Market Live: Sensex off day#39;s high, Nifty slips below 10,000; Q2 earnings eyed

11:56 am Order win: Shares of Kalpataru Power Transmission rose 2.5 percent intraday as it has received orders worth Rs 1,057 crore.

The company has secured new orders / notification of award of Rs 1,057 crore, including two orders of Rs 913 crore for design, supply and construction of 500 kV and 225/90 kV transmission lines in Thailand and Africa and an order for pipeline installation and associated terminal works of KSPPL for Rs 144 crore.

11:50 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks erased some gains amid consolidation in late morning trade as investors awaited second quarter earnings season that will begin tomorrow with South Indian Bank.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 40.58 points at 31,854.80 and the 50-sahre NSE Nifty gained 6 points at 9,985.70.

The market breadth remained strong as about 1,445 shares advanced against 958 declining shares on the BSE.

11:40 am Auto sales: Global brokerage houses retained their positive view on Tata Motors following Jaguar Land Rover’s September sales data.

While maintaining outperform rating, Credit Suisse said sales volumes improved marginally and expects sharper improvement in second half of FY18.

It expects JLR volume growth at 15 percent in second half of FY18 against 4 percent in first half.

Nomura has maintained its buy rating with a target price of Rs 514, which implies 21.5 percent potential upside.

In FY18, the research house expects wholesale sales growth to remain healthy at around 9.8 percent YoY led by the ramp-up of the new RR Velar, launch of E-Pace/XE (Long wheel base) in Q4FY18 and RR Sport variants (in Oct-2017).

Jaguar Land Rover reported September 2017 retail sales growth of around 7 percent YoY to 65,097 units, largely in line with Nomura estimate. Jaguar sales increased around 4 percent to 18,336 units, while Land Rover was up around 7.7 percent YoY at 46,761 units.

11:27 am Management interview: The pre-sales for the second quarter were up 14.4 percent at Rs 592 crore versus Rs 518.2 crore for the same month last fiscal.

The company posted sales value which was highest in the last three years, said JC Sharma, Vice Chairman & MD, Sobha. This tells us that even while the macro environment was sluggish, if one were to focus on marketing and believe that underlying demand will be there, one will do succeed, he said, adding that this has taken place in all their markets in the last 9 months.

On the business outlook front, he said the EBITDA margins will be better than the last three years and the revenues too will be good. Moreover, company will be one of the beneficiaries of the goods and services tax (GST) transition, which will help aid their margins, said Sharma.

He also confirmed that the company would be working on affordable housing scheme.

11:12 am Divestment: Jindal Steel & Power (JSPL) share price gained 5.6 percent intraday after the company sold its oxygen plant assets at Raigarh and Angul units.

“JSPL has divested its oxygen plant assets at its integrated steel plants at Raigarh (Chhattisgarh) and Angul (Odisha), and received a total consideration of Rs 1,121 crore,” the company said in its filing.

JSPL has consummated sale of oxygen plant assets at Rs 1,121 crore with SREI Equipment Finance.

Both companies have also entered into a lease back agreement of the oxygen plant assets for continued operations by JSPL for manufacturing of steel at the respective plants.

10:59 am IPO subscription: MAS Financial Services’ initial share sale has been oversubscribed 1.5 times today, as per data available on exchanges.

The issue received bids for 1.07 crore equity shares against IPO size of 71.24 lakh equity shares, excluding anchor investors’ reserved portion.

10:45 am Gold trade: Gold prices climbed to their highest in more than a week today as renewed concerns over North Korea’s nuclear ambitions stoked safe-haven demand for the precious metal and weighed on the dollar.

US gold futures for December delivery gained 0.83 percent to USD 1,285.50 per ounce.

10:35 am Buzzing: Sobha share price rallied nearly 9 percent intraday as global brokerage house CLSA has maintained its buy rating on the stock with a target price of Rs 525 after strong pre-sales data.

The Bangalore-based real estate company during the second quarter achieved new sales volume of 8.61 lakh square feet total valued at Rs 675.1 crore with an average realisation of Rs 7,840 per square feet.

The company has achieved this growth without launching any new projects during the quarter.

This showed the growth of 5.6 percent and 8.3 percent in sales volume and total sales value compared with previous quarter, respectively while on year-on-year basis, sales volume was marginally higher and total sales value increased by 22.5 percent in Q2FY18.

