Market Live: Sensex, Nifty open lower after SP reaffirms India rating; Asia weak

10:26 am Oil update: U.S. oil prices dipped on Monday, easing from two-year highs on the prospect of increased U.S. output, although global markets were slightly better supported by expectations an OPEC-led supply cut will be extended.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $ 58.65 a barrel at 0252 GMT, down 30 cents, or 0.5 percent, from their last settlement. Brent crude futures fell just 13 cents, or 0.2 percent, to $ 63.73 a barrel.

U.S. crude production has risen by 15 percent since mid-2016 to 9.66 million barrels per day (bpd), not far from top producers Russia and Saudi Arabia, and increasing drilling activity for new production means output is expected to grow further, traders said.

10:02 am CS upgrades Mindtree: Credit Suisse has upgraded IT firm Mindtree to outperform from neutral and increased its target price for the stock to Rs 600 (from Rs 460), citing earnings growth ahead.

The target price implies 17 percent upside from Friday’s closing price. The stock price gained more than 3 percent in morning Monday.

The research house expects Mindtree to post industry leading revenue growth and margin expansion from low base.

“Revenue challenges are behind as top clients seem stable. Bluefin grew in Q2 and Magnet appears to have bottomed out,” it said.

Its earnings had been impacted due to revenue loss from some top clients and challenges faced by Bluefin & Magnet.

Credit Suisse expects FY20 EBITDA margin at 15 percent against 11.6 percent in Q2FY18. Attractive earnings growth will be supported by 23 percent EBITDA CAGR for 2 years, it feels.

Here are the top headlines at 10 am from Moneycontrol News’ Anchal Pathak

9:52 am Stake Buy: Quess Corp has signed definitive agreements to acquire 51 percent equity in Trimax Smart Infraprojects Private Limited on November 24, 2017.

Trimax is proposed to be operated as a joint venture between Quess Corp and Trimax IT Infrastructure and Services to implement smart city project in Ahmedabad.

Transaction is expected to be completed by December 15, 2017.

9:42 am  Management Interview: The upcoming IPO of Future Supply Chain Solutions, which is expected the garner over Rs 700 crore, is primarily to give an exit to private equity firm Griffin Partners, Future Group Chairman Kishore Biyani said.

Future Supply Chain Solutions (FSCSL), a subsidiary of Future Enterprises, has filed a draft red herring prospectus with Sebi for the public issue of up to about 97.84 lakh equity shares representing 24.43 percent of the existing paid-up equity share capital of FSCSL.

While private equity firm SSG Capital’s entity Griffin Partners will sell about 78.27 lakh equity shares in FSCSL, representing up to 20 percent of the paid-up equity share capital, the promoter company Future Enterprises will offload 19.57 lakh shares, representing around 5 percent stake.

According to Biyani, FSCSL, the logistics arm of the group, is well capitalised and payment of debt or requirement of immediate funds is not the reason for the IPO.

9:32 am Order Win: L&T Construction, the subsidiary of Larsen & Toubro, has bagged orders worth Rs 3,572 crore under transportation infrastructure, metallurgical & material handling, power transmission & distribution, and buildings & factories segments.

9:27 am Inorganic Growth: Hyderabad-based Aurobindo Pharma is looking at inorganic growth opportunities in Eastern Europe and other geographies for deeper market penetration and to secure newer technologies.

Apart from acquisitions, the company is also keen to expand its product portfolio in the US and Western European markets with high-value drugs.

The high-value products that are in the pipeline include oncology, hormones, depot injections, peptides, inhalers, patches and films, vaccines and biosimilars, the company said.

“Our acquisition strategy will be largely around two platforms. One is to penetrate markets deeper and the other to secure newer technologies and platforms. We always maintain that anything that can come across in Eastern Europe will be prioritised,” Aurobindo Pharma’s managing director N Govindarajan said in an earnings presentation.

News Live: LIC books Rs 13,500cr trading profit in April-September period, says report

9:20 am Buzzing: Shares of Cupid rose nearly 4 percent in early trade on order win from UNFPA.

The company has received a new order from United National Population Fund (UNFPA) to supply female condoms for the first time to Malawi, Africa worth Rs 1.36 crore.

The company had reported 11 percent increase in its Q2 net profit at Rs 5.95 crore against Rs 5.36 crore in the same quarter last fiscal.

9:15 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks started off the week on a negative note on Monday, weighed by banks after the S&P retained its India’s rating at BBB- and outlook stable. Weak Asian cues also weighed on sentiment.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 77.25 points at 33,601.99 and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 35.30 points to 10,354.40.

ONGC, L&T, Bosh, Dr Reddy’s Labs and Power Grid were early gainers while Sun Pharma, Vedanta, HPCL and Tata Motors were losers.

Nifty Midcap was down 0.4 percent.

Bharat Bijlee, Suzlon Energy, Autoline Industries, GPT Infra, Inox Wind and KEC International gained 1-5 percent.

Quess Corp, Edelweiss Financial, Reliance Communications, SBI, Bank of Baroda, Axis Bank, Yes Bank, BHEL and Crompton Consumer were under pressure.

Asian indexes edged down despite the firmer lead from Wall Street last week. Chinese markets traded lower as investors kept an eye on developments in the bond market while South Korea’s Kospi slid on weakness in tech names.