Market Live: Sensex higher, Nifty eyes 10,400 despite North Korea missile launch

10:10 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks continued to consolidate in morning ahead of expiry of November derivative contracts on Thursday.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 10.87 points at 33,629.46 and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 0.10 points to 10,370.20.
About 1,276 shares advanced against 793 declining shares on the BSE.

10:04 am Management Interview: NCC expects things to normalise from next quarter and expects earnings to improve due to fastrack orders.

“EBITDA growth is likely to continue in second half of FY18 and we are targetting EBITDA margin over 9 percent for FY18,” YD Murthy, Executive VP-Finance, NCC said in an interview to CNBC-TV18.

He expects EBITDA to grow faster than revenue growth. With order execution has been increasing, working capital requirement may go up, he feels.

“We are looking at further reduction of finance cost and for that, we are talking to banks to restructure working capital loan,” Murthy said.

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

9:50 am Rupee Trade: The rupee is trading flat after seeing depreciation of 10 paise to 64.51 against the US dollar in opening at the interbank foreign exchange due to appreciation of the American currency overseas.

Yesterday, the rupee had gained further ground against the US currency and finished at a new two-month high of 64.41, appreciating by 9 paise after sustained dollar unwinding by exporters and corporates.

9:40 am Alkem Labs in focus: Alkem Laboratories share price rallied as much as 8.5 percent in morning after Motilal Oswal has upgraded its rating to buy from neutral on the stock, citing likely strong domestic business growth.

The research house has hiked its price target on the stock to Rs 2,500 per share (from Rs 1,950) as it expects domestic business to grow at 20 percent over the next three quarters.

“We expect strong growth over the next three quarters, given a low base of second half of FY17 (impacted by demonetisation) and Q1FY18 (impacted by GST) and likely recovery of 8-10 days of sales in Q3FY18 due to channel restocking post GST,” Motilal Oswal said.

The domestic business EBITDA margin has historically been more than 21 percent.

9:31 am Buzzing: Share price of Genus Power Infrastructures gained further on the back of order win from EESL.

The company has won an order from EESL for supply of 13.5 lakh smart meters for the states of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.

This tender was opened in October by EESL for the supply of 50 lakh smart meters where company emerged as L2 bidder.
Post this order, the total order book of the company stand at Rs 1226 crore.

The company is expecting the supply to commence from Q1FY19.

9:25 am Order Win: Shares of Technofab Engineering has locked at 20 percent upper circuit on the back of order won worth Rs 281 crore.

The company has received new order in the domestic water sector valued at Rs 281 crore

The project is funded by Asian Development Bank.

This order gives a further impetus to the company’s standing in the water sector, soon after securing orders in Bhutan and Uganda, and recently completed projects in Tanzania and Zimbabwe, company said in press release.

9:20 am Stake Sale: Reliance Communications said it will sell its DTH arm Reliance BIG TV to Pantel Technologies and Veecon Media & Television, a move aimed at reducing debt.

The company has entered into a binding share purchase agreement with Pantel Technologies Ltd and Veecon Media & Television Ltd for sale of its subsidiary Reliance BIG TV Limited (RBTV), RCom said in a statement without disclosing the deal amount.

“The transaction will help reduce the liability of unsecured creditors, benefiting all stakeholders, including lenders and shareholders of RCOM. The transaction is in consonance with RCOM’s stated objective to focus on B2B businesses of the new RCOM,” RCom said.

The buyers will acquire the entire shareholding of RBTV with business on an “as-is, where-is” basis, it added.

9:15 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks were mildly higher in opening trade, shrugging off North Korea’s latest missile launch, and tracking positive Wall Street close.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 34.86 points at 33,653.45 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 16.90 points to 10,387.20.

About 896 shares advanced against 317 declining shares on the BSE.

Cipla, Coal India, NTPC, ONGC, Hindalco Industries and L&T were early gainers while Axis Bank and Tech Mahindra were under pressure.

Alkem Labs gained 4 percent on US FDA nod for Capecitabine tablets.

Bhansali Engineering, INEOS Styrolution, Shankara Buildcon, ADF Foods, RPP Infra, Balaji Telefilms, SpiceJet, Jet Airways, Godrej Consumer, United Breweries up 1-6 percent. TechnoFab Engineering rallied 20 percent.

Wall Street stocks surged to fresh records on Tuesday after a key Senate committee advanced the Republican tax cut plan, moving the long-awaited measure closer to the finish line.
All three major US indices set new records by the closing bell, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 1.1 percent to 23,839.26.