Market Live: Sensex opens on a flat note, Nifty above 9900; midcaps outperform

10:25 am Buzzing Stocks: Glenmark Pharmaceuticals gained over 4 percent intraday on Thursday. Investors could have cheered a regulatory development for the company.

According to reports on CNBC-TV18, quoting Cogencis, UK drug regulator has renewed a manufacturing certificate for Glenmark’s Baddi unit.

Furthermore, Czech drug body has also renewed the manufacturing certificate for Glenmark’s Fibichova Unit

10:08 am Market Check: Benchmark indices extended their gains from the morning session, with the Nifty inching towards 9950-mark.

The Sensex was up 97.95 points at 31769.66, while the Nifty was up 29.75 points at 9944.65. The market breadth was positive as 1,347 shares advanced against a decline of 537 shares, while 59 shares were unchanged.

Mahindra and Mahindra, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, Yes Bank and Aurobindo Pharma were the top gainers, while Bharti Airtel, Hero MotoCorp, Bharti Infratel and Power Grid Corporation.

9:55 am Loan default disclosure norms: The Securities and Exchange Board of India may not be coming out with a circular on loan default disclosure norms any time soon as mounting pressure from banks has made the markets regulator bury it for now, sources told Moneycontrol.

It is noteworthy that the SEBI circular, which was originally issued in August, was withdrawn only a day before it was supposed to have been implemented. The circular mandated corporates to reveal details of their loan default – either interest payment or principal repayment – within a day’s time of default.

Now, the circular might not see the light of day in the near future, say sources. Banks have been petitioning the Finance Ministry and SEBI over the last couple of months against such a circular as they believe loan default disclosures will increase their provisioning burden.

9:42 am New Listing today: Prataap Snacks, whose initial share sale offer received robust investor demand last week, will list its shares on bourses on October 5.

The Rs 482-crore initial public offer (IPO) was oversubscribed 47.39 times during September 22-26. The qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) portion was oversubscribed 76.89 times, non-institutional investors 101.15 times and retail investors 8.48 times, according to NSE data.

The issue was in a price band of Rs 930-938 per share. The company, which makes products under the ‘Yellow Diamond’ brand, aims to use the proceeds to expand capacity, marketing and brand building activities and retire the debt on its books. Edelweiss, JM Financial and Spark Capital were managing the issue.

9:33 am Buzzing Stock: Shares of Mahindra and Mahindra gained over 2 percent as investors cheered a ratings upgrade on the stock.

Global brokerage firm, CLSA, upgraded its rating on the stock to outperform and raised the target to Rs 1,610.

CLSA observed that volume growth for the company is on an uptrend, while the tractor business is seeing strong demand.

Moreover, the SUV business is a drag, but volumes are seeing a recovery on low base. In fact, it expects the upcoming MPV launch to boost FY19 growth.

The stock, the brokerage said, looks attractive after underperforming the Nifty by 13 percent since June.

9:15 am Market Opens: Frontline indices on Thursday opened on a flat note, with the Nifty trading above 9900-mark in the opening tick.

The Sensex was up 48.81 points at 31720.52, while the Nifty was up 11.30 points at 9926.20. The market breadth was positive as 296 shares advanced against a decline of 110 shares, while 18 shares were unchanged.

In the broader markets, midcaps have outperformed the frontline indices, while on a sectoral level, Nifty Bank, IT and infra are flat with a negative bias.

Mahindra and Mahindra, HUL and Reliance were the top gainers, while NTPC, Wipro, Bharti Infratel and Tata Motors lost the most.

The Indian rupee opened lower at 65.09 per dollar on Thursday versus previous close 65.01.

Mohan Shenoi of Kotak Mahindra Bank said, “Rupee has gained from exporter participation and revival of carry trades post RBI announcing status quo on interest rates. USD-INR trading range for the day is seen between 64.90-65.20.”

He further added, “Rising trajectory of CPI, status quo on RBI policy, reduction in SLR and HTM holdings by banks and worries on Fed’s unwinding plans has made local bond market bearish.”

“10-year yield has jumped up to 6.70 percent following lack of cues from RBI for further rate cuts. 6.79% GoI 2027 expected trading range for the day is 6.69-6.73 percent,” he said.

Asian shares were a tad firmer on Thursday, taking their cues from strong US data although holiday-thinned trade and uncertainty about the impact of recent hurricanes on the U.S. economy are likely to keep investors cautious.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was almost flat while Japan’s Nikkei ticked up 0.1 percent.

In Asia on Thursday, trade is expected to remain subdued with China, Hong Kong and South Korea closed for public holidays and analysts cautioning against reading too much into index moves.

Wall Street’s three major stock indexes rallied to fresh highs on Wednesday as did MSCI’s all-country world stock index .

US stocks edged up to extend their run of record closing highs on Wednesday as data on the services sector added to signs of strength in the economy and prospects for earnings.

It was the third straight session where all three major indexes hit record closing highs, though the small-cap Russell 2000 broke its string of eight all-time high finishes, ending down 0.3 percent.
Shares of Netflix helped lift the S&P 500, rising 2.9 percent, after UBS raised its price target on the company. Shares of Amazon , up 0.9 percent, gave the index its biggest boost.