793.35.

About 1,404 shares declined against 850 advancing shares on the BSE.

12:11 pm Poll on RBI policy: The Reserve Bank of India will hold policy steady at its October 4 meeting, and well past next year, amid weak economic growth and signs inflation may soon overshoot its target, a Reuters poll found.

Asia’s third-largest economy started losing momentum after the government scrapped 86 percent of currency in circulation late last year, hurting demand in India’s cash-reliant economy, and the slowdown was compounded by the implementation of a new tax system.

In August, despite a neutral policy bias, India’s central bank cut the key policy rate after lowering its economic growth forecast in June to 7.3 percent from 7.4 percent for the current fiscal year.

The latest poll of 60 economists showed although the RBI will hold its key repo rate at a seven-year low of 6 percent next week, it will downgrade its growth forecast again following disruptions caused by the new tax.

12:01 pm MS on ITC: ITC share price gained more than a percent intraday after Morgan Stanley has upgraded the stock to overweight from equal weight.

The research house also increased its target price for the stock to Rs 320 per share from Rs 285 as it expects steady cigarette tax policy from here, though there could be volume decline of 2 percent in FY18.

ITC has been a strong consensus buy, it said. The stock is one of the worst-performing stocks year-to-date. It gained nearly 9 percent since the beginning of 2017 while the Benchmark Sensex surged nearly 19 percent.

The underperformance of the stock was largely due to increase in GST cess to pre-GST level.

11:50 am USFDA approval: Glenmark Pharmaceuticals has received final approval from the US health regulator for Desonide lotion used to treat skin rashes and irritation.

“Glenmark Pharmaceuticals has been granted final approval by the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) for Desonide lotion, 0.05%,” the company said in a regulatory filing.

According to IMS health sales data, for the 12 months ended July, the Desonide lotion, 0.05%, achieved annual sales of around USD 23.2 million.

11:37 am Rupee Trade: The Indian rupee extended losses in late morning trade on strong demand for United States Dollar.

It was trading at 65.68 to the dollar, down 22 paise from previous closing level of 65.45 a dollar.

11:25 am Vodafone-Idea merger: The merger of Vodafone India and Idea Cellular is on track and is expected to be completed in calender year 2018, a top Vodafone official told PTI today.

Vodafone India MD and CEO Sunil Sood said “absolutely”, when asked if the merger of the two telecom firms is on course.

Stating that the merger process goes through various stages, including approvals from the CCI, Sebi, the NCLT and the telecom department, Sood said “we feel all of them are on track and in fact, we are going ahead on schedule”.

On the timeline for completion of the merger, he said it will happen by 2018.

11:10 am Market Outlook: Volatility in the Indian market continued from the previous sessions, as frontline indices were off the opening gains. Investors could be cautious ahead of the F&O expiry of September derivative contracts.

The weak move on the Street in the past few sessions has triggered the debate on whether these are signs of a ‘genuine correction’ going forward.

“In the past one month, valuations had run up ahead of fundamentals and liquidity flows were high. But, local and global events such as crude price hike, weak rupee and news of fiscal stimulus package have triggered a profit taking among investors,” Krishna Kumar Karwa, MD, Emkay Global Financial Services told CNBC-TV18 in an interview.

There could be some time correction that could take place though. Having said that, he added, long-term opportunities do seem to be strong for the market.

So, going forward, chances of another top are less likely, Karwa said. “Earnings may not be supportive in this quarter and many analysts have downgraded them for FY18 based on overall growth,” he told the channel.

10:59 am Buzzing: Den Networks share price rallied 12.7 percent intraday amid a media report that Reliance Industries may be buying the company.

“Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries is in talks to acquire Sameer Manchanda promoted multi-system operator (MSO), DEN Networks,” according to The Economic Times report.

The report said the deal is most likely to go through and the valuation DEN is looking at is between Rs 2,000 crore and Rs 2,200 crore.

Disclosure: Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd.

10:52 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks extended losses in morning, with the Sensex falling 153.39 points or 0.49 percent to 31,446.37.

The 50-share NSE Nifty went closer to 9,800 level, down 50.85 points or 0.52 percent at 9,820.65.

