Market Live: Nifty extends losses, Sensex falls over 100 pts as Asia slips further

1:05 pm Nomura on Axis Bank: Global research firm Nomura has maintained its buy call on Axis Bank, but cut its target price to 620 from Rs 640.

The reduction in target price implies a downside of around 3 percent.

The firm believes PPOP/asset is readjusting downwards to a new normal, the brokerage believes.

It expects normalised RoEs of 15-15.5 percent for the bank.

12:40 pm Management Interview: Retail conglomerate Future Group, which owns fashion chains like Big Bazaar, Brand Factory and Central, will be among the top 10 global fashion companies selling about 35 crore garments by FY2019, group CEO Kishore Biyani said today.

The company, which has built an integrated warehouse with a capacity of over 30 crore garments in Nagpur, is betting big on the growing demand from fashion conscious customers and consumers’ interest for lifestyle and fashion.

Biyani said by next financial year the fashion units alone will clock total revenue of USD 3-3.5 billion (about Rs 20,000 crore). He, however, denied commenting on expected profit.

12:27 pm Oil Price Update: Oil prices dipped, as refined product inventories in the United States rose in what the market interpreted as a sign of lacklustre demand.

Brent crude futures, the international benchmark for oil prices, were down 0.3 percent, at USD 62.67 a barrel.

US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at USD 57.41 a barrel, down 0.36 percent, from their last settlement.

12:15 pm Corporate Tax Rate Cut Extension Likely?: Government sources suggest there are ongoing discussions to extend the cut in corporate tax rate for larger companies in the upcoming Budget, reports CNBC-TV18.

For a large universe of companies the tax rate was brought down to 25 percent. At the start of this government’s tenure they had announced the glide path and so we could see some forward movement on that front but there is no final decision yet.

As part of pre-Budget consultation process, there is a meeting today of industry with the government and as part of the recommendations big demand has come from the industry for a significant reduction in the corporate tax rate. How much of that is possible will depend on government’s revenue constraints as well.

Given the US senate has approved a tax overhaul on Saturday, Singapore has tax rate of 17 percent, UK has it 20 percent, CII has recommended that India should reduce Corporate Tax to 18 percent all inclusive at the earliest with the withdrawal of tax incentives, and exemptions, withdrawal of surcharges and Cess.

12:05 pm Management Interview: Plastiblends India reported weak set of Q2 numbers. In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Satyanarayan Kabra, Vice Chairman and MD said July month was bad due to goods and services tax (GST) disruption. August was better than July, September was better than August and subsequently October and November will also be better.

November witnessed the highest ever sales, he added.

According to him, GST pain will remain till the end of March but second half of the year FY18 will be definitely better than the first half.

The company should become normal by March ending and next year should be very good for the industry, said Kabra.

He expects 11-12 percent EBITDA margin once GST disruption normalises.

Here are the top headlines at 12 pm from Moneycontrol News’ Anchal Pathak

11:55 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks extended losses in late morning deals, tracking further weakness in Asian stocks. Investors also maintained caution ahead of RBI’s rate decision and its commentary in afternoon.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 158.72 points at 32,643.72 and the 50-share NSE Nifty declined 59.80 points to 10,058.50.

Asia markets declined across the board, following overnight losses on Wall Street. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Average, China’s Shanghai Composite, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng and South Korea’s Kospi were down 1-2 percent.

11:45 am Drug Patents: Shares of Suven Life Sciences added 5 percent intraday as it has secured two product patents from Eurasia and Norway.

The company has been granted one product patent from Eurasia and one product patent from Norway, corresponding to the new chemical entities (NCEs) for the treatment of disorders associated with Neurodegenerative diseases and these patents are valid through 2034 and 2026 respectively.

The granted claims of the patents include the class of selective 5-HT6 compounds and are being developed as therapeutic agents and are useful in the treatment of cognitive impairment associated with neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s disease, Attention deficient hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Huntington’s disease, Parkinson and Schizophrenia.

11:36 am Earnings Reaction: Shares of direct-to-home operator Dish TV today witnessed volatile trading on the bourses after the company reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 17.87 crore for the September quarter.

Shares of the company opened on a weak note at Rs 79.15 and touched an early low of Rs 78.30. Later the stock rallied to a high of Rs 81.35 amid volatile trade on BSE.

