Market Live: Sensex, Nifty choppy ahead of Gujarat assembly exit polls

11:25 am Market Update: Equity benchmarks extended losses in late morning deals as the Sensex was down 92.85 points at 32,960.19 amid caution ahead of exit polls of Gujarat assembly later today.

The 50-share NSE Nifty was down 29.90 points at 10,163.10.

About two shares declined for every share rising on the BSE.

11:10 am Buzzing: S Chand and Company shares rallied nearly 5 percent intraday after global brokerage house Credit Suisse has initiated coverage on the stock with outperform rating.

The research firm has set a target price at Rs 625 per share, implying 29 percent potential upside from Wednesday’s closing price.

S Chand is the largest player in attractive Indian education content market with a strong track record and is also a leading player in K-12 education content market.

Credit Suisse expects compounded growth rate of 14 percent, 13 percent and 25 percent for revenue, operating income and earnings per share over FY17-20, respectively.

10:55 am Listing on Friday: Shalby, the Ahmedabad-based multispecialty hospital chain, will debut on bourses on Friday after the good IPO subscription. The issue price is fixed at Rs 248 per share.

The Rs 504-crore initial public offer was oversubscribed 2.82 times during November 5-7, 2017.

The reserved category of qualified institutional buyers was oversubscribed 4.34 times and retail investors 2.98 times while non-institutional investors saw subscription of 42 percent.

10:40 am China Growth: China’s industrial output and retail sales grew at a steady pace last month, while fixed asset investment cooled slightly, reinforcing signs of a modest slowdown in the world’s second-biggest economy amid a government crackdown on financial risks.

Tighter rules on polluting factories have also crimped production, while higher borrowing costs have weighed on overall economic activity.

Thursday’s data showed industrial output rose 6.1 percent in November from a year earlier, just above analysts’ estimates for an increase of 6.0 percent, and below the 6.2 percent gain in October.

10:25 am Crude Oil Update: Oil markets rose, lifted by a fourth straight weekly fall in US crude inventories, though climbing output capped prices well below the 2015 highs reached earlier this week.

US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at USD 56.68 a barrel, up 0.14 percent, from their last settlement.

Brent crude futures, the international benchmark for oil prices, were at USD 62.77 a barrel, up 0.53 percent from their last close.

US crude oil stockpiles fell by 5.1 million barrels in the week to December 8, the fourth consecutive week of declines, to 442.99 million barrels, the lowest since October, 2015.

10:15 am China Rate Hike: China’s central bank nudged money market interest rates upward today just hours after the Federal Reserve raised the US benchmark, as Beijing seeks to prevent destabilising capital outflows without hurting economic growth.

The PBOC increased rates on reverse repurchase agreements, or reverse repos, used for open market operations by 5 basis points for the 7-day and 28-day tenors.

It also said in a statement it increased rates on its one-year medium-term lending facility (MLF) also by 5 basis points.

10:05 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks continued to be choppy in trade today as investors eagarly awaited exit polls results later today after the end of second phase of Gujarat Assembly elections. The rate hike by Federal Reserve, which was on expected lines, was largely priced in by market.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 13.08 points at 33,066.12 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 9.60 points to 10,202.60.

The gap between advances and declines narrowed. About 1,006 shares advanced against 918 declining shares on the BSE, against 5:1 in early trade.

Oberoi Realty was up 5 percent. Motilal Oswal has initiated coverage with a buy rating on the stock as it expects company to be a key beneficiary of the likely consolidation post RERA.

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

9:56 am Rupee Trade: The rupee looked strong today with a gain of 13 paise at 64.31 against the dollar even as the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by a quarter percentage point.

In her final act as the Fed chair, Janet Yellen moved to hike rates to a range of 1.25 percent to 1.5 percent, citing solid US job growth and household spending. The central bank kept its policy outlook on additional increases for 2018 and 2019 unchanged.

Yesterday, the rupee had lost 4 paise at 64.44 against the American currency ahead of the US Fed’s rate call.

9:42 am FII investment limit hike: Shares of Manpasand Beverages added 8.5 percent in morning as RBI allowed the FII to raise stake in the company.

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has increased the FII investment limit in the company to 49 percent from earlier 24 percent.

The share touched its 52-week high Rs 511.83 and 52-week low Rs 265.53 on 15 September, 2017 and 26 December, 2016, respectively.

9:31 am Buzzing: Shares of Prataap Snacks and Shemaroo Entertainment rose 10 percent and 4 percent respectively in early trade on the back of strong numbers declared by the companies in the quarter ended September 2017 (Q2FY18).

Prataap Snacks has reported 143 percent jump in its Q2 net profit at Rs 12.9 crore against Rs 5.3 crore in the same quarter last fiscal.

Revenue was up 10 percent at Rs 263 crore, EBITDA was up 146 percent at Rs 26.1 crore and margins were up 550 bps at 9.9 percent.

Shemaroo Entertainment has registered 26 percent rise in Q2 net profit at Rs 18.8 crore and revenue increased 18 percent at Rs 134.3 crore.

The operating profit (EBITDA) was up 15 percent at Rs 36.1 crore, while margins were down 90 bps at 26.9 percent.

9:21 am Board Meet: Tata Steel said its board will meet next week to consider raising of funds by issuing securities.

A meeting of the company’s board will be held on December 18-19 to consider a proposal to raise funds by issue shares or securities, Tata Steel said in a regulatory filing.

The board will consider raising of funds via qualified institutions placement, rights issue, preferential issue or through any other permissible mode, it added.

“The proposal for the issue will be considered by the board on December 19,” it said.

9:15 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks rebounded with mild gains in opening on Thursday after Federal Reserve expectedly hiked interest rate by 25 bps. Investors remained cautious ahead of exit polls after the second phase of Gujarat elections today.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 46.73 points at 33,099.77 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 18 points to 10,211.

Vedanta, ONGC, GAIL, HPCL, Tech Mahindra, Dr Reddy’s Labs, Aurobindo Pharma, Infosys, Hero MotoCorp and Ambuja Cements were early gainers while TCS, IndusInd Bank and Maruti Suzuki were losers.

The Nifty Midcap index was up 0.5 percent as about five shares advanced for every share falling on the NSE.
Oberoi Realty, S Chand, Prataap Snacks and Prabhat Dairy rallied 2-6 percent.