The market breadth also turned negative as about 1,142 share declined against 912 advancing shares on the BSE.

10:39 am Capital infusion: Government officials told CNBC-TV18 that PSU banks will need substantially higher capital infusion if more cases go to National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).

Additional capital infusion in PSU bank is linked to how many more cases are referred to NCLT but that addition capital infusion may not happen entirely from budgetary support, officials said.

They said the government may commence PSU bank capital infusion after Q2 earnings.

PSU bank merger announcement in current fiscal is not ruled out, they said.

10:29 am Buzzing: Divis Laboratories share price plunged little more than 9 percent intraday after its Vizag unit 2 has received six observations from the US health regulator.

After inspecting the plant during September 11-19, the US Food and Drug Administration has issued six observations including failure in testing individual batches and inadequate cleaning instructions.

The USFDA pointed out that the company has failed to test individual batches of final API with conformity with all appropriate specifications and the lab failures have not been thoroughly investigated.

Among other observations, Divis failed to validate the manufacturing cleaning length of time and there are inadequate cleaning instructions for major equipment. Batch records are not always recorded, according to the regulator.

10:15 am SEBI’s action: To stop unauthorised trading activities by brokers in their clients’ accounts, markets regulator Sebi on Tuesday asked brokers to store all records of orders placed by clients which are accepted in a court of law. These records include written documents signed by the client, recording of telephone conversations, emails from authorised email IDs, log for online transactions, SMSs or any other form of proof that is legally verifiable.

10:05 am 5G service: The government has formed a high-level forum to guide India to start 5G service by 2020, a technology that will deliver wireless broadband speed of about 10,000 mbps in urban areas and 1,000 mbps in rural belts, Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha said on Tuesday.

In a bid to facilitate research and development activities for 5G service rollout, the government is looking at setting up a Rs 500-crore support fund.

“We have created a high-level 5G forum that will work on vision mission and goals of 5G service in the country. When the world will roll out 5G in 2020, I believe India will be at par with them,” Sinha said.

10:00 am Tepid Listing: ICICI Lombard General Insurance listed at Rs 646.50 per share on the NSE, down 2.2 percent from issue price of Rs 661 per share.

9:55 am RCom vs Ericsson case: The insolvency court has adjourned the hearing of the case between Reliance Communications (RCom) and Ericsson to October 6.

RCom will file its reply to Ericsson’s petition before the next hearing and the former will be heard in the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on October 6, according to CNBC TV18 reports.

In a stock exchange filing on September 13, RCom said Ericsson India has filed a petition under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) to recover Rs 491.41 crore from the company. “Ericsson has also filed similar petitions against Reliance Infratel Limited and Reliance Telecom Limited, subsidiaries of the company for recovery of an amount of Rs 534.75 crore and Rs 129.34 crore respectively,” the company filing said.

9:53 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks erased opening gains amid consolidation. The Sensex was down 33.93 points at 31,565.83 and the Nifty fell 15.25 points to 9,856.25.

About two shares advanced for every falling on the BSE.

9:48 am Yellen speech: The Federal Reserve needs to continue gradual rate hikes despite broad uncertainty about the path of inflation, Fed Chair Janet Yellen said on Tuesday in remarks that acknowledged the central bank’s struggles to forecast one of its key policy objectives.

It is possible, Yellen said, that the Fed may have “misspecified” its models for inflation, and “misjudged” key facts like the underlying strength of the labour market and whether inflation expectations are as stable as they seem, and central bankers need to remain open to that possibility as they decide on policy.

Still, recent low inflation was likely a reflection of factors that would fade over time and despite uncertainties, it “would be imprudent to keep monetary policy on hold until inflation is back to 2 percent,” Yellen said in a 37-page address to the National Association for Business Economics

9:45 am Pre-opening: ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company share price settled at Rs 651 in pre-opening trade on the National Stock Exchange, down 1.5 percent from its issue price of Rs 661.

9:40 am Rupee: The Indian rupee depreciated further today, falling 6 paise to 65.51 against the United States Dollar, compared with previous closing value of 65.45.