The company had posted a net profit of Rs 68.96 crore in the July-September quarter a year ago. Its revenue from operations came down 3.93 percent to Rs 748.58 crore during the quarter under review as against Rs 779.28 crore a year earlier.

“Average revenue per user (ARPU) strengthened to Rs 149 while churn rate recovered to close at slightly less than 0.8 percent per month,” the company said.

11:27 am Buzzing: CLSA has retained its Buy call on Bharat Forge, the auto ancillary company, with a target price of Rs 905 per share, implying a potential upside of nearly 30 percent from Tuesday’s closing price.

Valuations at 30x one-year forward PE are not cheap but should sustain, the research house feels.

The stock rallied nearly 2 percent intraday Wednesday, on top of 3.4 percent upside seen in previous session after strong trend continued in North American class 8 truck orders.

The research house said outlook for exports has improved significantly and the demand is picking up in US trucks and key industrial export segments.

CLSA sees a strong 34 percent EPS CAGR over FY17-20.

11:20 am Order Win: Reliance Infrastructure has won two EPC contracts in Bangladesh together valued at Rs 5,000 crore.

The projects were won on international competitive bidding (ICB).

Both the contracts are to be executed in a project schedule of 24 months, and are to be completed by 2019.

Sharekhan said it is positive for Reliance Infrastructure.

11:05 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks remained mildly under pressure in morning as investors await RBI policy due in afternoon.

Economists largely expect the Reserve Bank to keep policy rates unchanged but the commentary is key to watch out for.

The Q2FY18 GDP prints accelerated to 6.3 percent from 5.7 percent in the previous quarter reversing the 5-quarter falling trend. The cyclical recovery in growth, although only gradually, is likely to reduce the challenge on the Monetary Policy Committee’s front as they get assured of improvement going ahead, Upasna Bhardwaj, Senior Economist, Kotak Mahindra Bank said.

She thus expects MPC to pause in the upcoming policy meeting with a probable hawkish-cautious bias given that inflation prints have been trending higher and are likely to begin overshooting their mid-point target of 4 percent in the months ahead.

“The risk to RBI’s estimated inflation trajectory has further surmounted given the surge in crude oil prices. Given that MPC members are fixated with anchoring 4% inflation target and the upside risks emanating from higher oil prices, higher rural real wages, sticky core inflation and mean reversion of food prices, we find limited room for any further monetary accommodation this year,” Upasna said.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 69.86 points at 32,732.58 and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 29.40 points to 10,088.90 but the market breadth was positive.

About 1,289 shares advanced against 902 declining shares on the BSE.

10:55 am Buzzing: Shares of Reliance Communications today fell more than two percent in morning trade on bourses after credit rating agency Fitch said it has withdrawn ratings of debt-ridden Reliance Communications for commercial reasons.

10:45 am Metals under pressure: Metals stocks lost shine following correction in commodities prices in international market as investors raised doubts over China demand for metals.

The Nifty Metal was biggest loser among sectoral indices, falling 1.5 percent as Hindustan Zinc, Hindalco Industries, Vedanta, Hindustan Copper, Tata Steel, Jindal Steel, NALCO, SAIL and MOIL rallied 1-3 percent.

Copper prices fell 3 percent and steel prices declined 2 percent while aluminium prices dropped 1.5 percent.

10:35 am Inflation: Countering the Congress’s allegations of “price rise”, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said inflation data shows a steady decline in general prices.

Taking to Twitter, he gave comparative data on inflation during the UPA rule and the Narendra Modi government with the help of graphs.

“Since the issue of price rise has been raised by some in the Congress Party, let the data on inflation figures speak for itself,” he tweeted.

“Inflation Data shows a steady decline in general prices,” he said in another tweet.

10:25 am Rupee Trade: The rupee depreciated by 3 paise to 64.41 against the dollar at the interbank forex market today ahead of the announcement of RBI’s monetary policy amid foreign fund outflows.

Dealers said increased demand for the American currency from importers also weighed on the rupee but dollar’s weakness against other currencies overseas limited the losses.

Yesterday, the rupee had struggled to hold on to early strong gains and eventually ended the day almost flat at 64.38 against the US dollar.

10:15 am Buzzing Stocks: Shares of Plastiblends India and The Byke Hospitality fell 2-8 percent intraday on the back of weak September quarter (Q2FY18) numbers.