Sobha said its share of sales value stood at Rs 592.7 crore (out of Rs 675.1 crore) with an average realisation of Rs 6,883 per square feet, up 5.3 percent QoQ and 14.4 percent YoY.

10:20 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks gained strength after early consolidation.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 93.76 points at 31,907.98 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 24.85 points to 10,004.55.

About 1,482 shares advanced against 654 declining shares on the BSE.

10:05 am Buzzing: Jewellery stocks rallied 2-20 percent after the Government withdrew its GST notification on gems and jewellery.

Gitanjali Jems, PC Jeweller, Titan Company, Tara Jewels and TBZ gained 4-7 percent as Permanent Account Number (PAN) card will no longer be mandatory on the purchase of jewellery for over Rs 50,000.

The government has taken this decision at its 22nd GST Council meeting on Friday.

9:55 am Rupee trade: The rupee went up 6 paise to 65.31 against the dollar today after the US currency found no takers among exporters and banks.

The dollar losing sheen against other currencies overseas supported the local unit, traders said. A higher start in domestic equities added to the upside, they added.

On Friday, the rupee had depreciated by 24 paise to end at 65.38 on persistent demand for the American currency from importers.

9:45 am Saudi Aramco deal likely next year: State-run oil giant Saudi Aramco is in talks with several Indian refiners and hopes to land a joint venture deal by next year, the company’s chief executive told Reuters on Sunday.

Aramco, like other major oil producers, wants to tap rising demand growth opportunities and invest in the world’s third biggest consumer.

“We are hoping to land on a JV sometime,” Aramco’s CEO Amin Nasser said at India Energy Forum by Cera Week in New Delhi.

Asked if a deal could be finalised next year, he said: “We hope so. We are in serious discussions.”

Aramco wants to buy a stake in the planned 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) refinery in India’s west coast, India’s oil minister said in June.

9:38 am GST Impact: Modi government’s initiatives like Swachh Bharat, Goods and Services Tax (GST) and demonetisation are having desired impact, with the latter two resulting in increasing tax compliance and squeezing quantum of cash in the economy, Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said.

In his key note address – via video conference — to the Berkeley India Conference, Jaitley said that there is public support to the reforms being undertaken by the governments of the day both at the Centre and state levels.

“I do hope that India is able to retain its growth rate once again and live up to the aspirations of its people because we must not forget that we not only have a large population to service, we have a very young population to service,” he said.

9:32 am Asia trade: Most Asian markets traded higher as investors in Asia digested the release of China Caixin services PMI.

The S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.66 percent on broad-based gains across its sub-indexes. The Shanghai Composite surged 1.24 percent, shrugging off lackluster services data.

The Caixin services purchasing managers’ index showed non-manufacturing activity in China expanded at its slowest levels in almost two years in September, Reuters said. The Caixin/Markit PMI stood at 50.6 last month, compared to the 52.7 figure seen in August.

Meanwhile, the Caixin composite PMI stood at 51.4 in September, below the 52.4 in August.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was off 0.16 percent.

Japan, South Korea and Taiwan markets closed for public holidays

9:25 am IPO: Indian Energy Exchange’s initial public offer has opened for subscription today, with price band of Rs 1,645-1,650 per share.

The issue will close on October 11.

The issue is an offer for sale of up to 60,65,009 equity shares by 11 shareholders, including Tata Power and Multiples Private Equity Fund.

The offer would constitute up to 20 percent of the post-offer paid up equity share capital.

Bids can be made for a minimum of 9 equity shares and in multiples of 9 equity shares thereafter.

The 50 percent of the total offer is reserved for qualified institutional buyers (QIBs); of which the company may allocate up to 60 percent of the QIB portion to anchor investors. Out of 60 percent to anchor investors, at least one-third is reserved for domestic mutual funds.

Further, 15 percent of the net offer is reserved for non-institutional bidders and 35 percent for retail individual bidders.

9:15 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks as well as broader markets were flat in opening trade despite positive Asian cues.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 12.67 points at 31,801.55 and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 7.90 points to 9,971.80.

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

SPARC plunged 13 percent as Baclofen GRS did not meet primary end point in placebo controlled studies. Bacoflen is a muscle relaxer used to treat symptoms caused by Multiple Sclerosis.
TBZ, Titan Company, Sobha, Shakti Pumps, Speciality Restaurants and Jaiprakash Associates rallied 2-6 percent. Adani Enterprises, OBC and VA Tech were down 2-4 percent.