9:37 am Rollovers ahead of F&O expiry: Nifty rollovers were at 31.13 percent on Tuesday, lower than 3-month average of 37.67 percent, ICICIdirect said.

The market wide rollover was at 37.65 percent versus 3-month average of 35.5 percent.

Highest rollover was observed in Dewan Housing Finance (62 percent), Dabur (59 percent), Glenmark Pharma (55 percent), Biocon (55 percent) and Muthoot Finance (49 percent).

With just two days to settlement, rollover activity was significantly low in stocks like OFSS, Divis Lab, Colgate, NIIT Tech and Repco Home Finance.

Rollover in the Nifty picked up momentum due to fresh addition in the next series while roll spread declined further. Nifty September series witnessed closure of 1.9 million shares while the October series added more than 3 million shares, which prompted an increase in Nifty rollover. The current open interest in Nifty is close to 17 million shares, which is marginally high compared to the last couple of series, ICICIdirect said.

9:35 am Buzzing: Shares of Petron Engineering Construction was locked at 5 percent upper circuit on order win from JSW Steel.

There were pending buy orders of 20,115 shares, with no sellers available.

The company has received purchase order from JSW Steel for supply, fabrication, erection & alignment of prefabricated steel structure for Blast Furnace#2 and raw material handling system (RMHS) conveyor gallery & junction house at Dolvi, Raigad, Maharashtra, India for an approximately value of Rs 280 crore (Including GST),” as per company release.

9:31 am China’s industrial profit growth: Annual profits at China’s industrial companies rose 24 percent in August, accelerating from the previous month in an indication economic growth remains in good heart even as signs emerge of fading momentum following a robust first half.

The upbeat earnings is another sweetener for authorities as Beijing focuses on stripping out financial risks from years of debt-fueled growth and keeping the economy on a steady footing ahead of a crucial party gathering next month.

Profits in August jumped 24 percent to 672 billion yuan ($ 101.21 billion), the biggest percentage jump since the January-Feb period, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Wednesday. Annual profit growth was 16.5 percent in July.

9:25 am Macro problems: Amid reports of a fiscal stimulus to boost the sagging economy, a foreign brokerage has warned the present macro problems are due to higher spending and not lack of it and also not due to low revenue receipts and hence a pump priming maybe counterproductive this time around.

“The fiscal stress is more a result of excess spending thus far, which has not left much room for spending in the remaining months: it can rise only 1.5 per cent y-o-y in August-March versus 23.1 per cent in April-July to meet the FY18 budgeted spending target.

“Therefore, a fiscal stimulus may not be so much to boost growth as to prevent a bigger drag,” Nomura India chief economist Sonal Verma has said in a report.

Noting that the current fiscal trends suggest spending is to blame, not revenue, she said revenue collection for April-July was only 2.1 per cent below the historical run- rate, but better than in recent years.

9:20 am Non-life insurer to debut: ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company is set to debut on the bourses today. It has set final issue price at Rs 661 per share, the higher end of price band.

Analysts don’t expect strong listing gains as the initial share sale offer that ended last week was oversubscribed 3 times. In addition, equity markets have been subdued from last week, they said.

The reserved portion of qualified institutional investors has oversubscribed 8.17 times while the retail category showed a subscription of 1.22 times and non-institutional investors 0.82 times.

The Rs 5,700-crore public issue, which was opened during September 15-19, had a price band at Rs 651-661 per share.

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

9:15 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks opened mildly higher amid volatility on Wednesday, ahead of expiry of September derivative contracts tomorrow.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 37.18 points at 31,636.94 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 5 points to 9,876.50.

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

Sun Pharma lost 2 percent post AGM. Divis Labs fell 7 percent on USFDA observations for unit 2. Dr Reddy’s Labs was also under pressure.

The Nifty Midcap was up 0.4 percent on positive breadth.
Edelweiss Financial, Shriram Transport, Indiabulls Ventures, RCF, FACT, Den Networks, Hathway Cable, Bajaj Hindusthan and Balrampur Chini gained 1-10 percent while DHFL and REC were under pressure.