Byke Hospitality has reported 10 percent decline in its Q2FY18 net profit at Rs 5.2 crore against Rs 5.76 crore in a year ago period.

Revenue of the company was down 45 percent at Rs 29.4 crore and EBITDA was down 6 percent at Rs 11 crore.

The company announced acquisition of the 3 hotels, The Byke Nature Villas (35 rooms) in Shimla, The Byke Puja Samudra (42 rooms) in Kovalam and The Byke Brightlands Resort (63 rooms) in Matheran.

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

9:50 am LIC Investment: Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) said it has invested Rs 44,000 crore in the equity markets between April-November this year, a rise of 52 per cent over the year-ago period.

It had invested around Rs 29,000 crore in April-November period in the previous fiscal.

In the first half of the current fiscal, the life insurance major had more than doubled its investment in equities to Rs 39,224 crore from Rs 18,000 crore in the same period last fiscal.

“This year the government’s disinvestment program has picked up in the first half and, we, being the long term investor have invested there,” its chairman V K Sharma told reporters here today.

In the previous fiscal, LIC had invested Rs 47,000 crore into equities.

9:40 am RCom in focus: Credit rating agency Fitch has withdrawn ratings of debt-ridden Reliance Communications for commercial reasons.

“Fitch has chosen to withdraw the ratings on Rcom for commercial reasons. Accordingly, Fitch will no longer provide ratings or analytical coverage for RCom,” it said in a statement.

RCom also informed stock exchanges that Fitch “has withdrawn ‘C’ rating of the company’s Long-Term Foreign and Local Currency Issuer Default Ratings and Bonds listed in Singapore Stock Exchange due to commercial reasons”.

9:34 am USFDA Observations: Shares of Shilpa Medicare declined nearly 6 percent in morning as it has received 10 observations from USFDA.

The company has received 483 observations from the United States Food & Drug Administration (USFDA) in relation to SEZ formulation facilities situated at Jadcherla, Telangana (near Hyderabad).

The company has received total 10 observations, which includes 7 observations for improvement in procedures and practices and 3 observations are related to setting of analytical specifications, test procedures and method validation.

9:25 am Buzzing: Shares of Tata Communications gained more than 1 percent in early trade after it has been selected as global loT connectivity partner by International fleet management application provider.

DRVR, international fleet management application provider, has selected Tata Communications as it global loT (Internet of Things) connectivity partner to help achieve its objective of making Asia’s vehicle fleets the smartest and most cost efficient in the world.

Vehicles in fleets using DRVR technology have been fitted with Tata Communications’ MOVE-IOT Connect SIM technology.

9:20 am IPO opens: The Rs 650-crore initial public offer of Future Supply Chain Solutions has opened for subscription today, with a price band of Rs 660-664 per share.

ALSO READ: Future Supply Chain Solutions raises Rs 195 crore from anchor investors

The public issue of 97,84,570 equity shares will close on December 8.

The issue comprises an offer for sale of up to 78,27,656 equity shares by Griffin Partners and up to 19,56,914 shares by the promoter, Future Enterprises. The offer will constitute up to 24.43 percent of the post-offer paid-up equity share capital.

Future Supply will not receive any proceeds from the offer for sale.

Bids can be made for a minimum lot of 22 equity shares and in multiples of 22 equity shares thereafter.

9:15 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks extended losses in opening on Wednesday, with the Nifty falling below 10,100 level, dragged by banking and financials as investors maintained cautious stance ahead of RBI policy decision.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 77.36 points at 32,725.08 and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 31.90 points to 10,086.40.

About 692 shares declined against 451 advancing shares on the BSE.

Eicher Motors, Hindalco Industries, Bajaj Finance, Yes Bank, Indiabulls Housing, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, HUL, PNB, Bank of Baroda and Coal India were early losers while Infosys, Tech Mahindra, Cipla, IndusInd Bank and Dr Reddy’s Labs were gainers.

Nifty Midcap was down 0.4 percent.

Dish TV, Hathway Cable and Voltas were down 1-4 percent. Balkrishna Industries, Shree Renuka, Balrampur Chini, Bajaj Hindusthan, Madras Fertilizers, RCF, Mangalore Chemicals, Prism Cement and JK Cement gained 1-6 percent.